But power corrupts, as the old saying goes – and I can feel that it’s true.  I can feel it, even in my little league campaign.

As a candidate, my job is to sell a product: me.  I have to pretend that I am the most perfect person in the world. Maybe I have all the solutions, or I’ve done some great things in the community. I’ve got to be superman!

On the other hand, that’s what’s wrong with the system.  Politicians are so mesmerized with themselves that they forget about what really matters – defending liberty for individuals!

I’ve actually felt it in myself.  A pull.  A change happening.  It’s as if I’m holding the ring of power – a ring of ultimate evil and destruction.  My job is to carry the ring and destroy it.  But the ring wants to destroy me.  It wants to hypnotize me into imagining how great and powerful I could be, if only I were elected.

In the Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins had to carry the ring of power to the volcano to destroy it.  He was the only one who could do this task, because he was not as affected by the ring’s hypnotic power.  But even Frodo was swayed by the rings magic.  His best friend Sam would try to snap him out of it.

Sam said to Frodo, “It’s the ring!  You can’t take your eyes off it; I’ve seen you.  You’re not eating.  You barely sleep.  It’s taken ahold of you, Mr. Frodo.  You have to fight it.”

Frodo snapped back, “I know what I have to do, Sam. The ring was entrusted to ME.  It’s MY task.  MINE!  My own!”

Sam said, “Can’t you hear yourself?  Don’t you know what you sound like?”

Indeed, I can feel a pull towards being obsessed with winning the election.  In fact, if I didn’t seem obsessed about winning, everyone would think I was a poor candidate.  But for me, winning isn’t the only goal.  There’s a much higher goal for me, which is to stay true to my principles, to educate, and to have fun.

Winning elections is easy.  If I sold my soul, and told everybody what they wanted to hear, I have no doubt that I could win an election.  I could take some money from a slippery source, and promise to give government favors to them if I were elected.  Candidates like that are almost ALWAYS elected.

But I have another goal in mind.  I want to educate.  I want to educate myself to understand the process of running.  I want to educate others about all the solutions in liberty.  And I want to have fun doing it!

Power corrupts, no doubt about it.  But what is the best way to combat an idea?  With another, even better idea.  And the idea on my side is the best idea of all: liberty.  I want to take all that government power, and give it back to the individuals from whence it was taken.  Let’s give people their freedom back.  And perhaps one day, we will succeed in destroying the Ring of Power.

But bank failure is a good thing. It’s better than being bailed out. Can you imagine if the government came in and said, “These bitcoin banks are too big to fail! We need to bail them out with taxpayer money!” It’s easy to see why that would be a bad idea. It would only encourage more corruption in bitcoin banking.

Yet, during the 2008 financial crisis, that’s exactly what happened. Many people were screaming about scams happening in the biggest banks in the world. Banks were participating in all kinds of fraud with the U.S. Dollar. Lots of politicians said, “These banks are too big to fail! We need to bail them out!” And they did. All the banks were bailed out, with money stolen from the American people. Today, many people look back and realize that we shouldn’t have bailed out the banks. No bank is too big to fail.

So MtGox failing is a good thing. Sure it’s painful, but it’s also a relief! Bitcoin users have known about the scams at MtGox for many months before the collapse, and were very vocal about warning people. It’s nice to know that the gang of crooks has collapsed their own organization.

But what if the gang comes back?

Well, they probably will. Any gang of crooks that has stolen that much money is sure to generate more scams. But it will be much harder for them to trick people because there is a new market for security in bitcoins. People who use bitcoins are now extremely cautious about any kind of bank, because they remember what happened at MtGox.

There is a new market for security in bitcoins, but it is still developing. Bitcoin is still a brand new currency, and will go through many more bumps in the road. More scams will probably happen, and more banks will fail, until a company finds a way to create true safety and security in a bitcoin bank. Any company that succeeds in creating real safety and security will find themselves sustainably rich, for a long time to come.

Imagine if we gave students grades, the same way we paid teachers. In Kindergarten, all kids would get an F. By the first grade, the entire class would all get a D minus. Fifth graders would all get a C, and so on, until in the twelfth grade, every student would have an A plus!

It seems silly – but that’s exactly how we pay teachers: by number of years in the system, not by value.

Some teachers feel safe with that kind of job security – survive for two years, and you’ve got tenure. But not me. I’m a good teacher, but when it comes to my pay, I’m getting an F!

Bad teachers deserve to be paid less, but good teachers deserve to be paid more. Imagine a new teacher who was really great. Perhaps she made learning fun – kids were dying to come to school! Maybe she helped to bring student’s scores up two or three grade levels. Maybe she taught the kids to think for themselves; to think creatively. Teachers like that deserve to be paid double, or even more! Perhaps a teacher like that could make $100,000. Unfortunately, in our current system, a teacher like that is paid the lowest amount a teacher can make.

My name is Joe Kent, and I’m running for Congress, because I believe our educational system is broken. As a teacher for seven years, I’ve seen the monster of government invading the classroom. Government ties teachers’ hands behind their backs. It traps principals at every turn. And it allows bullies to harass good kids in the classroom.

I want to get rid of all the bureaucracy in education. Stop boring teachers and students with all these new regulations, and just give teachers the freedom to teach. Get government out of the classroom. Give principals the power and freedom to adjust pay, and you would see a new market for excellence in education. Teachers would strive hard to please principals. Principals would demand only the best teachers in the schools. And parents would be banging the principal’s door down, to get their kids in that school. And our keiki would benefit with an outstanding classroom, and a brighter future.

Find out more at How would it work?

Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” has been parodied thousands of times on Youtube.  And by ‘parodied’ I mean, performed exactly the same way.  Groups of women (or men) will perform her routine with the exact same choreography and music as the original.  People debate about whether the new performances are better than the original video all the time.  But one thing’s for certain, lots of people profited from her work, and without a single lawyer getting in the way.

Weird Al Yankovic has made millions of dollars stealing other people’s work and making it his own.  Lots of musicians protest, but because he’s ‘funny’, he’s protected by the law.

When the song “Barbie Girl” became a hit in 1997, Mattel sued Aqua for copyright infringement.  The courts and lawyers debated endlessly about the ‘funniness’ of the song.  And in the end, the case was dismissed because “Barbie Girl” was indeed, hilarious.

It’s odd that humor is so important in American law.  The argument is that no one should profit from someone else’s hard work.  But as soon as something’s funny, the courts all laugh and throw their hands up in the air,  yelling, “Case dismissed!”

But how far could we take a parody?

The hit musical “Wicked” is considered to be the holy grail for performing at high schools across the country.  Thousands of schools would jump at the chance, but they still aren’t allowed to.  If anyone tries to perform it, they’ll be sued.  But what if they perform it with the entire cast wearing tu-tus?  Or if they change the characters in the play to Darth Vader, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker?  Would that be enough of a parody to satisfy copyright law?

Of course, it’s all in the name of fairness, right?  The very reason it’s not possible for High Schools to perform Wicked is because Broadway is afraid that they’ll lose ticket sales.  Even though the show is eight years old and has already made the authors millions of dollars, thousands of other theaters around the country can’t make money performing the work.  In the big picture, a giant opportunity is lost for the many, so that a few people can benefit.  Sounds like a monopoly to me.

But just imagine if Wicked were allowed to be performed at a high school near you.  Sure, the production might be sub-par, but it would certainly generate lots of revenue for the high schools!  And many kids would be introduced to the theatre in an extremely positive way.  They would get to perform a play that’s trendy — which is very important to high schoolers.  It might create a whole generation of theater go-ers.  It might even encourage more people to see the Broadway production live, because more people would be exposed to it, and want to see how the professionals do it better.

So instead of stealing money from Broadway, releasing Wicked as public domain might make more money for everyone. That would certainly create a boom in the economy, as well as a new market for the theater.  In the meantime, I’m going to continue working on my version of “Rent” with all the characters replaced with the Muppets.  Hopefully it will be funny enough for the trial lawyers.

To quote Roger Rabbit, “A laugh can be a very powerful thing.  Why sometimes, it’s the only weapon we have.”

Usually they say, “Oh, I didn’t pay anything.  I got money.  Didn’t you?”

What they’re talking about is the refund.  But that’s just the money that you overpay, and the government kicks it back to you.  I’m not talking about that.  I’m talking about – how much were you taxed?

Last year, I paid more than $11,000 in taxes.  That’s more than 25% of my income.  And that’s just the income tax.  That doesn’t include all the sales, property, or gas taxes.  Lots of people forget just how much we’re taxed.

Most people see tax season as a happy time.  Yay!  It’s tax season!  Now I can get my refund!  Sometimes the refund is $1,000 or more.  Isn’t it great to get that check in the mail?  It feels like the government is so generous.  They’re just giving away free money!

But of course, it’s the other way around.

Sometimes I think about what I would do with an extra $11,000.  The first thing I would do is buy a plane ticket to the Philippines, to see my relatives.  I haven’t seen them in almost ten years, and it would be nice to visit again.  It’s important to see people you love.

I would also buy a plane ticket to see my girlfriend on Oahu.  We’ve been talking on the phone for so long, but we hardly ever get to see each other.

I’d completely wipe out my debt.  I’ve been chipping away at this debt for two years now.  It’s like trying to drill down a boulder with a toothbrush.

It would also be nice to buy a new toaster.  One that worked on both sides, so I wouldn’t have to flip the bread half-way through.  It would be nice to buy a lot of little things.

But the final thing I would do is give the money to someone in need.  I’ve always wanted to live my life in a way where I could live cheaply and save.  Then, if I ever heard someone who couldn’t pay a medical bill, or got in some accidental financial trouble, I could just slam down a bunch of money to help them.

Sometimes I wonder why people talk in terms of lowering taxes.  It would be better to say, “Let’s give everyone a raise!”

If taxes were lowered on all Americans, we would essentially be giving everyone a raise.  Let’s say we got rid of the income tax, then everyone would have at least 25% more in their take home pay.  I have a feeling that it could boost the economy.

If I could have all of that money back, I could do a lot of good in the world.  Sometimes I wonder what that money is doing today?  Is it helping someone in need?  Or is it bombing an innocent civilian?  Perhaps it’s creating a road somewhere.  Or maybe helping a politician.

Whatever it’s doing, I can only hope that it’s being used for good instead of bad.  Now that taxes are raising, all we can do is hope.

It wasn’t until the 1830′s that the government began meddling in roads.  Before that, turnpikes, or toll roads, were the norm.  Even today, toll roads are a common sight in congested areas of the mainland.  Yes, it’s kind of a hassle to stop and pay the fee, but with technology getting better, you don’t even have to stop anymore.  Today, drivers can whiz by the toll booths without even slowing down, thanks to a little sticker on their dashboard.  Sometimes the fee is a couple bucks or less, and sometimes, during the off-peak hours, there’s no charge at all.

Ever been stuck in a traffic jam?  Toll roads help clear up traffic by encouraging people to think outside the box.   Some drivers will car pool.  Others will go around.   Still others might want to pay the extra cash to get in the fast lane and zip home early.  That helps to clear up the road for everyone else.

Still, it is annoying to think about paying all that money.  But just remember, we pay even more money to drive around right now, in taxes.  The total gas tax in Hawaii is sixty-eight cents per gallon.  Only California and New York have higher gas taxes.  Gas taxes supposedly pay for our roads and bridges.  But if there was no gas tax, our average price at the pump  in Hawaii would drop to $3.66 a gallon, rivaling mainland prices.

Many roads would be completely free to drive on.  Imagine a group of businesses that wanted more customers.  They might hire a road company to build a road to their store.  They definitely wouldn’t want to charge people to drive on their road, or else no one would come.  Many malls around the US have whole systems of free private roads that surround their stores.  They even have their own stop signs, traffic lights, and security, and nobody pays a toll.

Sometimes it’s just difficult to imagine a private company wanting to build a really long, thin thing, such as a road.  But just look at railroads.  Railroads were built privately, and they extend all over America, for thousands of miles.

Have you ever driven on a bumpy, pot-hole filled road, and finally reached a private community?  You drive in, and the road is so smooth and well kept.  It looks almost brand new!  Many communities in Hawaii build their own private roads, connecting each house to each other, and then finally connecting to the main road.  Is it such a stretch to imagine that the main road could be private too?

In a free-market system, many businesses wouldn’t even need to build new roads, because luckily, many roads in America are already built.  So privatizing the road system would be as simple as bidding off the infrastructure.  The government could actually make a fortune bidding off all it’s roads.  Maybe they could pay off some of the debt that way.

Of course, there are the usual arguments to this.  What if an evil, for profit business wanted to buy a road?

But let’s not forget that before 1984, many people simply couldn’t imagine greedy, for profit telephone companies taking over the phone systems.   It was simply unthinkable.  Yet, phones today look like they’ve come straight out of the space age, and they work better than ever.  Who knows how our roads might change?

Switching over to a private road system would certainly make things cheaper and faster, but most importantly, it would probably save lives.  Right now, more than 40,000 people die on the roadways every year.  The police do the best they can, but how many times have you seen someone run a red light and get away with it?  Under a private system, owners would have every incentive to make sure their drivers were safe.  It’s hard to think of all the creative ideas an entrepreneur might come up with.  Perhaps the safest roads would advertise their safety, and come up with ways to detect unsafe drivers early.  It’s hard to predict all the ins and outs of how an entire transportation system might work, but one thing I do know, is that it could work, much better than what we have now.

It’s a helpful reminder to those of us who are used to paying more than five dollars a gallon for milk – that’s not normal. Where I live in Lahaina, milk is more than twice as much as on the mainland. And it’s almost four times as much if you buy the local Big Island brand.

Of course, we all know why prices are so high on the islands. It’s because everything needs to be shipped here. But why does that mean I pay double or triple the price for milk? Surely shipping doesn’t cost that much . . . does it?

Last week, I went to the Association of Private Enterprise Education conference to find out. At the APEE conference, hundreds of economists from around the world gathered to meet and present research. Surely someone had an answer to my milk question.

I interviewed economist Ken Schoolland from Oahu, who attributed the problem to a federal law called the “Jones Act”. He explained that the law creates shipping protections. Any ship that travels between Hawaii and the mainland United States must be built, manned, and flagged in America.  That means international ships have trouble visiting us.

I asked, “And do they cause our prices here to rise?”

“Very much so!” he said. According to professor Schoolland, a ship coming from Hong Kong will first go to California, and then be transported onto an American ship, with an American crew, and then it will finally come to Maui. Hardly an efficient way to get milk to Maui!

That was very surprising . . . but I had to be honest. Something didn’t add up. I can understand that the Jones Act raises the costs of goods shipped to Hawaii.  But then why is the milk imported from Texas cheaper than the local Big Island brand?  After all, if the Jones Act were so damaging, you would think that the Texas milk would have the higher price tag.  But the Texas milk is much cheaper.

Dr. Keli’i Akina, president of the Grassroot Institute on Oahu helped me make sense of this puzzle. He explained it with eggs.

“Have you ever gone to the store and bought eggs?” he asked. “What costs more, mainland eggs, or local eggs?”

I answered, “Probably mainland eggs.”

“No actually, local eggs cost more,” he said.

“Is that right? Why is that?” I asked.

“Because everything about producing those local eggs, from the iron that is used for the cages of the chickens, to the feed of the chickens, to the buildings that are produced to house the chickens . . . everything is shipped in. And by the time we pay that surcharge because of the Jones Act, even though the eggs have been laid in Waimanalo and trucked down to your Safeway, they cost more than eggs that are shipped in.”

“Really? I always wondered that!” I said.

“The factors of production are shipped in,” he said.

I was amazed. I added, “And the same is true with milk! I was at the store the other day, and the milk imported from Texas is maybe five dollars, and the local Lani-Moo is maybe eight dollars.”

“Well, that’s an interesting case,” Dr. Akina said, “Parker Ranch, in order to get it’s cattle, would have to ship them from Asia to Canada, have them trucked down to San Francisco, put onto vessels owned by a local Hawaiian company and brought to Hawaii. Now think about that – the huge cost added.”

I asked, “So you’re saying that not only imports would be better, but exports would be better without the Jones Act.”

Dr. Akina agreed. “If we had more ships coming to Hawaii, disembarking their cargo, they would have empty hulls. Those hulls would be like a vacuum and siphon in products, that at low cost, could help revive our export industry.”

Many other economists at the APEE conference, including world renowned economist Mark Skousen, and Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works, agreed that the Jones Act was extremely damaging to Hawaii. According to Bloomberg Journal, of all the 50 states, Hawaii is hurt the most by the Jones act. Without the law, our prices for almost everything in the islands could fall by more than 30 percent.

It’s hard to imagine what our islands would look like if almost everything was a third cheaper. Imagine buying gas for a bargain. How about a meal for mainland prices? What would happen to the tourism industry if we suddenly had an economic boom in Hawaii? Would agriculture spring back to life? It’s difficult to know exactly what Maui would look like if the Jones Act were repealed. But I have a feeling that the grocery stores would at least be a much nicer place to visit.

I remember coming to the old plantation house, which had just been re-taped and re-painted to cover all the rat holes.  I stared out the window of my room and tried not to cry.  Compared to all my friends, and my big modern house in Minnesota . . . this sucked.  My Mom and Dad, and brothers found me, crying there, and we had a family meeting.  We prayed.  It was nice to know that at least I was lucky.  I had a twin.

That night, Jim and I couldn’t sleep.  Maybe it was the jet lag, or maybe the fact that we had to begin middle school the next day, but we were afraid.  We were correct to be afraid.  We should have been terrified.  Little did we know, we were lambs to the slaughter.

I still remember the first day, everyone talked funny. “Hey boy, you pow?” a girl asked.

“What?” I said, in science class.

“You pow?” she said.

“What?” I said.

“YOU POW?” she said.

This went on for about seven more times, until I finally just said yes, and then the girl took some science equipment.  That’s when I realized that pau meant “finished”.  Great, now I have to learn a whole new language, I thought.

In Sociology class, I was so puzzled that nobody was participating in the discussion.  The teacher, Mr. B asked, “Does anyone know the waterway between South America, and North America?”  Everyone was silent.  “Anybody?” he asked.

“The Panama Canal!” I said.  The entire class looked at me, some were giggling.  This is the moment that I cemented myself as target number one for every bully in the room.

The bullies were everywhere.  Sometimes, it seemed like an entire school full of bullies.  One day, someone came up to me and said, “Eeew, you smell.”  For some reason (I didn’t know why), my arm pits were really smelly.  I just didn’t know how to make it stop.  On the way to gym class, I tried to air them out.  I was walking with my arms out to the side, kind of like the way a muscle man would walk.  I turned around, and realized practically the whole class was imitating me, and my muscle man walk.  “Ho bra, he thinks he’s the strongest man in the world.”

During recess, Jim and I would stand at the corner of the lunch building, looking out at the sky.  We just stayed there like that, standing awkwardly, while everyone else ran, and played, and chatted.  Sometimes, kids would come and make fun of us.  “Why are you guys just standing here?” they’d ask.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“It’s because they’re gay,” they would say.  “They’re secretly in love!”  One time they grabbed us, or sort of held us, and sort of molested our bodies for a second.  It was humiliating.  They’d all laugh and laugh, and we would just stand there, trying to make sure our hair was in place.  But finally, they would leave.

It was like being locked in an insane asylum, staring out to the sky.  I fell in love with that sky.  I remember the clouds big and strong, and in my imagination, I would soar up, and fly through all the crevices and caves, and pop up into the atmosphere.  Soaring beyond the earth into the galaxy, and remembering all the Carl Sagan videos I was watching at home, and the “billions, and billions” of galaxies beyond.

I remember being in science class, and a bully was so mad at the teacher, that he got up and flipped his desk over.  Then he threw his chair, and the teacher was terrified.  I was terrified.  Whatever I was learning, just flew out the window.  This kind of thing happened all the time, and it was just impossible to focus on the class work.

If I try to remember what I learned in middle school . . . it wasn’t much.  Sure, I learned some algebra, but I was already learning that with all the computer programming I was doing at home for fun.  Band was a joke, because everyone else was so far behind, it became really boring.  English class was the worst.  We just watched old 50s movies of Hercules and Zeus the entire time, and our teacher quit half way through the class, because he was being bullied by the students.  He even wrote an editorial about it in the newspaper, and he named me and my brother as the best behaved kids in the entire class.  That was not helpful!

I wish I could say that everything got better, and I learned to make friends, but that just didn’t happen.  Middle school sucked, and it always would.  Every day was a nightmare, and nothing I did could ever have made it any better.  The funny thing is, most people I talk to today say the exact same thing.  Most people hated middle school.

If I could talk to my younger self on the night before my brother and I entered Kalaniana’ole Middle School, I would’ve said, “Listen up!  You are about to enter the worst couple years of your life.  Try to convince your Mom and Dad to let you home school.  Beg them.  Plead them.  Cry if you have to.  Kick and scream. Just get out of school.  You know that programming you’ve been doing?  Do that.  Keep doing that.  Program in C, C++, Basic, Java, 3d stuff, whatever you want.  Just do whatever you want.  And get a job.  Work hard, and learn as much as you can in the real world.  And don’t worry about middle school.  You’re going to learn so much more, working in a real job, with a real boss, making real money, than you ever would in middle school.  You are so much smarter and cooler, and – just awesome-er than you think you are right now.  Just . . . don’t go to middle school!  Good luck.”

Now, you may be thinking, “How rude!”

But, being selfish doesn’t make me a bad person. In fact, just the opposite is true. Being selfish makes me a good person.

I give to charity because it feels good. I’m greedy to give. I don’t have much money, but I still give a good portion to charities around the world. Yet – even that is a selfish act. I only give because I want to feel good.

In a classic episode of Friends, Joey says, “There’s no un-selfish good deed.”

Phoebe says, “Yes there are!  There are totally good deeds that are . . . self-less!”

“Well, may I ask for one example?” Joey asks.

Phoebe says, “Yeah it’s . . . you know, well . . . No you may not!”

Joey is right.  Every single thing that you’ve ever done has been to make you feel good.  Whether it be working out, or taking medicine, or eating, or calling your mom . . . it’s all done for ultimately selfish reasons.  And in that sense, everyone is selfish.

Sometimes people say, “You know what the problem is with the free market?  Some people are greedy.”  But – hold on there.  Is there anyone in the world who is not greedy?

The weird thing is, we live in a society where it looks like some people are being greedy, and other people are being good.  But everybody is greedy!  When I go to the grocery store, the lady at the check-out counter smiles at me and asks, “Did you have trouble finding anything?”  It seems like this business is not being greedy at all.  They even put all my food in my bags – and if I asked, they would carry it to my car for me.  What Samaritans!

Yet, the only reason they do that is because they are competing for my business. They are selfish Samaritans.

There are only three ways greed can operate in this world:

1. Stealing

2. Cheating

3. Voluntary Exchange

In stealing, one person wins, and another person loses.  The same is true with cheating; one person wins, and another loses.

But in a voluntary exchange, both parties benefit.  It’s the only way that two greedy people can gain, and feel happy afterwards.  What a miracle!

Government is based on stealing and cheating. But the free market is the only a system based on voluntary exchange.  It utilizes greed to it’s most helpful potential, and entices greedy people to work together in perfect concert.  I give you the dollar, and you give me the milk.  In the end, we’re both happier.  This is multiplied a billion times throughout the world, every day, and it helps make everyone happier.

Yes, it is true that businesses can lie, cheat, and steal, but when they do, they shoot themselves in the foot, because they lose their reputation.  And in the business world – reputation is everything.

In the free market, they can only trick you once or twice, and then most people learn their lesson, and don’t visit those places again. Most people spread the word, and try to visit the businesses that have a good reputation.  But governments don’t need to worry about reputation. They can trick you again, and again, and no one can ever get away.

Voluntary exchange is so powerful that it actually discourages cheating, and stealing. Any business that behaves poorly gets punished by their competitors. Greed is not the problem, it’s the solution. Because as long as everyone is selfish, doesn’t it make sense that we stop wasting energy trying to “make everyone good”, and start using greed to our advantage?  The free market entices greedy people to do good things.  But for greedy people to do bad things, without the fear of any consequence – it takes government.

It certainly was. He fired teachers, and expelled kids. He was the ultimate, tough principal. But in the end, East Side High School was much better for it.

If I were a principal of a school, I would be the toughest principal around. Just like Joe Clark, I’d carry a baseball bat with me wherever I went. When the teachers showed up on the first day, I would give them a speech.

“Look, I’m not going to tell you how to do your job. I’m not going to waste your time with boring meetings and tell you all the rules and regulations. All I’m going to do is watch you teach. And if you teach well, then you’ll get a raise. But if you teach poorly, then you’ll be fired. Now get to work!”

Obviously, any principal that did this today would be thrown in jail. Principals have their hands tied behind their back. They have to make us sit in boring meetings. They have to waste time worrying about all the hundreds of new regulations that the state comes up with, year after year. And they’re not allowed to fire anyone, without going through an exhausting nest of government rules.

Today, education reform is from the top down. The higher ups are always trying to control what the lower downs are doing. The big wigs spend enormous resources conjuring up a thousand rules, and teachers have to sit there and memorize it all. Rules to make sure a teacher doesn’t just sleep on the job. Or abuse kids. Or teach the wrong material. And all these rules do is slow us down.

But a good teacher knows they shouldn’t sleep on the job. Good teachers already know how to make a safe learning environment. They know how to teach the best material, and make students feel welcome. Good teachers work their butt off, and good principals do everything they can to keep those teachers.

This year, there is a big reform going on in Hawaii. Every teacher will get observed two times a year by the principal. Lots of teachers are worried. “We’re used to being observed once every five years. This is too much!”

But, I don’t think it’s enough. If I were a principal, I would try to observe every teacher, every day. It wouldn’t be that hard to just walk around to every classroom, one by one, and watch them teach for a while. You could get to every classroom in a day or two.

The reason it takes principals so long to observe is because they need to let each teacher know they’re coming weeks in advance. This gives the teacher lots of time to prepare a really good lesson, and to tell the kids, “Be really good tomorrow!” Then, when the principal comes, he needs to fill out his observation on a special government approved form, and input it into a special website, and then do a pre-observation interview, and a post-observation interview with the teacher. It takes forever!

But is it really so far fetched to imagine a principal with more power? Maybe he could stop in a classroom without telling the teacher, and just jot down some notes for himself? Perhaps there was something about the lesson that didn’t really fit on a form. Maybe it was the energy, or the magic that the teacher had, or the enthusiasm that the kids had, or the progress they made, or something, I don’t even know how to describe it, but it sure as heck could never fit on a government mandated form. And what if the principal just jotted down, “Give this teacher a raise, before the school down the street does”?

Of course, there are all sorts of objections to this. Principals with power? Then they’ll run mad with power! The principal could just lower everyone’s pay to $1 an hour! Or they could just fire everyone!

But, so what? So what if a principal went crazy and fired everyone? So what if a school failed? When bad schools fail, that’s a good thing. It clears up more room for the good schools. But today, bad schools never fail. They just go on forever.

When principals are powerless, as they are today, then they have to act very nice. They have to smile a lot, and be friends with teachers. They need to be very persuasive, and try to convince teachers to perform well through their own charisma. Teachers love these kinds of principals. But I feel sorry for them. Even the most charismatic principal could never fix education without the power to hire and fire at the drop of a hat.

Many people blame teachers when it comes to our failing education. But I don’t think teachers are the enemy. I don’t even think principals are the problem. The real problem is the lack of freedom for teachers to do what they want, and principals to do what they want. A free market approach to education seems scary, because we’re so nostalgic about the way we were raised. But when we were raised, principals had power. Today, they’re nearly powerless.

Give principals the power to rule their school, and some teachers will fail, and others will succeed. A really great teacher might be worth double what a mediocre teacher is paid. Good schools could be worth lots of money, and provide scholarships to poorer students who aimed for better grades. Teachers could try innovative ideas that didn’t fit within the government model. Parents could chose the schools they liked the best. Bullies would cost more money, so schools and parents would crack down on them. There are all sorts of benefits that could come from a free market of education. Principals with power. Teachers with freedom. Parents with choices. And students with a brighter future.