[Alberta's Child]

This might be a good opportunity for public figures to stand up and point out that public education is one of the worst investments of taxpayer money you can imagine.

And I say this even if your local school district has the best teachers, best schools, and best education performance in the history of mankind.

The problem is that education is a highly transferable asset that always goes wherever the recipient of that education goes. I pointed this out at a business meeting a few weeks ago when I asked everyone in the room to count the number of their childhood friends still lived in the town -- or even the state -- where they graduated from high school. In reality, a lot of public school districts end up spending a fortune educating children who leave the area as soon as they can, and become productive taxpayers somewhere else.

[ClearCase_guy]

Excellent point!

[1L]

Your argument really only works if you make it in the context of “our school system can be piss poor because too many of our educated kids don’t stick around here.” Otherwise, you have plenty of people educated in other areas who come to your area and are productive citizens.

Incidentally, a very large number of people I went to high school with are still in the general metro area (DFW) of where went. While there are legit knocks on public education, I’m not sure your point is particularly one of them. It varies too much by locale.

[sauropod]

OK, your post is brilliant!

I hadn’t really thought of education that way before.