This is another in the “What I’d do if I were Governor” posts…
My preferred way to handle schooling is to have parents pay for it and require children attend til age 18 or until they pass an adult competency test.
Pretty simple plan isn’t it? I like it. And guess what… I’m living by it now! I pay for my two kids private and home schooled education. And… so you know, I also pay directly for about 8 other kids education that aren’t even mine. And… so you know, I also pay indirectly for a few million other kid that I never even heard of.
I like my plan so far, except for the part where I pay for a bureaucracy to mishandle millions of other people’s kids. What I buy directly I value more and monitor more.
Below I’ll answer your inane questions…
But Ken… I’ve got 8 kids and can’t afford it.
Not my problem. Find a scholarship. Take a loan. Adopt out some of them.
But Ken… my property taxes are just $800, it’s cheaper.
You pay taxes your whole life. Your kids only go to school 12 years. Distribute your 12 years of schooling over your adult life and it beats property taxes. If you have a cash flow problem, choose a cheaper school or borrow and spread out the payments. And since it isn’t a government bureaucracy it will be cheaper than per pupil spending is now.
But Ken… it benefits everybody, so everybody should pay
Under my scheme everybody does pay. Very few people don’t have children, and I’d be glad to hit childless adults for a scholarship fund if it makes you happy.
But Ken… I value varsity sports.
Good. Pay for it yourself.
But Ken…. question interrupted
Look shut up, I don’t care what you say you value. You clearly don’t value schooling if you want somebody else to decide how it is given to your kids. This is OBVIOUS. So shut up, or go back to school and learn to think. They are YOUR kids, you should DECIDE what their schooling is. Do you let somebody else dress them? Feed them? Discipline them? Get real, schooling need be assisted by experts in certain areas (algebra, so forth), but you need to be in charge.
March 4th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
An expert is a person with a PhD who is acceptable as a fact analyzer in a court of law. If you passed algebra in high school you can teach it to your kids by staying one page ahead of them in a textbook. Same with any subject. If you didn’t pass you’ll have to pay a tutor, not a public school teacher.
I agree that childless adults should pay for tuition scholarships and any necessary dorm living expenses and board, but only for the brightest college kids. Tuition grants would have no means test. Alumni would support all big time teams. No passing grade, no play big time. All students play one intramural sport for as long as it takes to graduate.