I will not comment on whether or not Patrick Byrne is ethical or not. But I will chime in on the voucher issue. We tend to believe that if the government performs a function, that it is the sole entity that should perform that function...As in Government Education. Unfortunately that assumption or belief does not make it so.
We find people constantly worried or complaining about the quality of the education that their children are receiving, requesting additional varied services, worried about declining test results, etc.
And those same people think that those things can be legislated. But that is just not so.
We find time and time again that corrective programs are instituted at our government schools and as they continually fail it is usually claimed that they lacked the funding to properly execute the program and they appeal for additional funds to attempt the program again the following year.
The same is not true in a private system. If the private system engages in a new program that is continually unsuccessful their profitability is effected and they will either quickly fix or remove the program unless they don't desire to be in business anymore. They also realize that it is in their best interest to only get engaged in programs that will their students and parents actually endorse.
The Efficiency and Accountability in a open/free market is so much better then anything that can be legislated from the top down. I also believe that the efficiency will be forced to increase in our government schools as a result of having vouchers that allow a greater number of families to participate in private education programs.
you had the comments from a commentator that stated:
One of the most amazing facts about the money being spent on the November voucher referendum was published in this morning's Trib but it wasn't inside the big story, it was at the very end of it:
If all the money spent on the referendum campaign so far went directly to the classroom, it would have:
* Paid to educate 380 Utah public school students;
* OR covered the annual costs of 17 average-sized classrooms;
* OR funded a year's education, with plenty left over, of all 310 students enrolled last year in the Piute School District.
* OR provided 1,143 private-school vouchers, with a mean value of $1,750.
the sad part is that with the inefficiency in our governmental schools, there is almost no way that that money would have made it to that many children, most of the money earmarked for education is eaten up by redundant and wasteful administration leaving only a pittance of that amount that will actually make it to an actual teacher or classroom. The Governmental School System is always begging for more money, but the truth is that money is not the problem. Double the amount of funding to our schools and you will still have the same arguments within months of awarding the increase. Give them more money and they will find some way to be irresponsible with
Commenting by HaloScan
