I'm also not a consumer of public school education; I send my kids to a private school. I'm fortunate to be able to pull that off. Never mind the fact that I drive a 13 year old car and wear garage sale clothes to make it happen, I'm still fortunate. I also know that I get to pay tuition twice: once for my own children at their school and then again for the kids in our neighborhood through my property taxes.
What I am is a tax payer, a voter, a concerned citizen, and a practical economist who observes that our educational system is falling behind in global competitiveness, which has a negative impact on our productivity.
How do we fix this? I'm not sure.
Frankly, I see a lot of ideas: vouchers, magnet schools, charter schools, governmental programs like No Child Left Behind, and so on. I hear from teachers and administrators that these attempts don't work. Vouchers don't work because they take money away from public schools and, often, transfer it to religiously affiliated schools. No Child Left Behind doesn't work because it takes money away from schools that need more funding and gives it to schools which were already performing well. NCLB also has been widely criticized for forcing educators to 'teach to the test', thus skipping valuable subjects like art and music. Charter schools are bad because they're run by corporations and they're said to be able to select the students they want and send the others back to the public schools.
They may have some good points.
What I haven't heard from teachers, administrators, and unions is much at all about what will work, and that silence is deafening. Except, that is, for more money. But as the link below points out, even a ton of money does not guarantee success, nor even ensure a lack of utter failure.
Juan Williams produced an interesting documentary recently called A Tale of Two Missions about the horrific failure of Chicago Public Schools. It's 28 minutes long, but well worth your time if you're interested in this issue. I wonder whether what we're beginning to see are the effects of monopoly power when the service is required to be purchased. If so, that type of failure should unite Democrats and Republicans. Heck, one of the most powerful quotes comes from Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, at 4:17. Says the mayor of Chicago Public Schools: "I think the system was never designed to benefit the kids."
Wow. I never imagined that I'd quote that guy without also mocking him.
As you think through the issue, consider these categories: moral owners, primary beneficiaries, vendors & competitors. Now try to fit these groups into one of those categories: government (federal & state), parents, students, local school boards, property tax payers, teachers, teachers unions, private schools, charter schools, and society as a whole. This list isn't comprehensive, so add some more.
What do you come up with?
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