With the exception of special incentives (like extra money for providing lunch), the schools are state controlled. There is no such thing as, " government socialist near monopoly".
The above is a straight-forward self-contradiction. It doesn't matter what level of government runs the near monopoly in a given area.
The lunch program in Hillsdale has been privatized. Despite government subsidized food, the superior product that has resulted, despite several different companies, is inedible garbage. The curriculum in Michigan Public Schools is that which is demanded by the parents...through voting and electing the state government (which sometimes is Republican/Conservative), and the policies set by the elected school board. The state sets minimal requirements for the curriculum. So, an actual difference between Public Schools and private in this area are perception rather than fact.
I don't know any of the details in the cited case, but when government is substantially involved, nothing will work. Simply outsourcing this or that function, probably to the politically connected, while maintaining the overall semi-monopoly, has absolutely nothing to do with what I propose.
I have worked in several different occupations, other than teaching. In each occupation, I was surprised to find several former teachers. It would seem (although I have no data), that there are more former teachers than any other profession (I have never met a former Lawyer, Doctor, Dentist, etc.). Therefore, I have concluded that (and actually witnessed) many teachers quiting in the first couple of years of teaching. Pay and working conditions to result in low retention as it is. With privatization, many more would leave
You're arguing against yourself and don't realize it. The government school regime is horrendous, and of course it drives teachers away. To go from that and say privatization would drive more out is just bald-faced illogic. Like saying "bill couldn't do the job so I fired him, and therefore I won't hire mary, a completely different person who has a proven track record of doing things well."
and there would be a significant teacher shortage for those private schools(there are teacher shortages in some areas now).
Absolutely nonsense. Excellent young teachers might clear $100,000. They wouldn't languish under the irrational seniority system. Incompetents would at last be driven out, vastly improving education. Facilities would improve as would every other aspect under the spur of competition. Problem students would be booted out and not allowed to disrupt classes. The paperwork load dumped on teachers by incompetent administrators would be hugely streamlined. Many more people would be attracted to the profession after all the nonsense permitted in the government schools was cleared away.
Good luck with basing pay on teacher performance.
That's the way the vast majority of jobs work, but for some mysterious reason you exclude teachers.
No one can agree on what the characteristics of a "good teacher" are. Popular with the students? Popular with the administrators? (The principals main squeeze would get good evaluations). Teachers who had students with good grades? (Teachers would grade high to produce them.) It comes down to popularity or introduces factors that can easily be manipulated.
Your brain has been destroyed by the K12 system.
What matters is OUTCOMES, as determined by test scores on tests given by independent testing firms hired by parents.
Just like competition has eliminated huge salaries and bonuses for CEO's in business and banking? Dream on.
More incredible cognitive dissonance from you. Contrary to what you've been brainwashed with by the lib media, those people EARN the huge salaries. If you can create billions of dollars in revenue for a corporation, they would be happy to pay YOU hundreds of millions of dollars.
Non-performing teachers can be fired in Michigan now. It has not produced better schools.
That's only one aspect of the corrupt, anachronistic, failed government system. If they can fire teachers, that's like patching one hole in a very leaky old boat. We need a new boat.
In Michigan, we have "schools of choice", they can go to any school they wish. It has not changed anything.
A choice to go to any government school you want is no choice at all.
Four or more kids and the middle class becomes the poor class. This has nothing to do with better schools, this has to do with funding.
If people make irresponsible choices in life, like having children they can't pay for, they end up poor - not quantum mechanics. Schools should not be organized around the behavior of the irresponsible.
Schools will do anything to keep student head counts up. A private school would also need the head count for the money.
That's right, and in a market system, the only way they can do that is by offering a superior product,
which is the whole point.
Also, there has to be a lengthy process to satisfy the constitutional right for a child to have an education. They just cannot be expelled arbitrarily.
The claim of such a right is an utterly lawless invention - no such right is in the US constitution. But in any case if the compensation offered by parents is high enough, special schools will be created by the market to handle such students.
When you put it that way, it really sounds good. Have you ever considered becoming a teacher?
I have been one.
