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Education "vouchers" solve the fiscal crisis, and also lead to economic recovery?
Simply open up K-12 education to the market place, with government only playing a role by financing the students with a yearly education check of $8000.
*www.usagovernmentspending.com shows American local governments spending $458.3 billion for K-12 education in 2012.
*(Sir Ken Robinson says this education system is a complete failure)
*The new education cost of $8000 education check to 50 million K-12 students is $400 billion per year
*This saves $58.3 billion
*(a $6000 check would save $158.3 billion)
*The yearly education check allows students(and their parents) to choose how, when, where, and what they learn, and also who teaches them
*The yearly education check of $8000 opens up a $400B/year market to entrepreneurs, teachers, and creatives
*($6000 check opens up a $300B/year market to entrepreneurs, teachers, and creatives)
State fiscal crisis solved, federal fiscal crisis solved, and the new education market leads America's economic recovery.
Thoughts everyone?
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Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.
Ben Jarvis 50+
i don't benefit from a government monopoly at all and i do have to compete against other teachers, if i don't properly prepare my students for university and beyond, by school will have to answer to the education department and nobody will get raises. the point is that they will tell us to shape up, but they won't tell us *how* to shape up (and why should they, they are desk workers not teachers), which is important. we also are required to attend yearly conferences at both state and national level to ensure educational standards are kept as high as possible *at every school*.
education should be judged based on student success, not on popularity or appeal, and parents and students just aren't in a position to make that judgement, it would be like asking airline passengers to judge safety rather than the mechanics who actually look at the airplane parts and understand how they work. some private schools here get chosen because their school uniform is good-looking! i am honestly not making that up! do you think schools deserve to get additional funding because their uniform is cool?
Brock Hardwood
Petar Ivanov
The link you have already spammed about elite New York private schools is disingenuous, and does not provide any evidence towards your claim of "Private schools that cost $8,000(given that the known successful ones cost $40,000 per year) have yet to prove that they measure up... " So please do not spam that one again
Brock Hardwood
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/06/22/private-school-tuition-hits-the-stratosphere-40-000-per-year/
As for cheap private schools measuring up...It is YOU that needs to show that they provide an education that is comparable to a public education.
Petar Ivanov
I want to be clear that we are talking about Japan, and if the Japanese government gave the citizens individual liberty to choose their own education. We are not talking about America or the UK.
So in Japan, parents choose schools based on uniforms, just like how people judge books on their covers. Because the parents value nice uniforms, schools start trending towards nice uniforms to attract the parents. Is there methodology prioritizing education first? No, but that's the consequence of their decision. The educational results will be seen at the end of the year, and if the parents do not like the results, they can try another school that has good looking uniforms.
The same exact example of this is found in vegetable sections of supermarkets. The more aesthetically pleasing fruits and vegetables are bought despite the taste. If it tastes bad, the buyers will be cautious buying from that stack again. So test scores and educational improvements revealed at the end of the week, month, year are factors that parents would take into consideration when choosing to continue or discontinue the education service they are using.
Japan has a history, culture, and people from all other societies. Is a ruling elite herding Japanese sheep best for them? Maybe the Japanese elders all think that, and the youth thinks that once they are old and the system starts favoring them. You live in Japan, so you know more about the Japanese than I do. There will always be people who will be better off with a ruling elite making decisions for them. Maybe the Japanese fit into that category.
America is predicated on individual god-given rights: life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And education vouchers are a big improvement in getting towards those three things compared to the current government controlled and mandated education system.
Brock Hardwood
Really? You think the Japanese are that absurd in their decision making process? That is simply ridiculous.
You watch too many movies.
Ben Jarvis 50+
Ben Jarvis 50+
Ben Jarvis 50+
(reply to your post below)
Ben Jarvis 50+
parents don't choose a school based on their uniform, but some students do. just think about your idea there - if the parents don't like the results at the end of the year they can choose another school - it's too late by that point, you're talking about a whole year of a child's development, and if they choose badly again next year too? you can't be enrolling all around the country all the time, that's why the best way is to make every school as good as it can possibly be, which means leaving it to the actual educators.
i think u refute yourself with your apple analogy, remember that the best medicine tastes bitter! if you're choosing on appearance and taste, are you getting the best nutrition? are you also avoiding tasteless undesirables? there's a reason we goto restaurants, it's because chefs are really good at choosing food and cooking it. if we used the same food and the same recipe at home, of course it won't taste as good as when it's done by an expert. the same can be said for choosing education.
from our discussion i'm getting the impression that your main objection is philosophical rather than rational - you don't like the idea that kids and parents not be in total control of the way they are educated - but that's actually a good thing. i'm not talking about japan or america or any place in particular, it's a usual, worldwide human thing to leave thing in the hands of professionals so you can have a better outcome. it's fine to put pilots in charge of flying the planes you ride, civil engineers in charge of designing the bridges you drive over, surgeons in charge of cutting you open, why not put teachers in charge of your education? of course they will take your own personal desires into account, and add to that their considerable expertise, which means that you get a much better education than you could have done if you were completely in charge.
Brock Hardwood
Naturally children make dumb choices, but my response wasn't about the kids choice, it was about the parents choice... My response started off with this quote from Petar:
"So in Japan, parents choose schools based on uniforms..."
note the word 'parents'
Ben Jarvis 50+
interested on how you think about having parents involved in decisions regarding educational policy. do you think they too are apt to make dumb choices?
Brock Hardwood
Regardless of where a child goes to school, be it public or private, parents encouraging and demanding academic effort is the single greatest success factor by far.
Another thing parents can do is take the time to understand what their children are learning in school. Rather than be upset that they are learning evolutionary theory, they should take the time to learn about it themselves from a scientific perspective. Naturally, I am not going to hold my breath while I wait for that to happen, but hope springs eternal....