Should the education system be privatized?

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  1. preacherdon profile image64
    preacherdonposted 12 years ago

    With the entertainment and sport industries making multimillions of dollars each year and the education industry losing funding and shutting down programs and laying off teachers, should the education of our children be privatized? City budgets are no longer able to provide adequate funding for schools. Perhaps, a block of celebrities, sports icons, and business tycoons can create a multimillion dollar fund from which schools could be manage, supported by or underwritten by government grants. Or perhaps, they could sponsor a system of private schools. I know these come with their own inherant issues, but will the negatives outweigh the benefits? I am also aware that there are a number of private and charter schools out there but are there enough?

    1. profile image0
      adbreaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Although I don't necessarily agree with the educational system we have in schools today, I think if we privatized them alot of people wouldn't h be able to pay for it.

      Private colleges already double and tipple public schools tuition, I can only imagine what would happen if all schools were private.

    2. wba108@yahoo.com profile image77
      wba108@yahoo.composted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Private schools have always provided a better education and they run at a much lower budget than public schools. According to the Constitution state and local governments take care of education not the federal government. This is because the closer the government is to the poeple the more accountable they are and the same is true for education. We definately cannot keep spending what we din education maybe state and local government should provide vouchers for students to go to the school of thier choise, publi or private.

    3. Freegoldman profile image39
      Freegoldmanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      There are loads of advantages if the education system is privatized...bt the major problem will be that it wont lie under the hands of the Govt .which would create disturbance.

    4. LeslieAdrienne profile image70
      LeslieAdrienneposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      We need to get old fashioned with our public schools... put God first, raise our expectations and hold students responsible for their actions....

      We can change the venue (privatization), but it won't help unless we change our educational philosophy.  It is kind of like moving a stinky garbage can from one side of the street to the other... It doesn't matter it still stinks.

  2. Reality Bytes profile image74
    Reality Bytesposted 12 years ago

    There should be tax breaks for people who do send their children to private schools. 

    I believe public education should remain as an alternative but parents should have a choice.  So I would have to say that yes there should be more private schools.  The public schools themselves should be run at the State level.  The Central Government has no idea what the needs are within the States.

    1. Cagsil profile image71
      Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hey Reality, we actually agree on something. smile (j/k) lol

  3. TMMason profile image59
    TMMasonposted 12 years ago

    The education system should be taken back to the local level, remove all the teachers unions and the feds.

  4. dutchman1951 profile image59
    dutchman1951posted 12 years ago

    yes, it should indeed be. The state Goverments have made a mess of it.

    1. Jonathan Janco profile image62
      Jonathan Jancoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The govt at both state and federal levels guts education and makes a mess out of it purely by choice.because they choose to.
      They don't seem to slip up when its time to funnel money off to the banks. There's always funding (miraculously somehow)when its time for elected officials to give themselves a pay raise. And those money pit pet projects that never seem to get done always seem to get started on time. And we never seem to run out of funding for special police agencies who violate our so-called rights ad nauseum. But for some strange reason schools can just go to hell. Private schools are a fine thing, but they survive because the schooling is paid for by private citizens. If we were to totally privatize schools, we'd have the same problems we have now. Affluent districts would have great schools like they do now. Poor districts would have lousy schools like they do now. And if you take a look at the Education budget compared to the overall budget, it wouldnt give the taxpayer much of a break either.

  5. brimancandy profile image79
    brimancandyposted 12 years ago

    No. I don't think it should. I do think that there could certainly be more private schools. The fact that there aren't that many out there proves that there is no interest by private individuals, or corporations to invest in it. Also, private schools would be a very ify institution. As there is no saying  that a privately run school would keep it's doors open if the people involved suddenly decided to pull their funding, or see another use for the school. Such as turning the building into Condos, as has happened with a couple private schools where I live. Those schools used to be public schools.

    Also, how is a parent supposed to know that the private school they are sending their child to would fit on the educational ladder? Some private schools would strive for excellence, while others might do it for the sole purpose of getting butts in the seats, and making a profit off tuition, and what other money they can get from corporate of government funding. While their buildings fall apart, and do little or nothing to improve it, as in a slum school. As we all know that some peope would only get into privatization to get rich, and for no other reason.

    Kids should not have to be subject to buyer beware!!

  6. psycheskinner profile image83
    psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

    How would schools be privatized on masse? They are not meant to make a profit, they are meant to deliver a public service. Private individuals are not necessarily going to do that better than public ones--just look at what happened to the lines and tracks when phone and rail privatized.  In this case the infra-structure is our children.  So we need to tread carefully.

    People complain a lot about the education system, but how are the curricula designed, how well are the kids really doing compared to other countries (public and private-based) and previous years? How do health-and-wealth matched kids do in public versus private and who would pay the difference? Data, before decisions IMHO.

  7. Dolores Monet profile image93
    Dolores Monetposted 12 years ago

    The goal of any private business is to make money. How are you going to make money off the education of poor people?

    Also, in public school, the education of special needs children is mandated. In private school it is not. Big difference in educational outcome and expense.

    1. cattleships profile image68
      cattleshipsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      A  501 3(c)... a non-profit. Or a Catholic or Jewish or other religious organization. Or maybe George Soros can find it in his "heart" to actually help some people out... which I seriously doubt. Education is not within the federal government's purview. Money, especially federal money, does not help. People who respect themselves help people who are disadvantaged. And they don't need to be forced to do it by a government. And they don't need recognition like politicians do. Privatization would work wonders for American education.

  8. knolyourself profile image60
    knolyourselfposted 12 years ago

    The schools owned by Goldman Sacks - that
    should be great. There is trillions in profit for them so the push is on.

  9. cattleships profile image68
    cattleshipsposted 12 years ago

    I posited the question a while back: Do you have the right to a job, a house, health care? I should have included "an education" in that question. And that's what it boils down to. Rights. In my humble opinion, no one has a "right" to any of these things in the same sense as a "right" to life, or liberty, or property they own freely. What Americans have a right to is to "pursue" a job, a house, health care, and an education... a "right to pursue happiness".

    Now, that said, I think that our government, in the original American sense, was created with the "protection" of its citizens in mind; not the "control" of its citizens, as is what it has evolved into today; not so much through Congressional legislation, but through U. S. Supreme Court holdings against the right of "Liberty of Contract". Part of that government control has been accomplished through "education" or, rather, the "political institutionalization" of education and its ensuing bureaucratic inappropriateness; that is, the change in its primary goal from educating to just existing; because the people who are the bureaucracy, who taxpayers pay for, need to keep their jobs. As far back as the late '70's, high school students within public school systems who couldn't even read or write, let alone do math, were being given diplomas. Yet everyone in the educational bureaucracy kept their jobs. What does that tell you?

    When the our government gets involved in anything other than protecting our Constitutional rights and our individual freedoms, we need to take notice. Unfortunately, that didn't happen... as far back as the first decade of the twentieth century. Now the states and the Federal government are trying to squelch privatized education. Actually, they're trying to squelch anything that is privatized... so, yes, privatized education should be, not only "allowed", it should be the law of the land.

  10. thaivalentine profile image60
    thaivalentineposted 12 years ago

    In order to emphasize the failure and inefficiency of publicly managed institutions, consider the failure of legalized gambling in New York State.  The state's race tracks and Off Track Betting facilities were losing money - can you imagine what organized crime thought of this.  So how does this apply to education, well consider the american education system.  It's no longer the envy of the world as the unions have destroyed accountability. 

    One of the reasons companies are people are successful is the fear of failure and losing their job.  However, if you are an a teacher at a unionized school district you don't need to worry.  Just punch-in everyday and count the days till your retirement and pension kick in.

    1. brimancandy profile image79
      brimancandyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's a bunch of political balony. There are a lot of great teachers in the teachers unions. The only reasons people are against the teachers unions is because they believe the republican lies that Union teachers are making too much money. Claiming the average teachers salary is $80,000.00 plus benfits. Where at Yale? maybe Harvard? where are they getting these numbers from. I know a lot of teachers and not one of them makes more that $30,000.00 a year, I know one that has a salary of $17,000.00 a year.

      The only reason they want to end teachers unions is so that colleges and Unversities can get teachers for pennies on the dollar. But, what they aren't banking on, is that it is the unions and benefits that still draw people into wanting to be teachers. Without those benefits, teaching a class full of obnoxious teenagers with the possibility of them going postal and taking out the class, would not be something they would risk.

      teachers in unions have just as much fear of losing their jobs as anyone in the private sector, as some schools hire and lay off teachers according to need, and the size of the classroom. Senior teachers get the most breaks, but , they also have a lot of pressure on the to take early retirement, and being moved into open teaching positions based on need. The newest teachers usually end up with grade school, or whatever is left over when the school year begins...But, as the years go on for that teacher, they can breath somewhat easier, as there will always be someone leaving, and new teachers coming in to replace them.

      A privately run school, with no union, would claim that they are looking out for their students, by only hiring the best teachers, but, wouldn't bat an eye at having them coming and going like a revolving door to keep their costs down, and make a profit. Something our kids don't need. And, thinking that this would be good for everyone, is wrong, as the poor would not even be considered in a private school, even though some of them are very smart. Money does not equal smart.

      I have met a lot of rich kids who go to private schools, and they are almost all lazy, living on mom and dads paycheck, and dumb as a brick.

  11. Jonathan Janco profile image62
    Jonathan Jancoposted 12 years ago

    Teachers also (especially the good ones) really work their butts off to motivate their students, reassure hysterical parents, plan lessons, deal with the beauracracies of principals, school admins, so on. Not to mention the compounded stress during the busier part of the school year or when all of these issues come up at once. And their reward is ignorant people saying they are sponging off of the system for daring to say they are underpaid.

  12. mikelong profile image60
    mikelongposted 12 years ago

    The public school system in the United States was designed for the youth of the wealthy solely...  And then it was only the "elite" we had the best schools...

    As "separate but equal" was knocked down and desegregation implemented we also see a corresponding "flight" of "white" students out of public schools and into private institutions....and of course, we see the enclavisation of many white communities away from areas now predominantly populated by non-whites...  Being that "whites", relatively speaking, make more money, their neighborhoods tend to have nicer, better equipped and funded public schools...(and I have witnessed this myself)...

    The failure of our public school system is not the union....as Mr. McCarthy always tries to argue...(what else can he say? He won't point out what I have here...so he has to blame someone)

    The emphasis on standardized testing and curriculum needs to be thrown out of the window...  The leeches (like the publishing houses) who suck education funds away from the classroom need to be cut off....  And our philosophy behind education needs to shift...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkPvSCq5ZXk

    But, we have to tackle the real problems...

  13. profile image0
    jomineposted 12 years ago

    Whether you got public or private schools, what are you going to teach them? Te be clerks, to respect and follow authorities?

  14. dutchman1951 profile image59
    dutchman1951posted 12 years ago

    I am begining to think yes. Goverment can not handel it adaquitly any more I believe.

  15. gramarye profile image61
    gramaryeposted 12 years ago

    I'd like to see community based schooling - similar to home schooling but with several families joining together.

 
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