Should high school students be
bar-coded like industrial widgets?

WASHINGTON, DC -- Bar-coded high school students: Is it the
"Mark of the Beast" -- or just another example of the failure of public
education? And could your local high school be next?

That's what Libertarians are asking after controversy erupted
at a high school in Elkins, West Virginia, where school officials now
require students and faculty to wear a bar-coded ID card on a cord
around their necks, visible at all times.

"Do you want your child treated like an interchangeable,
bar-coded widget in an impersonal educational machine?" asked Steve
Dasbach, the national director of the Libertarian Party. "Unless
something is done to reform American education, this could happen to
your child."

The mandatory ID card at Elkins High School -- complete with
photograph and unique bar code -- is used to bill students for school
lunches and to check books out of the school library. It also serves a
safety function, say school officials, since anyone without the visible
bar-coded ID card can instantly be identified as an outsider.

Teachers are required to check that each student is wearing his
or her bar-coded ID card before each class.

The new policy has caused a storm of controversy, with some
students and teachers refusing to wear their bar codes on religious
grounds, arguing that it is the "Mark of the Beast" predicted in the
Book of Revelation in the Bible. The Rutherford Institute, a Christian
ACLU-type legal organization, has already offered to help fight the
case.

Libertarians say they are less concerned about the "Mark of the
Beast" than about what this bar-coding incident reveals about public
education.

"The idea that students can be bar-coded -- like some
mass-produced widget rolling down an industrial assembly line -- will
be reprehensible to many Americans," said Dasbach. "Education should be
about respecting each student as a unique individual, not treating them
like interchangeable cogs in a machine."

But bar-coded industrial efficiency is a natural by-product of
an education system that puts government bureaucrats and teachers'
unions in charge of learning -- rather than parents and classroom
teachers, he said.

"When government bureaucrats are in charge of schools, they
will make decisions based on efficiency and convenience, rather than on
what's best for students," said Dasbach. "Since most parents don't have
the luxury of paying their school taxes and paying again to send their
children to private schools, government bureaucrats know they have a
captive audience. That's why you see situations like bar-coded students
in Elkins."

And that's why more Americans are spurning public education, he
said. For example:

* Home-schooling has skyrocketed over the past decade. Since
1985, the estimated number of home-schooled children has grown from
only 50,000 to as many as 1.2 million, and continues to grow at a rate
of 15% to 40% per year.

* A 1998 Washington Post survey of what people would do if they
won a $250 million Powerball lottery revealed that "almost invariably,
people mentioned that they would move their children or grandchildren
into private schools."

* Those "in the know" about government schools tend to send
their children to private schools. For example, while only 14% of
Americans send their children to private schools, a whopping 50% of
U.S. Senators do so, and 34% of U.S. House members.

And this doubt about government schools isn't new: As long ago
as 1988, a Gallup Poll revealed that 45% of Americans give public
schools low grades -- either a C, D, or F.

What's the solution? Giving parents control over their
children's education, said Dasbach.

"When parents are personally in charge of their children's
education, they will tend to select schools that treat their children
with respect and dignity," he said. "Given the choice, parents want
schools that value learning over industrial efficiency."

That's why so many Libertarians support "choice in education"
proposals, he said -- ranging from tax credits for private education to
an eventual separation of school and state.

"If you want an education system that respects students as
unique, independent human beings rather than as bar-coded units, then
moving towards a free market, choice-based system is the way to
accomplish that," he said. "With genuine choice in education, students
would learn their ABC's -- and not be treated like a UPC."




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