The True Cost of Public Education

jpzxcvbnm Says:

Oct 20, 2011 - Well, public opinion shows that most people support private school vouchers.

PaulsDigitalSelf Says:

Oct 27, 2011 - The point made around 2:12-2:20 about $28,000 is disingenius. No individual tax payer pays that much so not every family serviced by a DC public school could just get up and attend a private school if they had their tax dollars back.

Mooja12 Says:

Oct 27, 2011 - I believe you're missing the point which is; if you took all the money currently spent on public schools but instead gave each student $28,000 dollars they could with that money attend the best private schools in the country. The entire video is about value per dollar spent. We're not getting a good deal in our public education system.

PaulsDigitalSelf Says:

Oct 27, 2011 - Well I certainly do not disagree. Generally speaking I favor treating education as a comodity and not as a right or something compulsory. I did consider what you suggest I missed, but then I realized that no one from the Cato institute would ever recommend such a policy of wealth redistribution.

Mooja12 Says:

Oct 27, 2011 - I agree. I don't view it as a practical solution. I view it as input into the equation as to whether or not we're spending enough on public education. It seems to me more money is not going to solve the public education problems which is exactly the opposite of what you might conclude after listening to public school officials or even mainstream media.

smokeyhoodoo Says:

Nov 14, 2011 - No, but if they were simply given $28,000 straight up, then they could. It would cost the same amount and the poor would receive an excellent education.

PaulsDigitalSelf Says:

Nov 14, 2011 - I am not entirely against that sort of redistrubution but I am not entirely infavor either. If we redistribute money that way, the people we take it from with taxation will deamnd to see evidence of a return on their investment and suddenly the private schools will be subject to regulation based on poltical favoritism. Education should function more like going to a dentist or hiring a lawyer. Let teachers control their own profession and let the market control the cost.

HoodwinkedbyanAngel Says:

Dec 26, 2011 - As a business owner i can tell you first hand the kids that do go though the system are for the most part dummer than dog shit. and have no common sence////```America is F N DOOMED and in 20 years will deserve to be a forth rate world power

justmichelle71 Says:

Dec 26, 2011 - Wouldn't it be nice if the public schools actually took their money and spent it on our kid's education? The problem is all the extra crap/junkets that school administrators and teachers enjoy while students still share outdated books. I'm sure after the elections are over the dept of education will take the 1st hit. I'm also sure that the frivolous spending will still continue and educational programs will be cut instead to make up any budget shortfalls.

PanzerDivisionBOM Says:

Jan 4, 2012 - I think that the basic premises of public education are incorrect, and that anyone who puts this institution into its historical context and examines it dispassionately will come to the same conclusion.I'm also quite convinced that any impetus to abolish it, or even to change it substantially for the better will not come from within the system, because the teachers and bureaucrats are quite content with their current position and have no incentive to innovate.

PanzerDivisionBOM Says:

Jan 4, 2012 - How much money is enough? Because no matter how much money they get, they always seem to be doing worse. Internationally, funding does not seem to correlate with performance. How expensive should it really be to get some books and some people to teach math, reading and the sciences?What guarrantee is there that your cherished public schools will put the money to use in a way of which you approve?And private schools are heavily regulated today, and made to --

PanzerDivisionBOM Says:

Jan 4, 2012 - -- use the same methods as public schools have been using for the last 200 years. They're also subject to the teacher unions' cartelistic licensing systems and writs of tenure.They're a poor representation, a shadow of a shadow of what free enterprise in education may look like, with all forms of significant innovation prohibited by law. They're made to use the same same resources in a similar way, and they still regularly outperform public schools.

dudelikesWoW Says:

Jan 4, 2012 - So what you're saying is public schools need to be watched over and regulated more carefully? I agree.Other than that, the only thing I'm getting out of your reply that is relevant to my 5-month-old comment is that you think it's a great idea to have such ethical companies (like Monsanto and World News) to come in and teach children a pro-business attitude? When the entire economic collapse of 2008 was caused by such an attitude? Sounds like you need to go back to school.

PanzerDivisionBOM Says:

Jan 6, 2012 - "Regulated?" How much more "regulated" can you get than outright state ownership?Your characterization of the 2008 financial crisis is completely ahistorical. It happened a few years after a major change in and expansion of the regulatory structure, in a period of severe inflation and credit manipulation, and was most severely felt in the enormously subsidized subprime mortgage sector, Banks like Wells-Fargo were even able to continue making small, consistent --

PanzerDivisionBOM Says:

Jan 6, 2012 - -- net gains during the crisis by largely forgoing repackaged subprime mortgages (weathering constant punitive legal action to do so) and the new short-term debt papers, in favour relatively traditional and conservative assets.But most telling of all is the emergence of the shadow banking sector shortly after Basel II. I've read some economic history, but I've never heard of anything like it. The closest thing I know of is the Blat, the organized Soviet black markets.

benxr2006 Says:

Jan 16, 2012 - good god...

jonescomplete Says:

Jan 20, 2012 - I wish tax receipts would say exactly what the money paid for...

englishteach26 Says:

Jan 23, 2012 - What to improve education for more children? Take 'No Child Left Behind' and, please, remove all of the teenage drug dealers, gang bangers, thugs, etc. LEAVE THEM BEHIND. Then teachers can save the students who really want to learn.

commonsenseradio Says:

Feb 10, 2012 - BINGO

coby2232 Says:

Feb 16, 2012 - School Districts and Teachers are the ENEMY. Put them all in jail--like the students who can't buy their way into private education.

coby2232 Says:

Feb 16, 2012 - So where is the money going? Into the pockets of those rich, greedy teachers and principals? Are they squirreling it away and putting it into their 1991 Mazda repairs? If you can't trust school districts who the hell can you trust: Suit freaks like this guy who bundled up your mortgage as a toxic investment? What about the government who de-regulated bank operations? Trust those guys? Yeah, that's right--public school districts are the enemy! What a joke...

kmelfina Says:

Feb 17, 2012 - It's the unions (money given mostly goes to those advertisements and union bosses, not much to teachers). About the banks, they weren't de-regulated. Not one bit. Banks were forced to give loans especially at a time of super low interest rates when receivers of loans do not have savings, especially at a time when our fiat currency is falling in value. Eventually the financial crisis happened when the prices of houses dropped from artificially propped up prices.

dteselle Says:

Mar 22, 2012 - Tax payer? Parent of a student? You should be outraged!

queenofabnormal Says:

Mar 30, 2012 - This is why I don't understand the hostility to homeschooling parents. 75% of tax-payers don't use the public schools but they support them. Homeschoolers cost tax-payers 0%. The entire society should be more supportive of homeschooling, based on the amount of money they pay for something they don't use. Thank a homeschooler the next time you run across one for not burdening you with their education expense, instead of asking about socialization.

Charlie12241 Says:

Apr 2, 2012 - Why isn't education better in the US? Why is it expensive?