Say Anything Blog

School vouchers are a controversial subject here in America.  They are opposed, fiercely, by teachers’ unions and so-called “civil rights” groups even as the countries that use them beat our country badly in test scores and the few times they’ve been used here in the U.S. has met rousing success.

Health care is another important and controversial issue in this country.  Many complain that not every American has access to health insurance and that many Americans would be leading longer, healthier lives if only they had access to better health care.  Some even go so far as to suggest that we should create a massive new health care entitlement funded by our tax dollars and administered by the government to give every citizen of this country health care.  Yet a new study indicates that better education, and not massive health care entitlements, may well be the best way to improve the health of citizens of any country.  America included.

From the New York Times:

The one social factor that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in every country where it has been studied is education. It is more important than race; it obliterates any effects of income.

Year after year, in study after study, says Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, education “keeps coming up.”

And, health economists say, those factors that are popularly believed to be crucial — money and health insurance, for example, pale in comparison.

Dr. Smith explains: “Giving people more Social Security income, or less for that matter, will not really affect people’s health. It is a good thing to do for other reasons but
not for health.”

Health insurance, too, he says, “is vastly overrated in the policy debate.”

Instead, Dr. Smith and others say, what may make the biggest difference is keeping young people in school. A few extra years of school is associated with extra years of life and vastly improved health decades later, in old age.

So let’s review:

• School vouchers or parental choice programs for education has resulted in better test scores, and better overall education, every single time they’ve been tried.
• Study after study has concluded that better education in a society leads to better health.

So given those two realities, why do liberals and unions and “civil rights” leaders oppose school vouchers when they can improve our education and our health?  Why is it that, for them, the only viable option for both education and health care is larger government and more government control over our personal decisions?  Are these people really interested in what is best for this country, or are they really just interested in what is best for them?

Like more government authority for those big-government liberals.

And less accountability and more pay for those teacher’s unions.

And more victimhood to exploit for those “civil rights” leaders.