Educational Rent-Seeking

     Normally, the term rent-seeking applies to an attempt to profit without producing anything or offering a valued service. While the use of the term can be tendentious, when a nominally private enterprise rides the coat-tail of some governmental entity, thus compelling others to use its services willy-nilly, the evil is plainly recognizable. To make matters worse, the quality of the service involved is usually far below the standard available.

     As government-run schools have expanded beyond their original mandate, the scope they afford to rent-seekers has widened as well. A particularly ugly case, involving not just attempted rent-seeking but fraud, came to my attention a few days ago:

     Alicia McQueen, the mother of two young children in the Laurel County School District in Southeastern Kentucky, has gone viral after posting a TikTok video asking for legal advice. The video quickly attracted outrage, gathering over 7,000 comments in a matter of days.
     In her video, posted on March 18, McQueen explained that in her area of Kentucky, programs are offered for children who don’t have access to healthcare, especially dental work. Her children were sent home from school with a consent form indicating they would receive a free teeth cleaning as part of one of these programs.
     “They have a dentist come out in this big tour bus and they do the cleaning. And was like ok, whatever!” She then explained that she later received a piece of paper in the mail claiming that both of her children had “abnormalities” and she would need to consent for further treatment. McQueen said this took her by surprise, as the children’s family dentist told her that no such abnormalities existed.

     The children involved are 6 and 7 years old, respectively. They still have their “baby teeth,” and can be reasonably expected to have them for a few years more. So McQueen declined the surgeries the school’s dentist said her kids would require. But the story isn’t over:

     [J]ust a few days before [McQueen] decided to make her TikTok video, the school dentist called her and stated that even though she had not returned a signed consent form, that her children were scheduled for several surgeries on separate days.
     Despite her indicating that their family dentist had confirmed the children did not need any work done, the school’s dentist, who the school refused to name, told her the children would be required to undergo surgeries anyway.
     […]
     McQueen says that since she released her TikTok video, she has been contacted by parents across the country with similar stories, some of which are shocking.
     Some of the parents who have contacted McQueen says their children suffered tooth decay, tooth loss, infections, hospitalizations and even sexual assault while in the care of school dentists.

     At this point, the school is threatening McQueen with “investigation” – most likely involving Child Protective Services – if she should continue to resist the mandated surgeries.

     To me this looks like an attempt, by the school dentist using the coercive powers of the school district and its ability to invoke the powers of the Laurel County CPS, to force McQueen to consent to the unnecessary surgeries, with all the attendant risks to her kids. Needless to say, the dentist would be demand to be paid, whether out of McQueen’s insurance or her pocket. Indeed, the dentist has already billed McQueen’s insurance for anesthesias that have not yet been performed. Is there any possible interpretation of these demands, other than a fraud in progress engineered through the school district?

     Governmental evil doesn’t confine itself to big stuff such as war, taxation, and miscellaneous infringements on our rights. It penetrates the minutiae of our lives as well. But as I’ve said before, there are many people, some of them supposedly smart, who’ll tell you that “we must have government.”

     Draw your own conclusions. I believe I’ve made mine clear.