Nevada has been famous for being a legal playground for gambling for decades, and even prostitution is legal in most of the state. But something just happened that really puts the "Battle Born State" on the freedom map in a way that could inspire the liberation of millions of American families in a new and more meaningful way.

That's because Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed a law this week that gives all parents in the state the power to use 90% of the state-determined education spending per child on almost whatever kind of education expense they choose. Naturally, a lot of parents will use the money to enroll their kids in private schools. But the law also allows them to use that money to hire tutors, pay for better school transportation, or even get an online teaching program to help with home schooling.

It will be a while before we know how much this helps the goal of improving education in Nevada, but we already know this is a serious boost for freedom and personal responsibility. It's that kind of freedom that should give an immediate educational boost to the large number of poor families who already know the exact right school to send their children to with this money. And there really is a large number of them across the country, by the way. Contrary to the stereotypes, you can see poorer families with supreme concern for their children's education every time a new charter school opens and they often have to stand in long lines overnight in hopes of getting their kids enrolled.

For those who think this will lead to a harmful attack on public education, it's time for a reality check. The fact is that public education in many parts of this country, especially the poorer areas, is already irreparably harmed. Throwing more money at those schools at the expense of the children trapped in them is not the answer. For whatever reason, they just cannot be managed properly out of their functional bankruptcy. The fact that so many states keep spending more per student amounts to a sick joke when the money only provides a quality education depending on your zip code. And if giving families the power to pull their kids out of failing school districts leads to the shutting down of those districts, then a lot of the people in those districts would say, "so be it." Isn't it better if a school building and a few teachers and administrators have to pay the price rather than thousands of innocent kids?

But what about the families in richer and better public school districts? Won't some of them, maybe just for religious reasons, pull their kids and funding out of those schools and force those left behind to deal with new financial and social challenges? That's where the freedom agenda comes in. Once again, the argument boils down to who should we trust with making the very personal choice of how we educate our own children. The growing backlash against Common Core and increased standardized testing is evidence that more and more parents from all political and economic backgrounds are demanding more personal choice on education. Is it every family's primary responsibility to keep up the quality of their local public school system? Or do they have a primary responsibility and a primary right to provide their own children with a good education? Are these two goals mutually exclusive?

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/102733476