Cons/ and solutions to free market education

      In a Free-market there are winners and losers. That would be one of the Cons to this approach, what about the very poor families that might not have enough monetary resources to send their children to a good school or to get one of the best teachers should the government get involved to solve this issue? The Government should provide a monetary voucher to assist the very poor. 

      What about if the only schools those poor families can get in to, due to cost, would be schools that are under-performing with lower tuition? This is where once again the government needs to step in, just like they have done with food production, the government should set up minimal expectations for a school to operate. Therefore providing a fair and just system, where the consumers, the students, are not taken advantage of and the producers can still operate with freedom.

Education Info-graphic 

 http://mat.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/us-schools-vs-international3.jpg

Education: An Annotated Bibliography

My research process was a combination of looking at catalogs of books on the subject of free-market education system and a search on Google plus on education Reform. When i looked at different people on the subject of education, I chose those that provided the clearest and most historical background rather than opinions.

All of those that are chosen dwell on the subject that using a free market approach provides an option for an effiecent education system. My main claim that due to the dominate hand of the government in the education system, the culture of our society as devalued education and lacks motivation. With the implementation of a free-market system in education would solve those two issues.

Future Readings

Andrew J. Coulson
Market Education: The Unknown History combines public opinion data, twenty-five centuries of historical precedents, and the latest research to find out how schools should be organized to best meet the needs of families and citizens. The way the author portrays the information in a logical fasion


John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. He was the New York State teacher of the year. In this rare and insightful book, Gatto explains the seven lessons that are taught in most schools. They constitute a damaging and costly national curriculum.


James Tooley
Reclaiming Education (Cassell, 2000). With this work, Tooley addresses a question that few other scholars have had the vision or the expertise to ask: What sort of education system will best serve the public? The cogency of his answer and the soundness of the evidence and arguments on which it is based make Reclaiming Education a great chose.

Leaders

Sheldon Richman

He is the editor of The Freeman and TheFreemanOnline.org, and a contributor to The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. He is the author of Separating School and State: How to Liberate America's Families.

Eric Patnoudes

He is an innovative educator who is driven to reform public education by promoting the shift of focus from the memorization of facts, to teaching communication, collaboration, problem solving and critical thinking. He believes that through the use of technology, we can engage our students and awaken their imagination. This is crucial if we expect to teach them the essential skills necessary to thrive in the 21st century.

Phil Hill
Phil is a consultant and industry analyst covering the educational technology market primarily for higher education. He is executive vice president at Delta Initiative. Traditional education or online education. In the past decade it seems that the dominant conversation has been around the potential for online learning, both from for-profit and non-profit options, to disrupt education as an industry.

Social Proof

Social Proof
            It is important to pull from the experience of current teachers, people who are dealing with the problems of our current education policies. Here are some critics from current teachers, ranging from elementary to secondary to collegiate levels. 

            From a 4th grade and music teacher, Katherine Hurst has been a teacher for 8 years in Texas and Idaho.  “Due to the entitlement society, some parents feel that whenever their child has bad behavior or does poorly in class, it is because the teacher is out to get them or is picking on their child. The parent feels that their child is entitled to get a good grade for just coming to school. Hurst also said that since public school had almost a monopoly on education it is hard to do anything outside of what the state wanted. Even with the governments’ regulation of “no child left behind act”, the act has almost done the opposite affect from what the government wanted. Since the government has a force and highly structured curriculum, if some students haven’t grasped a concept the teacher has to move on and teach the next concept. The government just needs to get out of the way.” Hurst also had the opportunity to work at a charter school. She said “that with fewer regulations, the teachers were able to work more and have focused teaching on what the students needed.” Charter Schools are a step towards the right direction. Hurst experience in different teaching environments provides a unique view on each system. She said “that in the Charter school there were more hands on assignments rather than paper worksheets, and provided an atmosphere of innovation and creation.” 

            The next teacher is Jessica Linford; she is a high school math teacher in Texas. “The problem I see with it is that very few families would actually participate in it because if the costs. And our workforce would then greatly suffer. Also most teenagers have zero to no motivation about their futures because they can't see past if they have a date this weekend or if they have the coolest clothes, even if their parents are willing to pay or care about their own child's future which sadly many do not. So you can't count on parents to help motivate their children (any teacher can tell you that).” 

            The mentality of our society has changed over time. Is it humanly ethically to give back tax money that was going to be used for schools to the citizens, and then let the people pay for their own education with in the foundation of a free-market approach? It is apparent, given the current mentality, that there will be groups of citizens that will choose to spend that money on different things rather than the education of their children. The next question, if that does happen, how will a large group of children, with uncaring parents or kids that don't want an education affect our economy? Or is that group who wants to live the entitlement society is the same people who choose not to participate in the education system, thereby the size that is already a burden to our economy will be the same size if the free market education system was in place. Is there a line where the people in general just have to accept that those who choose not the education path have the right and freedom to do so? 

            Next is JoAnn Jones, she is a teacher at a community college in Texas. After reading the historical component of this text said this, “Interesting comparison of ancient civilizations to our present day educational system. I agree there is more success where there is free enterprise and competition. Competitive schools will be looking for ways to improve. I was impressed by the statement: “attributed to the wise behavior of its citizens”. Great teaching attributed to the wise behavior of its citizens which would of course attribute to greater teaching, and so on. The ancient Athenians “sought out the education that met their needs and preferences” and in this way they were very involved in their own education, which also contributes to greater teaching. Lessons for us to learn now: free enterprise, competition and parental and student involvement all contribute to a better education.” 
            There is nothing about the concept of education that cannot be solved by a free-market approach to education. Education is a product, and if it is subject to the law of supply and demand, you will have parents and students being to ones who set the guidelines. Rather than the way it is run now. The Governments runs it like a monopoly, just as in economics, the state has little incentive, or competition, to improve education for those receiving it. Our current education system lacks an interconnected network of incentives, which can only be addressed by a free-market approach. 

            I watch a video clip that expresses one of the main problems with the way our current education system is run. As an overview, our education system was created during the industrial revolution, so the main purpose was to teach simple subjects, and then after high school they would go to work in the industrial world. Currently the United States is no longer a major manufacturer. Our system runs like a factory, there is rarely any kind of individual treatment of the students, rather they are looked on as groups. Why back students in age groups, why do classes in the morning, why can’t we have learning in groups or as an individual. Education needs to become more specific on how the student will succeed the best, this outcome is best achieved by the free- market approach, rather than the cookie cutter approach from the government. 

            Why break students up by age? What if 10 out of the 30 students in the classroom work better in the afternoon instead of the morning? What about the fact that many students would like to work by themselves, or that some would like to work in groups? You cannot and will not have creative, innovative, brilliant, and imaginative young adults come out of an industrialized, cookie cutter system of education.

Social Proof: Education
I asked one of my contacts on what she thought about moving to a free-market system of Education. She is a high school mathematics teacher in Texas. She said this,"The problem I see with it is that very few families would actually participate in it because of the costs ... And our workforce would then greatly suffer.
Also most teenagers have zero to no motivation about their futures because they can't see past if they have a date this weekend or if they have the coolest clothes or in some cases where they are going to get their next hit on some drug ... Even if their parents are willing to pay or care about their own child's future which sadly many do not. So you can't count on parents to help motivate their children (any teacher can tell you that)"

My response, "Oh, that makes sense, i do think if any real change in the education is going to occur, their must first me a change on how our society views education. It is a privilege and a blessing, and not just another entitlement from the government."

The mentality of our society has changed over time. Is it humanly ethically to give back tax money that was going to be used for schools to the citizens, and then let the people pay for their own education with in the foundation of a free-market approach? It is apparent, given the current mentality, that their will be groups of citizens that will choose to spend that money on different things rather than the education of their children. The next question, if that does happen, how will a large group of children, with uncaring parents or kids that don't want an education, affect our economy? Is it  then our responsibility to force and provide education for those children? Is there a line where the people in general just have to accept that those who choose not the education path have the right and freedom to do so?

How can we better education, and what manner should we administer it? These questions have been a major concern throughout time. Knowledge of History is a major component on creating a solid and informed decision. From the book Reason in Common Sense, George Santayan said, "Those who fail to
learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them." I have also heard "A wise man learns from the mistakes of others". So we have had centuries of history where people have had the goal of educating their children. In the eyes of the past what is the best approach to education. What creates the highest level of efficiency and creates the best product.

In the United States we currently have a government run system or at least and government dominated system. As time goes by we see that the individual have less and less options. Parent don't have a say in what the curriculum their child has and almost no control on what school they can attend unless they want to spend a lot of money on a private institution. If you look at what other civilizations have tried, and what has been successful it is apparent which system of education provides the most desirable product. In the book Market Education: The Unknown History, The Author argues that free educational markets have consistently done a better job of serving the public's needs than a state-run school systems have. With a free market education schools could be more flexible, more innovative, and more responsive to the needs of parents and students. Just as with almost all other goods and services education works best in a free enterprise system. When parents may choose it and must pay for it, and when
schools may set their own curricula and hire their own teachers and must compete for tuition-paying students, you will see that in general you will receive a better product. The profit motive, it turns out, is the key to high-quality education. That time-honored market motive produces choice and innovation. Since our current system lacks the motivation and the competition needed, we are left with a very unpopular public education system.

What is the proof

Ancient Greece: Athens vs Sparta

Within the same civilization we have examples of an education system run completely by the government and another using a free-market approach. The Athenians assumed that young people and their families had the common sense to seek out the education that served their needs and preferences, and it is logical to assume the same thing of those living in the modern days. The Athenians also searched for persons such as Socrates and others to respond to that demand. Sparta acted on a different assumption. It ripped children from their homes and subjected them to a rigid, state-prescribed education in order to mold them into Spartan warriors, or a mold that the government thought would be best for the children. Is there any doubt
which system was sounder or which contributed more to civilization? Whenever the world thinks of the great Greek philosophers, what comes to mind, are not Spartans. Plato, Aristotle and Socrates are the one that come to mind and participated in the free-market educational system. In Athens the need to attract enough students to remain profitable, however, forced potential instructors to tailor their offerings to reflect parental demands and also required that they keep their fees competitive. The success of Athenian education, as reflected in its impressive literacy rates, economic prosperity, and immense contribution to the Western cultural tradition, can thus be attributed to the wise behavior of its citizens in an open market for knowledge. When there are more freedom's within a society as in Athens, we saw that it led to a vibrant and commercially successful city.

the Republic of Rome: Ex

The Roman's took over much of Greek learning, but it was taught by slaves, who had no incentive to be effective teachers. When the republic failed and the empire took over, rulers increasingly regulated education toward the end of glorifying the emperor. Though Rome was the seat of civilization for a long time, it never really advanced it.

the Ancient Islamic world

While the Dark Ages engulfed Europe, western learning had been transmitted to the Arab world and was alive and well. Education was private and unregulated and advances in the sciences and literature abounded. The Islamic state played little role in education for half a millenium, but in the eleventh century they put their fist down and started suppressing secular and non-muslim education.

Bettering our School System

Within a country’s educational system, the relevant institutions and policies include the ways in which a society finances and manages its schools, how a society assesses student performance, and who is empowered to make basic educational decisions, such as which curricula to follow, which teachers to hire, and what textbooks to purchase. If resources are to be used effectively, policies must create incentives that encourage school personnel to behave in ways that do not necessarily further their own interests. But When there is to much oversight the allocation of resources are no longer preformed at a desired efficiency. Just because you have an increase in resources does not generally raise educational performance.

 SO the question we must ask ourselves why do we score so low, when we spend so much money and resources?

-entitlement society: why work hard when you are given benefits without putting any effort. site (fall of Communist Russia), Fall of the the Current Greek economy. downward trend of the Socialistic mentality of Europe as a whole. The question is weather we want an entitlement society, which throughout history as resulted in failure, or an opportunity society which has made this Country Great(the Economy, Innovation, and Exploration ).
If we want to solve the problems in our country, we must eliminate some of the benefits so that those who like to rely on the welfare state have to start relying on themselves.