Have you ever been frustrated by failing educational institutions and dreamed of starting your own school? Or maybe you've wondered why more critics of government schools don't just start their own?
If so, you may be interested in a new December 2004 study from the Reason Public Policy Institute ( http://www.rppi.org/ps329.pdf ). It takes a good look at the four main regulatory obstacles to opening a new non-government-controlled school in California:
• The State Environmental Quality Act, which imposes several obstacles to acquiring a piece of land
or modifying a structure on that land
• City zoning requirements, which impose restrictions on the location of the school
• City parking requirements
• State and Local Building Codes, which deal with the school building itself
Meeting these requirements -- many of which regular government schools in established school districts do not have to comply with -- is typically a long, complicated, and expensive process. The study notes that there are no non-government high schools in the cities of Saratoga or Cupertino despite many attempts to start one. Add to the above factors the opposition from people who do not *want* choice in education and are determined to throw up arbitrary roadblocks, and it becomes clear why there is a shortage of alternative schools that do not have high tuition or waiting lists to get in.
Yours in liberty,
<<< Starchild >>>