Public Education: The problem is the system, not the people

I've written a lot about education lately – in the paper, in my blog, on Facebook. I'm afraid one might come away with the feeling that I am anti public schools. That is not the case, I assure you. However, I am very much anti the public school system. It is 100% the system I object to, not the hardworking teachers, nor the administrators, who work within it. The problem is, the public education system – which, by nature is basically a monopoly – is not conducive towards improving outcomes for children. Rather, like any monopoly, the system is geared more towards helping and rewarding those who run the system, rather than those whom the system serves. When you take a monopoly, and add in a heavy dose of unionization, you wind up with a system that fails to achieve optimal outcomes for the consumer (families and children).

Like any industry, the education establishment has good teachers and bad teachers. The good far outnumber the bad, but the problem is that it is so hard to get rid of the bad ones. That is simply an unacceptable and sad fact. (If in doubt, check here and here.) In the private sector, firing underperformers is relatively simple (although unions can complicate things for certain companies there too).

The fact remains, we have many good, decent, hardworking teachers. But they are teaching within a monopolistic system that harnesses none of the benefits that the free market can generate – indeed does generate – in almost every other industry. I will submit that if you take an honest, decent, hardworking businessman, and install him as CEO of a company, and then give that company a monopoly on the market, you will undoubtedly find that CEO's company turn out an inferior product. But put that same businessman in the same company in the same industry – but subjected to multitudes of competition – and you will find his company turns out a product that is much more valued by the end customer.

The above example is exactly what we have going on in public education right now – many good teachers and administrators, teaching in a system that isn't conducive to maximizing the customer's (families and students) value, and a near impossibility of weeding out bad actors. In addition, the system lacks the inherent incentive structure that can be found in every competitive industry that leads to continuous innovation and improvement. And we wonder why the National Association of Educational Progress test scores have remained stagnant for 40+ years?

So I will reiterate it again – I am not against public schools, public school teachers, or public school administrators. But I will fight day in and day out to end the system that they are forced to work in – the system that creates suboptimal outcomes for our children.

Competition. Choice. Freedom. It works in every other industry, and it can work in education too.