Here’s an article sure to get you thinking. It’s called “Enterprising Education: Doing Away with the Public School System” (PDF file), by Andrew Young and Walter Block. Here’s their summary of their argument:
We critically examine the accepted notion that primary education is a legitimate and necessary function of the state. The notion is based upon three tenets: 1) public education is a necessary condition for democracy, 2) the market will not provide equal access and quality of education to all, and 3) education represents an external economy. Each tenet is addressed and evaluated according to its merits. In doing so, we also contrast the fulfillment of the ends implicit in the tenets under state and market provisions. We conclude that the state provision of primary education cannot be justified by these goals, and that market provision is a preferable alternative.
That’s right. They argue that government should get completely out of the schooling business. They don’t consider half-measures like District 150’s contract with Edison Schools a truly free-market solution. In their opinion, all government involvement in education should be completely eliminated and free market allowed to reign supreme.
Shocking? Brilliant? Absurd? I would encourage you to read the whole article before passing judgment on it. I will say that I think they make some excellent points, even if I don’t agree with their ultimate conclusion. But before positing details of my own opinion, I’d like to hear what my readers think of Young & Block’s article.
I love articles like this that challenge fundamental assumptions. Be honest; have you ever heard anyone seriously argue against public education? I hadn’t. I think that going back to square one, so to speak, can help us clarify our thinking about public education and maybe even lead to some novel solutions to its challenges.
the problems of public education are so numerous you could write a series of books. But, to consider a few: public education is designed to turn out factory workers and office workers for corporations. Most of those jobs have been eliminated by technology or sent to other countries. Schools are based on an authoritarian model that is culturally at odds with the over-indulgent consumer society we live in. To complete the trilogy of disconnects, the schools have become playgrounds for indoctrination of the masses by the politically correct, against the wishes of the majority of parents. Add to that mix an unfair taxation system (the antiquated property tax), decisions vested in unpaid school boards (what kinds of people volunteer for unpaid headaches like being on a school board?), and the inability of teachers to discipline students, and viola, we have a problem, duh! What a surprise. BUT, those students lucky enough to have parents who don’t let the school stand in the way their kids’ education can find a lot of help from non-school sources like museums, zoos, libraries, the internet, colleges, etc., etc.
Here’s the bio on the guy whose blog this came from:
Walter Block, an Austrian school economist and libertarian/anarcho-capitalist philosopher, is Professor of Economics at Loyola University New Orleans and Senior Fellow with the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Funny how it cites an awful lot of von Mises…
I will reply in greater detail after lunch (as I am having lunch with my son) as I did read the article, even busted out my highlighter and made notes, CJ!
Suffice it to say right now that this article is the kind of academic/theoretical philosophy that works on a theoretical level, but is pretty damn disconnected from reality.
Sure, the system isn’t perfect, but it’s the best one we’ve got – hasn’t someone said that about Democracy itself? Help me out, anyone…
Okay, I’ll try really hard to be brief.
You have a great point, CJ, in that going back to square one and analyzing with the intent of reforming our public ed system (and probably medicare and social security and taxes, too) would really benefit the system as a whole – but trashing it is way too extreme a change. We are in a necessary bureaucracy (there’s so damn many of us, it’s unavoidable) and this kind of change takes a long time to implement.
Okay:
Pg 198 (or 4 per PDF) “Even in basic academic subjects there is a danger in having only one approach taught in all of the schools.” or the argument that because the state runs the schools, they can educate people to think as they want them to. Sure, in theory, they COULD. But in reality, this will never, ever happen. Today’s society is an information one, sources of it abound. Good or bad or whatever the quality of the source, you can’t sneeze without getting a variety of opinions. Unless you grow up in a home without electricity.
pg 198 or 5 – So what if our current public school system was founded by people that thought the “unwashed masses” of immigrants needed to be taught English and how to “be American.” Hell, this is not an unusual opinion today. It’s a stupid argument against anything that the long dead people who founded it were bigots. They aren’t today. It’s run by a lot of very caring, and very diverse people – no matter what bad apples may be in there. And an equal amount of those founders were about fairness and quality education over converting immigrants.
pg 200 or 6 – Sure, the state system doesn’t do a totally egalitarian job of providing a great education for all kids. But some do! Whittier, I believe, has been held up as an example. It’s also not completely the fault of the teachers or the state. There are segments of our society that do not value education much, and children in those areas will be difficult to get through to. But even in the worst parts of town or the worst schools, parents who make an effort can raise a child who will get something out of their education.
And as far as spending goes, being ineffective or wasteful – let’s look at the freakin’ pentagon. Sure, all those military wonks have made this a pretty safe country, but are we safe because of all their work or are we safe because we have more money than most folks around the world, and from a lot of luck and ingenuity? And then you can think about $700 toilet seats and hammers? Are they of much higher quality than what I can get on the free market? Doubt it.
pg 202 – “no incentive to challenge predominant school structure.” 1. they barely eek out a living; fighting the system, I think, is just beyond their capability and energy level. Plus, I’d rather they concentrate on teaching my children and not on reform. There are plenty of other folks to do that. 2. Here’s another system that is hindered by the political process in a lot of ways. It’s politics, sometimes, that makes it hard to fire teachers. Or hard to change the way people teach. It’s not the state itself that keeps schools from being effective so much as the politics of our society. School boards voted in “intelligent design” – this is a prime current example. Even though administrators didn’t want it, politics and current thinking forced it on many.
pg 203 – “let us also ponder how many times the political process successfully translates economic theory into policy reality…very seldom if ever.” right back atcha’ baby. How well has the “free market” theory been translated when governments allow it to take over? I don’t know about these writers, but the US electrical power grid is a prime example. We’re all getting a 55% rate hike soon. California had rolling blackouts. Enron. And more relatedly, charter schools. Folks were all gung ho for them a few years back – they don’t seem to have improved things much. It hasn’t worked out so well on the flip side, either.
pg 204 – Okay, maybe dictatorships can control education thoughts and teachings, and we may have come damn close to a dictatorship under our current president, but short of a full on military take over – it would be a damn hard time for our government to reverse almost 200 years of freedom of speech. Hell, you can’t get people to give up their barcoloungers and tv for a night, you think they’re gonna go along with some mind control educational system? Every single party would revolt.
Same page “the immeasurable waste of resources and rejection of consumer desires las left public education borderline immoral.” I could say the same of the Pentagon and the Neo-Conservative movement.
This article wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Again, Democracy ain’t perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got. How many folks here want a full on free market system? Show me one that has worked. I don’t think you can.
Theory is nice for debate, but not reality. Thanks for the article CJ. My brain has had a nice workout.
Charter Schools……
The paper is certainly an indictment of the public school system, but they fail to provide a framework within which the market could efficiently provide education services. The average private school tuition for one child exceeds the TOTAL property tax bill for most people, and only a fraction (albeit usually the largest fraction) of property taxes go toward public education. Granted, if there were only private schools in place, there would certainly be economies of scale and tuition would fall somewhat – but I just don’t see that overcoming the heavy subsidization government provides to education.
Every property owner, regardless whether they have children or not, pays property taxes that go to fund public education. In any private payer system, only those with children would be paying – and the more children you have, the more you would pay. The way things work now, public education is even more economical if you have multiple children. Your property taxes don’t change if you have more kids, so you pay the same amount whether you have one child or six. I don’t see how you can overcome that and still provide quality education that’s affordable for everyone.