When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do? -- John Maynard Keynes

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Education--an easy solution

This is a follow-up to my post Government We Can Afford.

Education in the US is in crisis. What to do? There is an easy, elegant solution.

Quit feeding the beast and allow parents (remember them?) to choose the best schools for their children. How? Use most of the federal money (and encourage state governments to do likewise) now being funneled to the states from the federal Department of Education to fund a "federal voucher program" whereby each child in the U.S. has a federal voucher which his/her parent(s) can assign annually for education to any duly qualified/accredited school (public, charter, private, etc.) of their choice.

What do the taxpayers expect to get in return? Schools that are accountable, transparent, competent, and actually achieving the education objectives and goals which must be set by government--e.g., common core standards and core curriculum requirements, periodic transparent testing and assessments.

Oh, I know this proposal will not be popular with a lot of entrenched bureaucrats, public teacher unions, etc. But remember, the present system is broke and isn't working. Past time to try something else. As usual the simple, elegant solution is best (source: a solution may be considered elegant if it uses a non-obvious method to produce a solution which is highly effective and simple. An elegant solution may solve multiple problems at once, especially problems not thought to be inter-related).

   

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