John Stossel is my favorite TV news guy.  I don’t always agree with him (usually do though) but I find his reporting to be thoughtful and I enjoy that he takes on everyday issues from a kind of common-sense point of view.

Earlier this year he took on public schools in his piece “Stupid in America” and once again I found myself agreeing with him.  He points out that we pay way too much for sub-par education and he feels that the best way to fix the problem is let parents choose the schools their kids go to.  Amen, brother.

Each year we get to see a multitude of new teachers via our kids.  You can always tell which teachers are engaging the kids because those are the subjects they talk about.  Usually, but not always, their grades are better in those classes but they always LEARN more in those classes.  Fortunately we’ve found the vast majority of their teachers to be at least average and some to be very good.

When we moved here we limited our search to a very finite area because of the schools.  It was the number one driver of our decision and we were fortunate that we had the flexibility to choose our location based on school performance. If we didn’t then I’d want the opportunity to get my kids into a decent school on my own.  Hey if I’m going to pay the bills (taxes) then I should be able to say where I’m getting the service.  And if you don’t give me that choice then you should set it up so I can be part of the hiring/firing process.  One way or another there needs to be accountability and the best way I know is the free-market system.  Perform or go out of business.

Our school system, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, is actually pretty progressive, providing parents with the opportunity to pick between two or three alternate schools if they don’t like their child’s “home” school. They call it “controlled choice.”, and they even provide busing to the alternate schools. It’s not perfect because you’re still stuck if all the choices stink, but still it’s better than most school systems I’ve heard of. 

I’d personally like to see a system similar to what they have in western Europe (it’s described in Stossel’s piece) where each student basically has a price tag on them.  The school that attracts that student gets that student’s funding, so the schools are highly motivated to keep their customers, the students’ parents, happy. With that one fundamental change I think you’d make things like “No Child Left Behind” unnecessary since the parents would be able to leave the underperforming schools behind.

Unfortunately I think there will be ice skating in hell before that happens.