Here is yet another post that hits the core of many of our previous arguments, The role of government. In this case, What is the role of government when it comes to education? John Stossel brings up some good points in the following commentaries about competition, privatization, the contrast between education in Europe and the United States, and even uses a local example, the Kansas City, MO school district, to prove his point. I have an inkling that CitizenSaint wants to delve more deeply into this topic, so I will just post these two articles and watch the sparks fly. Enjoy...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-1_18_06_JS.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-1_11_06_JS.html
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Are Public Schools Cheating Children....and Parents?
Posted by Matt at 7:44 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
I watched the program last Friday night, it was very compelling. I think Stossel is right on the money; government controlled education is a monopoly, and when you have a monopoly you have no competition. As a result, as John so clearly pointed out, the kids suffer through very poor teaching in some cases. In Europe, and I know it pains some of us to compliment Europe, the public money is attached to the kid, so where the kid goes to school, so goes the money. What an easy concept, that could work well here in the U.S. as well. If you missed 20/20 last Friday, you can probably find the episode on the web, watch it.
The next question is: What do we as parents do about this awful school system? With the teacher unions so big and powerful, how can we contend with them and get some real change? I dont think anyone in Washington is man enough to take the unions on, since it is en vogue to go around saying, "our teachers are not getting paid enough."
My kids are going to be lucky to go to a good charter school in the area that is not bound by the KCMO distric's rules. Anyway, it is a real problem, and before anyone else says that teachers are not getting paid enough, they need to take an economics class, and then re-examine that statement.
Post a Comment