Choice. Service. Opportunity.

The Current System Is Failing

American education was once the envy of the world. Now it's a cautionary tale.

We spend more per pupil than almost any nation. We get worse results. We trap students in failing schools based on zip code. We tell everyone they need a four-year degree, then saddle them with debt they can't discharge in bankruptcy. We've created a system that serves institutions, not students.

The Autonomist Framework

Education reform requires rethinking the entire pipeline — from K-12 through higher education and into the workforce. Here's our framework:

The Deal: Service for Education

This is the heart of the proposal: a fair exchange between citizen and country.

This isn't conscription. Service is entirely voluntary. But the benefit is real, substantial, and earned.

What Counts as Service?

Service doesn't just mean military. The goal is contribution to the nation — there are many ways to serve:

The common thread: real work that benefits the country. Not make-work. Not resume padding. Actual service that leaves communities better than you found them.

Why This Works

1. It's fair. You want free college? Earn it. Give two years to your country; your country gives four years to you. No one is entitled to someone else's labor — but fair exchange is the foundation of society.
2. It builds shared experience. Americans increasingly have nothing in common. Service creates shared experience across class, race, and geography. The kid from Beverly Hills and the kid from rural Mississippi serve side by side. That matters.
3. It solves real problems. Infrastructure crumbling? Conservation needed? Elders isolated? Teacher shortages? A service corps provides labor for problems we've neglected. Two years times millions of young people is transformative capacity.
4. It delays college appropriately. 18-year-olds often don't know what they want. Two years of real-world experience provides clarity. Students enter college more mature, more focused, more likely to finish.
5. It breaks the debt cycle. No more borrowing $100,000 at 18 for a degree of uncertain value. Earn your education first. Graduate debt-free. Start adult life without a mortgage-sized anchor.
6. It respects choice. Don't want to serve? Don't. Go straight to work. Pay for your own education if you want one later. No one forces anything. But choices have consequences.
7. It revalues contribution. We've created a culture where credentials matter more than contribution. This reverses it. What have you done? How have you served? That matters more than what piece of paper you have.

The Two Paths

Neither path is wrong. Both are available. The difference is whether you earn the public investment or pay your own way.

K-12: School Choice

Before we get to service and college, we have to fix the foundation.

The Principle: Money Follows the Child

Currently, public school funding is tied to geography. Live in a wealthy area? Good schools. Live in a poor area? Tough luck.

This is indefensible. A child's education should not depend on their parents' address.

The fix: Every child receives an education allotment. Parents choose where to spend it. Schools — public, private, charter, religious — compete for students.

• Public schools that perform well attract students and thrive
• Public schools that fail lose students and must improve or close
• Private schools become accessible to families who couldn't afford them
• Charter schools can experiment with different approaches
• Religious schools are options for families who want them
• Homeschooling receives proportional support

The customer is the parent. The product is education. Bad products lose customers. This is how everything else works. Why should education be different?

End at 16

Compulsory education should end at 16. By that age, students can make informed choices about their path:

• Continue to graduation — if college or further education is the goal
• Enter vocational training — electricians, plumbers, welders, machinists are in demand and well-paid
• Begin apprenticeships — learn while earning in a trade
• Enter the workforce — start working, gaining experience, building a life
• Begin service — start earning that college benefit early

Not everyone needs to sit in a classroom until 18. Forcing them there serves no one.

Breaking the College Cartel

Colleges have captured a system that funnels them unlimited money via student loans, with no accountability for outcomes. This ends.

What Changes

• No more universal subsidized loans. If you didn't serve, loans are available — but at market rates, without government backing. Colleges can no longer assume unlimited loan money for every student.
• Skin in the game. Colleges that accept service-benefit students must meet outcome standards. Graduation rates, employment rates, default rates matter. Fail, and you lose eligibility.
• Price pressure. When the blank check disappears, colleges must compete on price. The administrative bloat that's driven costs up will face pressure.
• Alternative credentials. Degrees aren't the only path. Certifications, apprenticeships, demonstrated skills — employers increasingly recognize alternatives. Policy should encourage this.

What This Isn't

• Not mandatory service. No one is forced to serve. It's an exchange: serve and receive, or don't serve and pay. Choice is preserved.
• Not free college for all. Universal free college inflates costs and devalues degrees. This ties benefit to contribution.
• Not eliminating public schools. Public schools remain. They compete with other options. Good ones thrive; bad ones improve or close.
• Not anti-teacher. Good teachers are heroes. Bad teachers should find other work. Unions that protect bad teachers harm students and insult good teachers.
• Not eliminating student loans. Loans remain available. They're just not subsidized for those who didn't serve.

The Autonomist Education Principles

1. Parents choose, money follows. Families, not bureaucracies, decide where children learn. Funding follows the student to whatever school serves them best.
2. Multiple paths, all respected. College is not the only path to a good life. Trades, vocations, entrepreneurship, and military service are equally valid. Stop stigmatizing alternatives.
3. Service earns benefit. Two years of national service earns free college education. Fair exchange between citizen and country. Earn it or pay for it.
4. Education ends at 16. Compulsory attendance serves no one who doesn't want to be there. At 16, people can choose their path.
5. Schools compete for students. Good schools attract students and funding. Bad schools lose both. Competition drives improvement.
6. Outcomes matter. Schools are judged by results: graduation, skills, employment. Inputs and intentions don't count. Results count.
7. Debt is a last resort. Borrowing $100,000 at 18 for uncertain returns is a trap. Service provides an alternative. Those who borrow understand the terms.
8. Skills over credentials. What you can do matters more than what paper you have. Policy should reward competence, not degrees.

We can do better. We must do better. Our children deserve better.