Socialism Still Fashionable Among the Educationistas
27 August 2006
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
You assert that "the quality of the teacher corps is more crucial to school reform than anything else" ("Exploding the Charter School Myth," August 27). This claim makes no more sense than would a claim that, say, the quality of the engineering corps is more crucial than anything else to improving the economic performance of North Korea.
Just as economies perform better as they become less politicized and more competitive - as each consumer enjoys more direct and meaningful choices over which suppliers to patronize and which to abandon - schools will perform better only if teachers and administrators confront real incentives to perform well as judged by parents. Such incentives are impossible when schools are run by bureaucrats, overseen by politicians, are fully financed by taxpayers, face little competition, and have captive customers who pay nothing directly for the "services" they are forced to consume.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
You assert that "the quality of the teacher corps is more crucial to school reform than anything else" ("Exploding the Charter School Myth," August 27). This claim makes no more sense than would a claim that, say, the quality of the engineering corps is more crucial than anything else to improving the economic performance of North Korea.
Just as economies perform better as they become less politicized and more competitive - as each consumer enjoys more direct and meaningful choices over which suppliers to patronize and which to abandon - schools will perform better only if teachers and administrators confront real incentives to perform well as judged by parents. Such incentives are impossible when schools are run by bureaucrats, overseen by politicians, are fully financed by taxpayers, face little competition, and have captive customers who pay nothing directly for the "services" they are forced to consume.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Sunday May 13, 2007 at 12:15pm