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De-funding the weakest schools is something that is being tried in the US and will (preductably) not lead to better education for all but to an exacerbation of inequalities in education. In countries that don't have a commitment to uniformly good public education you have "postcode lotteries" or strong pressures for families to move close to "good" schools, condemning people without the ability to move to substandard education.

Your model would condemn an underclass to substandard health care by abandoning the commitment to uniformly good public health provision.

And by "uniformly good" I don't mean that everything should be the same, but that everyone should have access to a local facility of a certain minimum standard.

You reason as if health care were a consumer good, or a lifestyle service - no different from hairdressers...

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buitler

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 08:54:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Talking about schools we have that thing happening in Sweden. Because of the utter mismanagement of our public school system during the last few decades, parents have been taking their kids out of public schools and putting them into private (publicly-financed) schools. This in turn is forcing the public schools to become better, or go under. This is a good thing, not a bad. Hospitals and schools aren't the important thing, patients and pupils are, and they're voting with their feet.

Also, observe that it's not just the kids who're put into private schools who become better off, but the ones who stay in the improving public schools are also better off.

Personally I went to public schools. One was horrible, one was semi-good, and one was excellent.

In the best of worlds (ie Finland) we would only have public schools, and they would all be great. But just like when it comes to our healthcare system, such an outcome is impossible for political reasons, and this is the second best alternative.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 09:03:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Private schools engage in cream skimming. Whether that gives better results for the public schools is decidedly questionable.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 09:15:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Cream skimming?

At least in our system, each pupil has a check, kind of. This check is given to the school of the pupils choice. There's no other mode of financing the schools.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 09:24:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Private schools can expel or refuse to admit students who have behavioural issues and/or academically challenged. Public schools can't.

I don't know what you call that, but I call it cream skimming.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 09:31:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]
They can't in Sweden.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 09:39:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh? Then what's the difference between a private and a public school?

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 11:24:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Public schools are run and owned by the local authority ("kommun") while private schools ("friskolor") are run and owned by private interests, often the teachers and or the principal.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 11:42:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
and of course that creates another housing bubble with rising prices round the prestigious schools.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 09:04:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Nope. We abolished the system of kids going to school in the closest school some years ago. Now those who have the highest grades go to their schools of choice. That only applies to lycée (when you're 16-18), but anyway...

And really... the best school I went to was when I was 16-18. It was an inner city school with great reputation, long history, and so on. So was the most horrible school I went to, when I was 7-11 years old. And the semi-good one, when I was 12-15.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Tue May 26th, 2009 at 09:08:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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