Many libertarians... and these days many conservatives... have a problem with public education.
I'm one of them.
But unlike a lot of libertarians, I don't have a problem with the CONCEPT of public education... or at least publicly FUNDED education.
Public education, truly is (or should be) a public good, and is of significant benefit to all in society. A free society, that respects the rights and liberties of all, requires an intelligent, educated, and productive populace. History has shown that a poorly educated populace is the largest step down the road to tyranny.
So, I have no problem with the concept of publicly funded education.
I have a HUGE problem with the execution.
Or rather, I have a number of huge problems with the execution.
Like the fact that at least 3/4 of the dollars spent on "education" don't end up in the classroom.
Like the fact that DC public schools spend $29,409 per student (for the 2009-2010 school year. 2012 info in the link below) yet are among the worst in the country.
More money won't fix the problems.
Every additional dollar we spend on education, gets soaked up by the large mass of the public education industrial complex rather than actually being spent on educating students. Just like with federal financial aid for college... the more dollars the feds pump in, the more the schools raise their tuitions.
Oh and lest my liberal friends think the source for that almost $30k number is biased, here's Huffpo talking about how D.C. lied and said they only spent $18k per student in 2012 when in fact they spent $28k... HUFFPO...
From that same article, you can see class size is NOT the problem. Staffing is NOT the problem.
In D.C. public schools (which have among the highest teacher and administrator salaries in the country), there are 11 students per teacher...
11? What about the "if republicans had their way there would be 40 students per teacher" crap? about "Our classes are so big students can't hear the teacher?" Absolute garbage. Pure fraud.
The 50 state average for public school spending today is $12,500. Many states spend double that. DC is spending almost $30,000 a year.
Most private schools don't cost that... Sidwell friends, the most exclusive high end private school in D.C. costs about that much actually...
Public education in this country is not UNDERfunded... it's MISfunded. The money isn't going where it needs to go. It's subsidizing failure, and punishing success.
