Should all education be privitized?

[phk]

Should education be privitized?

[phk]

Philip, the whole indoctrination thing is a different issue.

I agree that liberal indoctrination in schools is a problem.  I think in some cases, children are being taught things with a false slant, in order to satisfy a certain political agenda.

This has always taken place, and always will.  I was basically taught that the slaves were freed by Lincoln, and that blacks in America then lived happily ever after.

There are two sides to the indoctrination thing, and I favor a balanced view.  With completely privatized education, people could simply put their kids into different schools based upon their own political philosophy, leading to greater balkanization of society.  There is something to be said for people using the political process to determine what their children are being taught, rather than simply withdrawing into their own private world. 

I do believe strongly that all Americans should be taught a common version of history that touches on all important themes, rather than a version being emphasized by the political agenda of a certain school.

I think it is in the best interests of society to have a strong public school system where possible.  I don't believe, realistically, that it's possible in poor urban areas, for the most part, which is why I support vouchers for these areas.  Either that, or there should be a large expansion of magnet/special schools with restricted enrollment to serve the children in these areas whose parents are interested in their education, and want to keep them away from the insoluble problems faced by public schools in those areas.

Well, it seems to be the natural tendency that liberals are disproportinately represented in secondary and higher education. 

Unless you want to advocate some sort of political affirmative action program, which is a bad idea itself, there isn't really any way to change this.

Meanwhile, you can be assured that business and organized religion are firmly in the hands of conservatives.

[phk]

There are certain disciplines in which one, through study in it, comes to a particular political viewpoint.

I'm willing to venture, for example, that nearly all good cultural anthropologists (ie, objective investigators, not shills for one cause or another) are liberal. You'd have to be, I suppose, not to cry out in dismay at some of the different cultural practices one can find.

Meanwhile, people in business in capitalist society are more often than not conservative, because their politics is one that condones the capitalist style of wealth distribution. This sort of thing flows into the different topics one is taught.

For example a class like 'Science and Technology in Society' sounds a lot like a class that appeals mainly to liberals, when the focus is more on society, as it seems to be.

Environmental Science/Biology is a hard class for a very conservative, anti-environmentalist teacher.

Government classes tend conservative in my experience in high school, but are more evenly divided in acadmeia.

[phk]

1. People concerned about facts, learning tend to be liberals.

Wrong, just wrong. People who are concerned about facts and learning tend to go to college, and are sometimes taught by liberal professors who will indoctrinate the students. This isn't true of all schools(more so of liberal arts schools I think, less so of technical/science oriented schools like MIT or GaTech), of course. My school is actually pretty politically neutral, and when we disagree we don't yell at eachother either. Phknrocket actually makes a good point about certain fields of study having different leans - for instance I find the computer science field to have a more libertarian lean.

I bet those liberatarians feel dumb now that all of the programming jobs were outsourced to India.

Relax, man.