Indiana Policy Review
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INDIANAPOLICY ReviewA‘A future that that works’ works EDUCATION REFORM Let’s Get It Right Page 00 INDIANA POLICY REVIEW Spring 2015 What role has the state and federal government played in reducing the control of parents and educators? In Congress, July 4, 1776, INDIANAPOLICY the unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America: Review Vol. 26, No. 2, Spring 2015 hen in the course of human events, it becomes A FUTURE THAT WORKS necessary for one people to dissolve the political W Our mission is to marshal the best thought on bands which have connected them with another, and governmental, economic and educational to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate issues at the state and municipal levels. We and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and seek to accomplish this in ways that: of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the • Exalt the truths of the Declaration of opinions of mankind requires that they should declare Independence, especially as they apply to the the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold interrelated freedoms of religion, property these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created and speech. equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with • Emphasize the primacy of the individual in certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, addressing public concerns. liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure • Recognize that equality of opportunity is these rights, governments are instituted among men, sacrificed in pursuit of equality of results. The foundation encourages research and discussion on the deriving their just powers from the consent of the widest range of Indiana public-policy issues. Although the philo- sophical and economic prejudices inherent in its mission might governed. That whenever any form of government prompt disagreement, the foundation strives to avoid political or social bias in its work. Those who believe they detect such bias becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the are asked to provide details of a factual nature so that errors may be corrected. people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles BOARD OF DIRECTORS Charles S. Quilhot and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall Byron S. Lamm seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. T. Craig Ladwig Donna Volmerding, Copy Editor Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments Lisa Barnum, Graphic Designer long established should not be changed for light and MEMBERSHIPS Only active members and registered media are given interior access to the archive at www.inpolicy.org. The active membership transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath can be defined as those members who have donated $50 or more to the foundation within the past year. It is the staff’s prefer- shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, ence to consult these active members when selecting issues for panel discussions in their regions. It is also the staff’s preference to while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by contact active members when seminars and events are scheduled in their regions. In any case, the foundation makes available its abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. work and publications as resources permit. Memberships are tax-exempt. The Indiana Policy Review Foundation is a nonprofit But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, Indiana corporation, established in January of 1989 and recog- nized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. Its officers and staff can be reached at: PO Box 5166, Fort pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design Wayne, IN, 46895; [email protected] or under the “contact us” tab at www.inpolicy.org. The foundation is free of outside control to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their by any individual, organization or group. It exists solely to conduct and distribute research on Indiana issues. Nothing written here is right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, to be construed as reflecting the views of the Indiana Policy Re- view Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of and to provide new guards for their future security. any bill before the legislature or to further any political campaign. A SOFTER SIDE Winning intellectual arguments alone will not rescue the Hoosier polity. ominally correct policy will not be enough to I am not so dense that I don’t grasp the theoretical arguments nor position our state for prosperity. That is made so distracted as not to give these arguments due weight. In its origin, Davis-Bacon is rooted in racism, and to the extent it ever had a legitimate clear by the poor yield of this Statehouse super purpose, that time has long expired. But do the increased incomes of majority.N But a friend, a member of this foundation, would non-union workers resulting from more hours of work at the same wage soften our criticism. Most Hoosier politicians understand at level, the savings to taxpayers from somewhat lower project costs, and the marginal gain to the broader economy resulting from repeal of a state some level what is wrong with public policy, he says. What they statute that affects only a small segment of public works offset the loss need is help maneuvering in a strange new political culture: in family income to union workers, the labor strife and the potentially adverse effect on a Republican Party that needs the white working class to A question that someone needs to ask is this: How valuable a purpose do win elections so it can advance a more culturally critical agenda? Frankly, I we serve if we fail to frame our arguments in terms that politicians deem don’t know, but my political gut tells me the likely gains do not outweigh relevant? Perhaps less controversially, how do we describe relevant trade- the potential losses. There is also the issue of messaging: What impression offs so that political actors grasp the implications of their choices? does the political action convey to alert political audiences of the motive of the actors? He is referring to actual politicians, not those whom we wish we had elected or those whom we hope we can elect There is need to hold this wise advice close during such or even those whom we can argue into irrelevance. For the a historically dangerous time. We can do better framing the problem with classical liberalism today is that there are too issues in ways that create adherence rather than offense, that win new hearts. few classical liberals. David Corbin and Matthew Park, writing in The Federalist, The most classical of them, Adam Smith, formed his remind us that the Founders knew the way: philosophy surrounded by men like himself, persons who Their understanding of the reality and unity of justice gave them a fixed differed markedly from those you will encounter at a Wal- standard and rallying point for political reformation, suggesting practical Mart or, for that matter, a faculty lounge. Myron Magnet, measures that might be taken day by day without allowing a focus on editor-at-large of City Journal, takes up the point in a widely those measures to transcend or obscure their ultimate goal. circulated essay: All of that is said knowing an Indianapolis political elite It is an error — generous-hearted but nonetheless mistaken — to believe opposes a government whose end is the justice promised by that all people naturally yearn for freedom . it took Protestant ideas James Madison and his friends. But while we cannot agree to of individual responsibility and freedom; a Puritan tradition of self- the moderation of the guarantees of liberty, the sum of it is we governing congregations; British ideas of liberty, limited government, and patriotism; an Enlightenment spirit of rationality, freedom of thought, must work with what we have in coming General Assemblies. and tolerance; and the entrepreneurial spirit that created a nation out of And, yes, that is a hard, hard truth. — tcl a wilderness. It also took the amazing good fortune of having Founding Fathers of world-historical wisdom and magnanimity. For the Western democracies in general, the rule of law, the sanctity of contract, and the dam Smith, for all of his towering genius, was oddly relative honesty of civil servants are immense cultural as well as political achievements, unmatched from China to Argentina. A blind to a dazzlingly obvious characteristic of his rational calculating homo economicus: As a student and professor It is right to lament that we have failed to instill any of that at the University of Glasgow, the thoroughly Scottish Smith best for several generations now — in our schools, our churches, our knew Scotsmen — and Scotsmen of the time when Scotland was media, our political parties. But it is a lament, not a solution. one of the most brilliant centers of European Enlightenment This American culture, — with or without Common Core thought. As a result, he ascribed to all men the Presbyterian and charter schools — will not produce enough Adam Smiths rectitude and Enlightenment reason of the people around him. in the near term to extricate us from the hole that the Alinskian What Smith didn’t see, in other words, was that his rationally organizers, crony capitalists and advocacy journalists have dug. calculating man wasn’t any and all men, wasn’t Man in the abstract, but was instead a man formed by a particular culture — The debate over the prevailing wage is instructive to all of by a complex web of customs, assumptions, unexamined beliefs this.