Fixing Our Education System part 3

I had a comment on my original blog that asks how someone who has only taught for 3 weeks his whole life would know the answer to fixing our education system. This reminds me of the professors that would look at me like I was some moron for questioning someone like them with all their experience and me with very little. The fact is that I have had very few if any original thoughts on most of these issues. I might add something such as what I will discuss today. But for the most part these ideas have first been tried in other countries, second come from top ranked economist that study the effects of competition in any sector of an economy, and three have been well thought out and not just thrown together and written about.

I asked in the last post why we do not depend on the private sector to educate our children to be able to work in the private sector that we love so much. We hate government ran operations and love most of our private ran operations. Yet I hear liberals talk about how we "can not allow such an important institution be left to the free markets of private competition to operate." What? Private competitive corporations do things efficiently. We should beg them to get into the business of educating our young people!!

If each parent received a "voucher" for each of their children that was estimated to be the amount spent per student in that school system already, that parent should then be able to take that voucher to any school of their choice. This includes both private schools and current "government" schools. For you who say that there is a separation of church and state and thus it would be unconstitutional for that money to be spent at a religious private school of some sort, please stay tuned for future blogs that will explain the fallacy in that argument. Schools would thus compete for your child attending their school. There would be an owner of the school that would hire a principle to run the everyday operations of the school like a CEO would a business. If that principle is not living up to what the owner wants then he is fired. Same thing with teachers that do not perform. Teacher unions would become a non-issue as the CEO would not allow for tenure if he did not want it. Sure there would be Unions that would compete for memberships and promise some of the same promises they do today. But as today in the private sector, unless an owner wants to hire union workers, he or she would not have to. Plus their influence on curriculum would be at a minimum and most importantly could not guarantee tenure.

Schools would not only compete for students by trying to run the best schools and get the best teachers to help teach your child. They would also try to do it while saving as many resources as possible. This is because the school can charge less than what the voucher is worth. Any left over funds could be kept by the school or given to the parent in a form of cash. Thus to incentivize parents to bring their children there, they will get good teachers and do it for as cheap as they can without sacrificing success in academics and sports, and thus convince parents by advertising so much money back in cash from that voucher. Due to this newly created market, money and resources will not be wasted and efficiency will be met.

Your child will receive the best education that can be attained at the best price. If the school is not satisfying the customer, you will shop somewhere else. This would allow those students stuck in failing schools to move out of them into a successful school. The value of the voucher will increase by an inflation amount each year to cover growth in prices. If schools wanted to charge more than what a voucher is worth they could. It is a free market after all. Raises in prices would be needed for really good schools that were successful and saw a large increase in the amount of students attending or wanting to attend. Their school might become over flowing and need new construction. Due to high demand the price rises for a time, thus raising the extra funds needed to build new classrooms so that in just a year or two, more students could then attend it that could not have before at a lower price with the rise in supply of room.

In the next blog I will summarize the proposition and explain more benefits for parents, students, and yes teachers such as myself. Please tune in later.