Saturday, February 20, 2010
Leaving education in the hands of the government has resulted in rising costs and flat-lining tests scores, notes Fox News television correspondent John Stossel, who wants to give parents the choice of sending their kids to private schools.
He says government spending on education has nearly doubled over the past 30 years, but hasn’t resulted in greater achievement by students. Furthermore, teachers’ unions have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo with public schools so their ranks don’t dwindle as a result of parents sending their kids to private institutions.
“Today we spend a stunning $11,000 a year per student—more than $200,000 per classroom. It’s not working,” writes Stossel. “So when will we permit competition and choice, which works great with everything else?”
He adds that education experts who have studied other countries’ schools found “two factors predict a country’s educational success: Do the schools have the autonomy to experiment, and do parents have a choice?”
Stossel believes the United States should encourage voucher systems to give parents of all economic backgrounds more freedom of choice.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Education: Too Important for a Government Monopoly (by John Stossel, Creators Syndicate)
Advocates Protest Elimination of DC’s Voucher System (by Amira Elmallah, AllGov)
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