Is it moral to use government funds?

The other day in my political research class the proffesor went on another rant about how much he despises libertarians and the right.  After a little back and forth about libertarinism in general he made the the following statement:

If libertarians really believed in their ideas, why would you attend this school?  Why would you accept Social Security or go to a public high school.  If you are true to your words you should not utilize any government service what so ever.

My reply to him was: "So what am I supposed to do about the roads?"

This later got me to think about the morality of accepting government funds.  I went to a public high school, drive on government roads all the time, pay taxes, and I attend a public college.  I have obviously used, and have benefitted from government funds.  For being so anti-state, I sure do use it a lot. 

This has always made me feel ucomfortable but I accepted it because school, and roads are for the most part monopolized  by the state.  However, I asked myself if I were out of school working full time and had a family that needed my income, would I take unemployment benefits if I were to lose my job all the sudden?  Would I apply for food stamps?

After some thinking I decided that I would take both, just as Rothbard and Walter Block have decided.

A Bias Inherent in the System

Yep, sounds like public education. 

Education is very important; this is why I don’t want the government playing teacher.  I mean, honestly, all other criticisms of public schools aside, how do we expect to have a nation of people capable of examining government policy with in-depth critical thought if they are educated by that same government?  There’s uhh…there’s a bit of an inherent bias there.

(Comic via)

Study Shows Private, For-Profit Schools Preferred in Developing Nations

From AidWatchers:

When James Tooley first discovered low-cost private schools for the poor in urban slums and rural areas in India, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and China, aid agency officials and local government administrators did not receive the news warmly.

Most flat out denied that such schools existed. Even if they do exist, said the experts, they can’t possibly be any good. School owners that run for-profit schools in shantytowns and poor villages are just exploiting poor communities. Their teachers are untrained and poorly paid. Their buildings are cramped, dark and filthy. Worst of all, kids don’t learn anything there—they come out “half-baked,” one education official told him.

But what Tooley found, in four years of site visits and a five-country study described in his book The Beautiful Tree, throws a wrench in this familiar-sounding reasoning. Between two-thirds and three-fourths of students in the impoverished areas he studied were in fact attending these allegedly nonexistent schools, even when public options were available.

Definitely read the rest of this article, available here.

Another Reason Not to Support Government Schools

This article is a few days old, but gross enough to still warrant posting:

In the past three years, the government has provided the nation's schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that wouldn't meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants, from Jack in the Box and other burger places to chicken chains such as KFC, a USA TODAY investigation found...

That isn't always the case. McDonald's, Burger King and Costco, for instance, are far more rigorous in checking for bacteria and dangerous pathogens. They test the ground beef they buy five to 10 times more often than the USDA tests beef made for schools during a typical production day....For chicken, the USDA has supplied schools with thousands of tons of meat from old birds that might otherwise go to compost or pet food.

More here (eww).