How to Really Privatize the Schools

Last month Brad Spangler wrote, "[I]f we concede that governments are all bandit gangs and that therefore government property can not actually be 'owned' by either the government itself or anyone the state chooses to award it to for its own convenience, then we are faced with the question of who becomes the rightful owner of all of the formerly state-owned enterprises in the world (the hypothetical day after everybody wakes up and decides we don’t need a government)."

To which he responds, "Based on Rothbard's Lockean criteria of occupancy/use as the origin of legitimate property title, the logical answer to that question is: the former rank-and-file employees of those state enterprises."

As they used to say on "Family Feud": Good answer! For some time now, whenever I have lectured on separating school and state and have been asked how, I have responded that the best way would be to turn each school over to its teachers, principals, janitors, etc. They would be informed that they would no longer receive a dime of the taxpayers' money or coerced students, and that they are free to do whatever they wish with the facility. Each individual involved could keep, sell, or give away his share in his or her school. Together they all could run it as a for-profit or nonprofit institution. It would be their property, period. All laws and taxes regarding education would be repealed. I can't think of a cleaner way to make a break from the current corrupt system.

Hat tip: Kevin Carson, Mutualist Blog.