I feel like one of those callers on radio shows “Long-time listener, first time caller” :-)
Just a few thoughts on education in America today:
1) The public school system is incredibly unlikely to ever disappear. It will change over the longterm because there are clearly plenty of public schools that are lousy. We live in DC, are expecting our first child in the fall and there is no way that we would ever send our kids to public school here. We would either have to move or send our kids to private school (which can cost as much as college, on top of the $10K a year we pay in property taxes). On the flip-side, Montgomery County in MD and Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax counties in VA have some very good schools, including a couple, Thomas Jefferson and Behtesda-Chevy Chase that are as good as any private school in the area.
2) Vouchers haven’t gotten much traction around here- good schools raise property values in their respective communties. People in those communities aren’t too eager to let people from other areas enroll their kids in “their” schools. Vouchers may be attractive for younger couples just starting out who can’t afford homes in the best school districts, but they hold little benefit to those who have bought into the good school districts.
3) I’m a product of a public/private school in Canada, but I did spend one year at a very good public school in suburban Michigan. My wife attended public schools in suburban DC and got a very good education. I am the first to admit that some public schools are a disaster, especially in inner-city areas, and should be re-vamped from the ground up. But there are also plenty of very good public schools. The majority probably fall somewhere in the middle, which is to be expected of any large undertaking. Completely dissolving the public school system is attractive to only a few Americans, and would be like throwing the baby out with the bath-water.
I agree! Welcome to FR!
The public school system is incredibly unlikely to ever disappear.
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I disagree. With the long waiting lists for vouchers, tax credits, and especially charter schools the pressure will mount on legislators to increase school choice.
The Milton Friedman Foundation has been polling in states throughout the nation. The statistics are in the **single** digits for parents who would choose government school instead of private, home, or charter school.