“And imagine churches allowed to compete alongside with the states — complete religious freedom [so long as it doesn’t recruit islamo-terror or Reonquista].”
Here in NJ we have a lot of Catholics and very high property taxes (primarily directed towards the public school industry) that make Catholic schools difficult to operate (my town had six when I was younger; all are now closed). When the Church hierarchy refused to fight for vouchers (focusing on “disadvantaged neighborhoods” instead of the broader debate), they basically wrote off their school systems (which are now revenue sources as rental properties).
Organization theory says that large organizations can only perform one function well. The education system was amazing when its job was to teach reading, writing and arithmetic. Then came all the social aspects, integration, socialism, sexism, identity training, de-masculinization...the list is now endless. What has suffered, of course, is reading, writing and arithmetic. The obvious answer is to get rid of the huge organization. It was needed in the nineteenth century because parents largely could not read, write or do sums.
In our increasingly complex society an educated man would need to think logically, write programs, and manage family affairs both legal and financial that would stun someone from the mid-twentieth century. Yet the education system we have can barely graduate high-schoolers with the abilities expected from a fifth grader in 1900.
The top 10% would do better.
The bottom 90% would do worse.
Very interesting. Thanks. BUMP!