Education

[Citizen James]

I've tried to include as many concepts of education I can think of - from the idealistic and utilitarian, to the pessemistic and cynical.

What say you?  What do you think the purpose of education is?

[Citizen James]

Public schools are little more than statistic indoctrination centers.

The sooner education is privatized, the sooner the nation moves in a more libertarian direction.

Would you care to elucidate on how privitization would encourage the students to be independent thinkers, as opposed to providing the minimal acceptable quality at the lowest bid and highest profit margin?

Please explain your theory in more detailed terms than the simplistic privatization=efficency.  If you're going to cite Adam Smith or something be sure to use examples and explain the mechanics of what brings about this greater efficency, along with being prepared for the most likely criticisms, and how you would address them.

Or do you mean libertarian in a dystopic social darwinist sort of a way?

[Citizen James]

I'm not going to explain basic economics to someone with no brain.

In other words, you can't even explain it to yourself.

As I'm in a contrarian mood, I'll give you a halfway decent arguement  in favor of privatizing education.  I consider it important to understand different sides of an issue, so I enjoy presenting alternate points of view now and then, especially when their proponents have difficulty making decent arguements.

Three big problems plague the school systems - Bureaucracy, burnout, and boredom.

Contrary to popular opinion, there are corporations which are able to look past the next quarterly report.  They could make a fortune off this, even without the dismantling of the public school system.  (consider the case of UPS and FedEX, which competed with the USPS - providing superior service and forcing the USPS to get with the times and compete as well).

Public school systems have a lot of middle management.  Given how much paperwork needs to be created, filed, colated, cross referenced, refiled, reviled, recovered after the apropriate time frame, shredded, and disposed of - no great suprise there.  But the technology for such is stuck back in the mid 20th century.   Plus you often get school boards who are elected by the few people who actually pay attention to local government often pushing their own odd agendas, or basking in taxpayer funded 'retreats'.

We could cut down on the bloated middle, and focus staffing on the front lines - better student teacher ratios, smaller more localized middle and high schools and more investment on educational tools and technology.

A corporation which is sufficently forward looking could see many long term benefits from their venture - first pick of the best and brightest before they even start looking elsewhere, trade outs with major food producers in exchange for brand name placement,  and a bunch of consumers who are favorable disposed toward you if you did the job right.  In addition, the well educated tend to make more, and thus spend more, and thus become bigger consumers in general.

Then there's burnout.  You've all seen it - teachers who don't want to be there, but will blow their pension if they leave.  Well done privitization could cut down on some of the worse stressors (mountans of paperwork, excessive class size), and give emplyees a chance to opt out and take their 401k with them rather than depending on the whims of the state for their retirement.   Those who simply want to work in a different location can seek to transfer without worrying about losing their position on the pay scale.

Finally, there's boredom.   Much of this comes from the ancient outdated factory model of education which continues to be frequently used, and part from the excessive political correctness (from both left and right) which keeps classes from exploring many issues in depth.  If parents vote with their dollars in which school to use, they can tacitly approve of more interesting instruction or move their kids elsewhere.


.....

Or we could just work to improve the public system.   From what I see here you don't seem to be getting your parent's tax dollars worth Philip - but remember that with work you can succeed even despite your education.    There are a lot of bright people here, and I suspect you have a lot of potential despite your closed mind.

Give intellegent rational thought a try.  You might just like it.

[Citizen James]

ahem

Need a cough drop?

Ok, ok - that is a good example of someone making an honest attempt at arguing in favor of the privitization or elimination of the educational system.

I'm not sure what specific logical flaw you are pointing out, though as my effort was sophistry I probably let a few slide through.  The author's efforts are far better than Philips lazy ad homenem attempt.

However, as with many blogs and opinion sites, this one relies on the usual incestual reliance on other blogs and opinion sites which hold similar views.  His claim that literacy was higher before manditory education only links another site with the same opinion, rather than an authoritative source (Such as the census bureau, or at least the history department of a major university).

Personally, I usually prefer to do my own work rather than cutting and pasting someone else's arguement verbatum.  (If you are, in fact, Scott Schedule, I apologize for the implication).   You did at least provide a link back, so it isn't malicious pagerism, though if I understand 'fair use' provisions correctly you are only supposed to post a snippet of a few paragraphs coupled with a link back, rather than the whole thing.