Education for the masses?

The recent hubbub over Texas modifying their education curriculum has exposed a more fundamental problem. Proponents see this change as returning education to a more balanced perspective, removing what they see (rightly) as liberal bias in education. Opponents see this as a regression, away from universal truth and a march towards intellectual decline.

But the problem has nothing to do with whether or not the Texas authorities bless the right curriculum. Invariably, any curriculum is open to criticism. Someone, somewhere, is bound to disagree with what is being taught. There is no universal educational truth.

In a free market consumers decide which services serve them best. Education is just another service, and it's function is to educate children, and because they are children their parents decide.

Conservatives should bemoan Texas for legitimizing an illegitimate concept: Some group of people know what's better for you than you do. They don't. Let parents decide what curriculum their children ought to learn by giving parents the wherewithall to consume the education of their choice.