

Jeb Bush on Disrupting the Educational Status Quo - DanielBMarkham
http://reason.com/archives/2011/04/20/jeb-bush

======
DanielBMarkham
Although Jeb's a politician, to my knowledge he's not running for anything any
more and saw this as a transformational, not political interview.

If I understood him correctly, he's talking not just about school choice, but
about dividing up the money spent _per credit_ and then using market forces to
create and allocate value directly to the student.

If somebody could pull something like that off, it has the potential to create
tons of startups and completely transform education. Whether or not it's all
pie-in-the-sky, of course, is a open question. Can you imagine an App store,
but solely for education? You could split the problem hundreds of ways, like
creating app for just something like High School mathematics? You could even
add in proctors and other physical aspects. In addition, using the app store
metaphor, people could rate the app, get their money back if not satisfied, or
compare test score results.

That would be something in education worth pushing for.

~~~
dalke
"Can you imagine an App store, but solely for education?"

No, actually, I can't. Sentences like "markets work and monopolies resist
that" make no sense to me. If markets work, how are there monopolies in the
first place, unless monopolies are naturally part of the market? How does the
market on its own prevent immoral or illegal activities without oversight?
Will education in this manner cause a perception of a zero-sum game,
preventing collaboration among teachers working the market in competition for
the same money? In what sense are test scores meaningful, and could you put
your money into changing the tests? If so, given 100s of tests, which are the
most relevant?

How do you measure the value of physical education? Of learning to draw? Of
performing in a school play? Of understanding inductive logic? Is it the
number of likes vs. dislikes? How do you judge a department head who does a
great job in keeping all the teachers working well, but is only an average
teacher? Is the solution in that case to take money away from the head, or
help get better training as a teacher?

In the app store model, who decides? How do they get this information? How are
most not overwhelmed with data, causing analysis lock and/or hitting the
paradox of choice, thus leaving it up to highly suspect gut feelings?

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Turn the analogy around backwards: why does the app store -- the entire
concept of making and selling little bits of functionality -- work at all?
Doesn't it encourage the perception of a zero-sum game, etc.

Obviously this doesn't happen, so I would be careful to distinguish things
that _might_ happen from things that are actually happening. We can sit around
for years making up various doomsday scenarios.

Why do monopolies form? Is that your question? Lots of reasons, usually
related to the structure of the market itself: use of government regulation,
control over information, ownership of tools, etc.

Not sure if the question is really relevant,though. I really wouldn't worry
about monopolies versus free markets -- sounds like you're getting hung up on
that. How about just trying the idea of a la carte purchasing of educational
training? Just like we do with most everything else in life? If I want to
learn to scuba dive, or fly airplanes, or learn to speak a language, or become
a real-estate agent I easily manage to locate and purchase those items one at
a time. Why not the same with drawing, music, being in a play, or any of those
other things? Some of these things may require a building and a social
experience with lots of other kids, some may not. Opening it up allows for
lots of solutions to form, concentrating on what works, not what might or
might not sound good in a political speech. The conversation becomes what the
exact requirements for an education are, and who gets to decide that, instead
of what the _structure_ or the education delivery system is. Isn't that change
of dynamics awesome?

