My child, my choice
The need to pivatize education
Michael Benoit
Issue date: 10/14/08 Section: Commentary
In 1989, we thought communism fell and that central planning had been confined to the dustbins of history. Yet in 2008, nearly 20 years later, Americans are confined to a bloated and bureaucratic public education system run shockingly like those in Cuba and North Korea. It is time for change.
American students consistently score higher than the rest of the world in international competitions, until they hit about the fourth grade. From then until they graduate, American scores begin to fall short of students in countries like Poland and Korea, who educate their citizens at a fraction of our cost.
The public school system's National Education Association says that this could all be solved if they simply had more money. Yet, adjusted for inflation, per pupil spending has doubled since the 1970s all the way up to $10,000 per student - with no change in graduation rates or test scores!
What, then, is the solution? Adopt an education system like the overwhelming majority of the nations that beat out the United States: a system based on choice, competition and free-market principles.
But how does the free-market encourage quality? How can we trust our children, our nation's future, to a group of money-loving businessmen? Simple. In order for businessmen to get our money, they have to offer us a better product at a lower price than their competitor. The government, on the other hand, simply has to raise our taxes. If a voucher system were put in place that gave families a certain amount of money to send their kids wherever they wished, then schools in their area would scramble to offer parents a better education at a lower price, destroying the inefficient government monopoly.
If more money were really the answer, then maybe a 1985 experiment in Kansas City, MO would have been more effective. The Kansas City school district was given $2 billion to improve the district's poor schools. It bought Olympic-size swimming pools, a zoo and even taxis to drive the students to school! Its teacher to student ratio was one of the lowest in the country. The result? The district failed 11 performance standards and lost its accreditation for the first time in its history.
American students consistently score higher than the rest of the world in international competitions, until they hit about the fourth grade. From then until they graduate, American scores begin to fall short of students in countries like Poland and Korea, who educate their citizens at a fraction of our cost.
The public school system's National Education Association says that this could all be solved if they simply had more money. Yet, adjusted for inflation, per pupil spending has doubled since the 1970s all the way up to $10,000 per student - with no change in graduation rates or test scores!
What, then, is the solution? Adopt an education system like the overwhelming majority of the nations that beat out the United States: a system based on choice, competition and free-market principles.
But how does the free-market encourage quality? How can we trust our children, our nation's future, to a group of money-loving businessmen? Simple. In order for businessmen to get our money, they have to offer us a better product at a lower price than their competitor. The government, on the other hand, simply has to raise our taxes. If a voucher system were put in place that gave families a certain amount of money to send their kids wherever they wished, then schools in their area would scramble to offer parents a better education at a lower price, destroying the inefficient government monopoly.
If more money were really the answer, then maybe a 1985 experiment in Kansas City, MO would have been more effective. The Kansas City school district was given $2 billion to improve the district's poor schools. It bought Olympic-size swimming pools, a zoo and even taxis to drive the students to school! Its teacher to student ratio was one of the lowest in the country. The result? The district failed 11 performance standards and lost its accreditation for the first time in its history.
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