Rep. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, who will be the next House speaker, last week proposed a constitutional amendment that would let any public school student in Florida get a voucher to attend private school. Alarm at the prospect is bipartisan. "The effect it would have," said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, "is to basically drive a stake through the heart of public education."
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Florida Voucher Update
What do Florida Republicans think about Jeb's constitutiional amendment on vouchers? A clip from an editorial in the Palm Beach Post:
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Why is the State (government, generally) in the education business at all? The education industry is not a natural monopoly, and beyond a very low level, there are no economies of scale at the delivery end of the education business as it currently operates. Natural monopoly and economies of scale are the usual arguments for State operation of an industry.
ReplyDeleteEducation only marginally qualifies as a "public good" as economists use the term, and the "public goods" argument implies subsidy and regulation, at most, not State operation of school.
We are all public citizens and private individuals. People do not become more intelligent, compassionate, or capable when they enter the State's employment rolls. I make less of teh public/private distinction than most, and less of the for-profit/non-profit distimction than most. The most important institutional variable related to student success at school is the range of options available to parents (in early years) and students (in later years). Factors which reduce the range of options (large school districts, State-wide collective bargaining, State-wide mandated curriculum, etc.) reduce an individual parent's power to match a school's curriculum and method of instruction to his/her child's interests and aptitudes. '
Vouchers enhance the range of options available to parents for the use of the taxpayers' K-12 education subsidy.