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Education


Quote 883

“A general State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another; and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or the majority of the existing generation, in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body. An education established and controlled by the State, should only exist, if it exist at all, as one among many competing experiments, carried on for the purpose of example and stimulus, to keep the others up to a certain standard of excellence.”

   --  John Stuart Mill

Contents

  1. 1 Unions, Government and education
  2. 2 Whats wrong with state education
  3. 3 Videos
  4. 4 Education as a good
  5. 5 Links

Unions, Government and education

"Parents ask only for schools that are safe, teachers who are competent, and diplomas that open doors of opportunity. When a public system fails, repeatedly, to meet these minimal objectives, parents ask only for a choice in the education of their children. ... No entrenched bureaucracy or union should deny parents that choice and children that opportunity,"

   -- Ron Paul

His applause-getting statement that perhaps the teachers should get twice $89K was sad. This Wisconsin thing has progressives and conservatives in such a misguided conversation. No one is asking what the consumers of education, the kids and their parents, want to spend or not spend for education.


Whats wrong with state education


  • It stops private education competing. Having paid for education in taxes, it is then hard to pay for education on top of that.
  • Quality of products tend to be low.
  • Nobody cares about the consumer preference
  • System run for suppliers not consumers
  • No desire to make product as cheaper as possible as no competition
  • Little innovation and what experimentation that happens, happens system wide
  • Politicians can implement a political agenda or ideology
  • It doesn't help poor people, rich people pay for state schools via the proxy of house prices.
    Parents at good schools don't want other schools nearby to succeed as their house price will fall.
  • Most students are not poor, and education is aimed at the middle level children. There is no tailoring to the poor.
  • Taxpayers are forced to pay for goods they don't necessarily need or want and consumers are denied the choice of what kind of school they can send their kids to. The schools are happy as they captive customers.
Vouchers are an improvement, but state still has a large say in when and how they can be used. Only for education and schools but politics will decide what a school is.

Videos

John Stossel
4 March 2007
"Stupid in America"
It shows:
What is wrong with the current system, what the system could be like, and what the impediments to change are. Above all it shows in general the basic problem with all government monopolys.

First John Identifies that there is a problem. 
  • Kids do not like it.
  • Teachers do not have control
  • Parents are not really aware of what really goes on at school "parents don't know what they don't know".
  • The school is the primary factor
  • John dispels the myth that money is the problem
  • Author of book "Education Myths" is introduced
  • Alternative schools are shown
  • Parents can feel helpless because schools have the power
  • Schools give up on some students
  • A private school is able to do what the public couldn't
  • An industry springs up to pursue those denied access by legislation to good schools. A black market forms.
  • Countries that allow parents to choose schools tend to outperform US schools
  • In Belgium the money follows the student, not the school
  • In that case the teacher has to please the parents, the power lies with them
  • American system is a lottery
  • The current system does not allow bad schools to close, which is bad for everyone.
  • The pressure that schools might close provides stimulus for innovation
  • The importance of choice was explained
  • Some people are politically privileged in the school system (injustice)
  • Standards are dropped to meet political goals
  • Education is too important to screw up
  • State Education is provided as a monopoly and an inefficient bureaucracy
  • People with vested interests object to necessary change
  • The systems focus is not the child, teachers are too protected
  • There is a culture of mediocrity, not meritocracy
  • Organisations cannot police themselves
  • People are hiding behind regulation and bureaucracy
  • Bad teachers are bought off, paid to do nothing
  • It is claimed People who criticise the system "Don't care about kids"
  • If you are a good teacher you do not need tenure to protect your job.
  • Vouchers that follow the child improved results
 

Education as a good

Education is bought and sold. It costs money to produce, because resources and personnel have to be allocated to its supply. The question is not whether it should be bought and sold, but whether government should have a monopoly on the transaction. For that matter this applies to any other goods the government supplies.
People may decide that in a humane society, everyone capable of benefiting from education should have access to it at appropriate levels. Instead of being done through mass state provision, this can be achieved by ensuring that affordable school places are widely available, and by helping where necessary through vouchers or assisted places.

Links

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/8122149/Schools-are-socially-toxic
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7398553/Charter-schools-could-employ-unregistered-teachers
Outputs rather than inputs
"This is much more a focus on how do we get learning outcomes and student achievement rather than as we have done focus always on what the inputs are."

Freeing up education allows specialist schools http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-23617911
Preformance pay http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27722356
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26480053
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