Posted on 02/12/2021 4:13:33 AM PST by MtnClimber
The pandemic has highlighted a serious problem with K-12 education that we ignore at our own peril.
Public K-12 education in this country suffers from a lack of effective competition that prevents market forces from working the way they should. What would happen if there was school choice in America today? Parents who are dissatisfied with the educational product their public schools provide could vote with their feet and take their tax dollars and their children to schools that offer better value. Opposition to school choice is highly regressive because the wealthiest families have the ability to pay twice for their children’s education, first through taxes and second through private school tuition. This is not an option for lower-income households.
The benefits of school choice are substantial. First, the public schools in most of the country would have to reopen to compete with the private schools that never closed or did so only briefly. Second, the salaries of exceptional teachers would rise, while those of underperforming teachers would fall and the least proficient among those would be driven from teaching altogether. Most importantly, the quality of instruction would increase while expenditures decrease as a direct result of competition between schools. The teachers’ unions oppose school choice precisely because it would force public schools across the country to actually compete on the merits or perish the way any underperforming enterprise should.
Public K-12 education suffers as a result of high barriers to entry that prevent competition from instilling the requisite discipline in public education. The aforementioned absence of school choice is one problem and an unduly cumbersome teacher certification/licensing process is another. Lower these barriers to entry and competition will flourish. Our children will receive a higher-quality education at lower prices which will improve productivity and America’s competitiveness.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The left has a stranglehold on education for a reason that benefits them. Another Reason to Homeschool!
Yeah, a great reset of thought that parents are responsible for a child's education rather than the state is needed.
A good reason to cut all education spending. Why fund this commie seditionist system?
When 80% of people who think they’re ‘conservative’ dump their kids into those institutions, then the cause is LOST.
They deserve EXACTLY what their kids are turned into.
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Rethinking American ‘Education’
There is no such thing as ‘education’ in America. I worked with university students and graduate students
Not even ONE of them could speak or write effectively. Also, they have zero, basic understanding of the barest facts of American history or of world history, generally.
If they wrote an e mail making a request, it was not articulate or clear. It took several readings to clarify and usually I had to question them directly, just to be sure what they were saying.
They are pathetic.
This doesn’t nearly sufficiently deal with it.
Simply having competing models of government-funded schools doesn’t solve much of anything.
The current model I am convinced has been systematically designed to dumb down our populace. It soaks up the time, energy, curiosity and morality of our youngsters—and too often spits out a perverted, ignorant, unintelligent and unmotivated product.
Look to what home schoolers accomplish and find ways to apply that model to more and more of our students. The “pods” during our lockdown may be one start toward that.
Also, the last thing we need to do is try to divert what smart and motivated young adults we have into teaching. It always struck me that a simply decently educated, moderately able high school graduate ought to be able to turn right around and teach what they learned to younger students. In our frontier days that largely would have been what happened and was more than sufficient.
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