Posted on 03/01/2006 6:46:26 AM PST by dson7_ck1249
One exciting thing about the free market is that you can't predict what the market will create. Big-government advocates tell you exactly what will happen when their plans work (as if they actually would work!), but we who trust the free market can only say that people will compete and good ideas will win.
We do know that competition works. It works because it gives people the chance to be creative...
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
The one signal act which would defang American-style socialism would be a boycott of the public schools. As presently constituted, they are the very engine of 21st Century totalitarianism.
Shut them down!
Dear Editor,
By all accounts and from every view, the Philadelphia school system is beyond broken. If the school system was a business, it would have gone bankrupt, had its assets sold off and been forgotten long ago. If it was an army, it would have surrendered and would still be interned in POW camps. If it was a car, not only would nothing happen when you put the key in the ignition, it would also periodically leak oil, gasoline and catch on fire for no apparent reason. If a devoted group of maniacal public servants 40 years ago had decided that they would wreck the Philadelphia public schools and, everyday without rest until today, had put all their energies into that one purpose, they could have hardly done better than the mess we have today.
One of the principal reasons we have this mess is that we allowed public schooling to become a very profitable monopoly enforced by the police power of the state. The worse the public schools do in educating our children the more money it attracts. There are no penalties for poor performance and no benefits for excellent performance. Those in power reap huge monetary benefits from those in the employment of the public schools and thus are unwilling to even tinker with it. It is a one hell of a system.
There are 176 out of 264 schools on the failing list in Philadelphia when spending per pupil is over $7500 per year. Nearly 63% of black fourth-graders are unable to read proficiently. They are doomed to a life of low wages and low expectations. Yet the NAACP, the teacher's union and the mayor's office see nothing wrong with the status quo. As a comparison, Catholic school spending per pupil is $3500 per year with much better results.
It is time to get government completely out of public education. They should have not one string or tentacle left to grow on the public school system. Parents know what is best for their children and would have left this madness long ago if they had the choice. Parents would not tolerate failure and would seek excellence in their children's school if they had the choice. Parents would not put up with waste, incompetence and fraud in their children's education if they had the choice. If they only had the choice...
Regards,
2banana
John Stossel: The last honest journalist in the MSM.
I really like Stossel as well. And like you, there are a number of things I really disagree with re: the current administration and republican congress (though, I'll probably keep voting for the bastards, given the lack of any decent alternative).
And they hate him for it.
And support Stossel's show.
Good for Stossel.
Not necessarily.
A voucher system presupposes that the parents and students using those vouchers will be interested in education.
What if the students using vouchers for good schools have no interest in education, but only want to "hang out"?
Vouchers can get a child into a school, but what he does there is up to him.
It's very possible that a disruptive child transferred to a school using the voucher system will be just as disruptive in his new school.
I agree that the public school system is miserable, but to think that handing someone a voucher will solve the problem denies the fact that ultimately students must pay attention to their teachers and do their homework. Otherwise it's just another Utopian idea.
"Competition makes everything better" only if everyone plays by the same rules.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that "hard cases make bad laws."
Essentially...I agree that there will probably be students/parents who make BAD choices or who simply don't care about the choice at all. But to make the entire public education system based on that notion (not that it's that way now) is just bad policy. Because then the parents who actually DO care are trapped in a faulty system and forced to stay (as recent court decisions show).
Generally speaking (which is what I think Stossel is doing..and what I'm doing), competition and the free market is better than forced participation.
I agree with you...simply handing someone a voucher won't make them care about education, or what school they go to...but then again, that's not who I want to change the education system for.
Although the presence of government money concerns me -- government money eventually brings government control -- I am entirely for whatever will rescue children, especially poor kids, from failing public schools.
Then that school boots them, upholding its 'good' status. Schools that tolerate the lazy will have a lesser status, lower grade averages, unhappier teachers, and would naturally cater to that social segment. By their own choice.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.