Next up on the socialists' agenda of "false hope and chains" is nationalizing health care. The strongest argument against public health care is public education.

Many people don’t know that prior to 1980 there was no federal Department of Education. Nationalizing education actually began in earnest a decade earlier when the federal courts started to impose mandates from the bench. Prior to that, schools were controlled by parents, teachers, and local school boards. We had the best education system in the world.

In the 40 years since we have nationalized education, two important things have happened: 1) the cost of education has doubled 2) we have slid from #1 in the world rankings to #18.

Thank you, federal government - thank you for fixing our education system. Instead of making another mess with health care, you should fix the mess you have made out of education.

American kids are not dumber than those in other countries; in fact our kids test out fine in pre-school assessments. But by 4th grade our kids have dropped to 12th in math and science. After 4 more years we drop to 28th, and by 12th grade we are 2nd to last among countries participating in standardized secondary testing at that level.

There is no way to spin, rationalize, or blame away this stubborn fact: the longer our kids are subjected to public education, the worse off they become.

We don’t need to go any farther then the home page of the Department of Education website to understand what is wrong with our schools. There is not one reference to our declining international rankings. Conversely, there are numerous self-congratulatory articles about the billions of stimulus money diverted from infrastructure projects to save the jobs of thousands of bureaucrats. That is clearly their priority, not educating children.

We should immediately abolish the Department of Education; it serves no useful purpose. Its budget should be returned to the states from which it was taken, and we should return control of our schools to parents, teachers, local communities, and the states, in that order. We should embrace school choice in all of its forms, and let choice and competition do for education what has done in every other field of human endeavor in which it is employed.

South Korea leapt to #1 in the world rankings after it rejected the U.S. education template it had tried to replicate there. South Dakota should be free to do the same - that’s why we have a 10th amendment in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

Those Korean students will grow up and compete for jobs in the global economy and they will kick our behinds. They already are, and not due to lower labor rates; I have been to Korea and have seen their factories and shipyards. The Koreans are smarter, harder-working, and more competitive that we are. Their educational system develops these characteristics; ours seeks to destroy them under the false premise that equality and self-esteem are things you are given, rather than earn.

The nationalizing of education has been a dismal failure, but the socialists seem not to have learned any lesson from it. Having ruined our education system, Tammy Baldwin’s Democrats insist on ruining our health care system, too. Why? Do you want our costs to double and our quality to drop from #1 to #18? Do you want to give tenure to bad nurses and doctors so they can never be fired? Do you want to take away choice from parents in deciding what is best for their children? If you do, then by all means vote for Tammy, Not Tim.

Take your pick of functions where the government has tried to improve on private sector performance: is there any example where public [fill-in-the-blank] is better than private [fill-in-the-blank]? Education, housing, transportation, land management, television, package delivery, nursing care, trash collection, charity – put the word “public” in front of it, and what comes immediately to mind is sub-standard quality, excessive costs, corruption, and scandal.

Those stereotypes that jump to mind exist because they are true. My liberal friends cringe when I call government-run health care Katrina Kare. They should – we all should. The observable outcomes of government-run enterprises give no reason to hope that nationalizing our health care system would improve it. The difference between education and health care is that when the government ruins health care, people will die, not just mess up their checkbooks.

When people have the choice, they will invariably choose a private sector alternative to the public sector service. Senator Ted Kennedy, a champion of nationalized health care, did not go to a public hospital when he discovered he had cancer, he chose a private hospital. It was his choice, not the government's. This is how it should be.

Choice and competition is what makes us better at anything - if this is not plainly evident to you, ask your husband or wife if you were more attentive as a suitor or spouse. It is human nature, and human nature will not change because Nancy and Tammy pass a law.

Next week: a Libertarian alternative to nationalized health care.

Tim Nerenz is the Libertarian Party Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 2nd District. To support Dr. Tim's campaign, please visit the campaign website at www.timnerenz.com.