Have you ever noticed an intersection where there’s a McDonalds on one corner and a Burger King on another? Or an Exxon station located directly across the street from a Chevron station? Or a Holiday Inn a block up the street from a Hampton Inn? Do you ever wonder why that is? I mean, why don’t these businesses just operate like our government schools: only one per neighborhood?
Because competition works. It improves service. It lowers prices for consumers. And it winnows out bad operators. Public schools, on the other hand, don’t like competition. In fact, they’re scared to death of it. Ever wonder why that is?
I mean, if the public schools are as wonderful as education bureaucrats and union officials say they are, why fear competition and giving parents the same choices in education as they have for, say, health care? The government doesn’t pick your child’s doctor; why should it pick your child’s teacher?
Recognizing that school choice is gaining more and more public support, some school districts are experimenting with what they consider to be parental options. For example, the Clark County school district is currently testing an “open enrollment” pilot program which allows the parents of kids in public schools in the county’s worst region to transfer their kids to any school of their choice – as long as it’s another public school.
Some choice, huh? “Yes, Mr. Jones, you may have any color you want for your new car – as long as it’s black.”
Lo and behold, only 45 students have applied to transfer out of one public school and into a different public school in a far-away neighborhood. Go figure. The excuse for the low response rate given by school district bureaucrats is the lack of “free” taxpayer-funded transportation available to bus kids from the neighborhood public school they’d like to flee to the new school. This excuse, by definition, means we have poor kids trapped in underperforming schools from which there is currently no escape.
The education establishment’s “solution” to this “problem,” of course, will be to take more of the taxpayers’ money to provide “free” transportation. But that won’t fix the problem. What parent wants to bus their kid all the way over to the other side of town?
The real solution, of course, is to have a competitive private elementary school in the same neighborhood as the existing public elementary school. Then and only then will parents have real school choice. But that brings up the real problem: cost.
How can private schools compete with “free” schools? They can’t, of course. Except with parents who are well off financially. So the only way to encourage more people to open private schools in more neighborhoods so kids won’t have to be bussed all over God’s creation is to level the playing field. And that means reallocating the money we’re currently giving directly to the public schools and instead giving it directly to parents to use as they see fit.
If thousands of parents are suddenly waving, say, $5,000 tuition assistance checks in the air demanding a private school in their neighborhood, some private school will find a way to meet that demand. I mean, that’s just what the free market does. It sees a demand and fills it. And the ensuing competition will be good for the public school across the street. As Sharon Caplan, principal of the public Don E. Hayden Elementary School in North Las Vegas said last week, “Competition anywhere is a good thing.” Amen.
It’s time to give real competition and real choice in education a real chance.
Posted on March 20th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
I’d like to see your business plan to implement this. Seriously. How much will it cost to compete with a k-5 elementary school? Where do you get financing for brick/mortar/supplies/administrator/teachers while waiting for the first check to come in?
Doesn’t Nevada already allow this? Why are there not an equal number of private schools in the private sector as public schools? What is the difference beween a private school and a charter school? Is a church school a private school?
For a minute there, Doug, I thought you were kidding. But apparently you’re serious. OK, then…
You are apparently unaware of the fact that one can open and operate a school successfully in a church basement or a storefront rented in a neighborhood shopping center to get the ball rolling. You don’t need multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded educational Taj Mahals to teach kids. Indeed, there’s an old saying about needing nothing more than a committed teacher, a good book and a shade tree to provide a quality education.
Of course Nevada allows private schools. It doesn’t encourage them, but it allows them. Why aren’t there more private schools? Because parents have to not only pay their taxes to subsidize the public schools, but they have to pay additional tuition if they want to send their kids to a private school. Well-to-do folks can afford it. Low-to-middle class families can’t. So they have no choice right now but to send their kids to the “free” government schools.
A charter school is a public school subject to many of the same asinine restrictions and regulations of the regular public schools. For example, the Nevada State Board of Education recently imposed a ban on approving any new charter schools in the state, despite waiting lists to get into many existing charters. It’s obvious that the government doesn’t even like school choice within its own system.
Private schools, on the other hand, aren’t controlled by the public school bureaucracy. They operate independently. Including private schools which are religious in nature.
The business plan is simple. Give low-to-middle income parents tuition assistance - similar to the GI Bill and Pell Grants - comensurate with the per-pupil amount of money currently going to the public school if the parent wants to opt-out of the government school system. If the parents have the money to pay for the private school tuition, you’ll see more private schools open to serve them. But unless the parents are given the money and the choice first, there’s no incentive to open more private schools that poor and middle-class families can’t afford.
I hope this answers your questions.
Chuck,
Any news on the Nevada school choice initiative?
Keep spreading the gospel of Uncle Milton, Chuck.
Everyone should watch this video, it’s from the National Right to Work Legal Foundation.
Explains unions evilness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYaZx6kAL0M
5,000 X 30= $150,000. Muth, being of sound mind, renowned intellect, and magnetic personality, has thrity parents begging him to take their, say, ten year olds off their hands for a few hours. He then rents a room in a church, invests in a few supplies, such as chains and leg irons at about ten thousand dollars, pays the church 15,000 dollars for their facilities, and pockets 125,000 grand for whipping Muth math, English, and philosophy upon them. You might even elect to take advantage of poor high-school or university students to assist with tutoring the occasional reluctant victim.
Or perhaps you are the kind of person who is married to a school bureaucrat and doesn’t need the money, so you would wish to take ten students at home and settle for only what public school teachers make. The possibilites are, literally, endless. But when one is the product of the public schools, that is impossible to see.
James (if that is your real name), please try writing this again in a way where people can actually understand your point.
So private schools don’t get ANY public money, but charter schools do? How much public money does a charter school in Nevada get per student? Is this amount split between local government revenue and state revenue?
Chuck, since each Nevada school and district receives different funding from state/local government, would the subsidy for a private school be based on the specificspending per student in the public school that the private school will compete against?
And, as I read your response, Chuck, I assume that the investor would have to find funding to secure all the items Doug mentioned and trust in the free market? How much capital do you think one would have to secure? I think you are right though, if this was opened up to the private world, many, many retired tand experienced teachers (cheap labor) may pour into the private world.
I think Nevada should have pilot programs for each of the three school levels immediatley!
James,
I’ll play along, too (but, mine is a bit more serious as there are no leg irons involved)! My premise is grades 1-8, with 10 kids and 1 teacher per grade, plus 1 administrator for the whole thing.
A. 2,000 sf area for classrooms, facilities and office @ $1.25/sf lease= $30,000/yr;
B. Utilities, office supplies, janitorial supplies and student supplies=$18,300;
C. Insurance= $2,500;
D. Text books @5/studentsx$25eachx80students amotorized over three years=$3,333;
E. 8 Teachers@$15/hr for 48 weeks@8hr/day (plus social security, medicare, unemployment, workers comp, NO benefits)=$231,000;
F. Administrator/secretary @ $20/hr (all of E issues the same)= $38,000;
All of the above comes to $323,133.
The average spending in Nevada is $7,500 per student. So, our school of 80 students would get $600,000 from state/local government. Our per pupil spending is only $4,039, leaving an additional $3,461/student in reserve! This reserve of $276,867 can be used to paydown the start up costs and incentivize staff (they also have to clean the place after all).
Even @ $20/hr per teacher (some $36,000/yr), there would be $220,000 left over in the budget!
Even @ $30/hr per teacher (almost $60,000/yr), there would be $46,000 left over in the budget!
These things would flourish like 7-11s back in the day! An additional bonus would be a significant decrease in bonding requirements ($9,000,000,000 proposed in Clark Couonty in 2008) as the need for more public brick and mortar schools would decrease.
Chuck, is “standing right” telling us you got an initiative started? Or is it soon to be?