I agree with adding, where possible, additional market mechanisms (e.g. privatization) in school systems. That being said, IF we insist that all in society should receive an education (and I think we should) then public schools are necessary. Although this sounds harsh, it is to essentially this is to subsidize some students.
Yes, private schools will be able to educate kids at a lower cost, there is almost no doubt of this. This is most-often because these schools can be exclusive. I went to a private, prep, high school. I had to take a test to get in. Did my parents (and the school since I received quite the scholarship) pay significantly less than $8,000 to educate me? Of course. I was motivated and had parents who knew the value of an education.
Public schools don’t get to be exclusive. They have to educate everyone. Educating a student who does not possess certain capacities or certain parental types are going to cost MORE than students more similar to myself would. Kids with disabilities will cost more. Etc, etc.
This is not to say money is not HORRIBLY spent in may public schools. Admin, especially in my experience, is egregious.
But 1) I don’t think fully privitized schools could or would provide for certain students, unless highly subsidized by the government. Perhaps a system of “ranking” for the amount of $ of a voucher could be developed…but it’d be extremely difficult.
- As currently designed, a federal voucher system would be an abject failure. I used to argue for federal vouchers, however, after looking into it a bit more, I learned it could not work in practice. Federal funds account for approximately 9% of a students funding… ONLY 9%. If federal monies were simply “vouchered” and given to students, they would not have an effect on the poorest students…Poor parents would still be unable to choose private schools. It would help upper-middle class individuals who are “just” missing the money needed to send their kids to private schools and rich parents who would send their children to private institutions regardless.
There is, perhaps, a case to be made for a concentrated, targeted federal voucher program…perhaps targeted to particular districts or particular students. This would allow that 9% to be increased to a level that would allow for certain students to choose.
In sum, Yes, market mechanisms are good. But because of the cross subsidization of students along with funding coming from the district, country, state, and federal levels, designing a true school-choice system is nearly impossible. And the systems that HAVE done so have shown marginal results (See Milwaukee public schools of DC public schools). I love the idea of school choice, but it is no panacea to the problems of education in this country.