We recently were forced to buy an expensive small house in “good” school area and several people I know have done same. I really don’t think I can agree with author here. Charter school or not, it is difficult for a poor family to put their kids in good schools simply because they are priced out. Segregation occurs because minorities doesn’t have a choice which schools they can send their kids in current system. Government already assigns you a school when you buy a house in many states. The “good” public schools don’t have many minority students today precisely because of this reason.
Public school system in US is essentially a government monopoly and comes with all evils that a typical monopoly would demonstrate. Many schools can’t fire bad teachers, many mismanage their finances, many have incompetent administrators and NONE of them have to make their customers happy or be efficient in order to survive. Customers are handed over to them on silver plater regardless of their performance or improvements. It’s not a surprise that US school system spends top dollars and get placed almost at the bottom in the developed world. But it is a surprise that Americans have accepted this government monopoly, decided to pay through nose mortgages for good school areas and think of this as good deal for their taxes.
Schools must compete for customers if we want them to see improve. We pay taxes and government averages out dollars per student. That’s all good but I should be able to take those dollars and go anywhere I wish to educate my kids. Government should not have a say over exactly which school my kids may or may not attend. It is a common sense and only way to eliminate segregation. Schools that no one wants to go can die out or be bought by different management. When schools get over subscribed, new entrepreneurs can move in to area and start new schools. They can observe areas for improvements in existing schools and implement them in their new schools to attract new customers. A continuous cycle of improvements ensues and that’s how things gets better over time instead of getting stagnated under government monopoly.
Public school system in US is essentially a government monopoly and comes with all evils that a typical monopoly would demonstrate. Many schools can’t fire bad teachers, many mismanage their finances, many have incompetent administrators and NONE of them have to make their customers happy or be efficient in order to survive. Customers are handed over to them on silver plater regardless of their performance or improvements. It’s not a surprise that US school system spends top dollars and get placed almost at the bottom in the developed world. But it is a surprise that Americans have accepted this government monopoly, decided to pay through nose mortgages for good school areas and think of this as good deal for their taxes.
Schools must compete for customers if we want them to see improve. We pay taxes and government averages out dollars per student. That’s all good but I should be able to take those dollars and go anywhere I wish to educate my kids. Government should not have a say over exactly which school my kids may or may not attend. It is a common sense and only way to eliminate segregation. Schools that no one wants to go can die out or be bought by different management. When schools get over subscribed, new entrepreneurs can move in to area and start new schools. They can observe areas for improvements in existing schools and implement them in their new schools to attract new customers. A continuous cycle of improvements ensues and that’s how things gets better over time instead of getting stagnated under government monopoly.