TBF, there is a system in the US that tends to enforce mediocrity, spends a lot of money on bloated administration, and is both fearful of competition and willing to resort to politically dirty tricks to maintain their education monopoly.
I remember a Steve Jobs interview in Wired many years ago, he said his wish was for a group of energetic people graduating college to be able to start a school, just as readily as they could start a restaurant or a landscaping business – both of which, it should be pointed out, are regulated industries with licensing and safety standards.
There’s good reason it’s government administrated though. The competition model only works in urban environments. And even then. Those magnet schools etc are often just as big a part of the problem. Creating large disparities at best. Or a slightly more expensive failure mill on average.
There should be more leeway on a state by state basis to decide instruction methods etc. Provided they can satisfy core competencies. Part of the problem of the last 50 years is that we’ve let the most anti-education State set the standard for Education Nationwide simply because of their size.
TBF, there is a system in the US that tends to enforce mediocrity, spends a lot of money on bloated administration, and is both fearful of competition and willing to resort to politically dirty tricks to maintain their education monopoly.
I remember a Steve Jobs interview in Wired many years ago, he said his wish was for a group of energetic people graduating college to be able to start a school, just as readily as they could start a restaurant or a landscaping business – both of which, it should be pointed out, are regulated industries with licensing and safety standards.
There’s good reason it’s government administrated though. The competition model only works in urban environments. And even then. Those magnet schools etc are often just as big a part of the problem. Creating large disparities at best. Or a slightly more expensive failure mill on average.
There should be more leeway on a state by state basis to decide instruction methods etc. Provided they can satisfy core competencies. Part of the problem of the last 50 years is that we’ve let the most anti-education State set the standard for Education Nationwide simply because of their size.
I live in a rural area, my kids went to Montessori. 30 mins drive each way for me.
And of course there is the Internet now. It is not a drop-in replacement, but for some kids and some subjects it works very well.
We can have regulation, education requirements, and standards while still encouraging healthy competition.