American Public Education is Broken
I believe that taxpayer-funded public education, as implemented by the State of Minnesota (probably most other states too) is completely broken. I am not saying that teachers are broken. Quite the opposite. Here's a little experiment that I think would prove it.
- Take the current Minnesota per pupil expenditure of $8440 per year.
- Take 25 randomly selected students from *any* district in the state at any one grade level.
- Give the $211,000 that those 25 students currently generate for the public education industry in this state to any fully qualified teacher.
- Ask that teacher to take care of the same things for those 25 students that the money currently takes care of: transportation, teaching the subject matter, providing a classroom, providing access to lunch (remember most schools are charging for lunch), etc.
- Measure the results
Does anyone really believe that any genuinely qualified teacher (no choosing the poster child for under achievement here) couldn't take 2 HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars and not only rent space to teach the kids in, transport the kids, ensure they're taught to at least the standards currently in place, not just provide access to food, but feed them AND still make more money than they currently do under the existing system?
If so, PLEASE don't try to claim that you think highly of teachers. The overhead in the way we structure education is absurd.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
why does "costs more than it could" = "broken?"
May 31st, 2007 at 8:00 am
We wouldn't have to worry about enforcing any sort of educational standards now would we? That teacher could present any wacko garbage and who'd care.
That's what happens here in Australia where the government shamelessly funds private schools heavy with religious indoctrination.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:14 am
norm, I actually thought I had another section in this post talking about the comparisons of results as well. I hit publish thinking that section was in there. I don't like to go back and edit after publishing, so that part of the argument is lacking, you're right. However, the combination of really expensive with ever decreasing results *does* say it's broken.
David, please note my statement: "ensure they're taught to at least the standards currently in place".
May 31st, 2007 at 2:33 pm
That's why we need to eliminate the MONOPOLY that is public education.
Get rid of the concepts of school "districts" entirely. Attach that $8440 per year to the student, and let anybody start a school who wants to.
Naturally, you'll need some level of oversight, but typically parents will choose where their kids go. And then the schools will have to compete to please the parents.