All Posts Tagged With: "education"
Education Is the Effect, Not the Cause, of Affluence
Despite its abysmal record, the United Nations wears a mantle of legitimacy in the popular discourse. Almost every daily newspaper or nightly newscast reports some UN-sponsored agency’s activities regarding world hunger, climate change, disease, or some other problem. All too often the UN is on the wrong side of reality. Take its latest “solution” to [...]
7Jul2010 | Jude Blanchette | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey
Growing up in a fairly poor family in rural Manitoba, David Henderson would have seemed an unlikely candidate for the authorship of one of the most resounding libertarian books to come along in years. But an innate sense that there was something valuable in having the freedom to live one’s life according to one’s own [...]
30Jun2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedMarket-Based Higher Education
As experience continues to prove that private industry can do things more cost effectively and with better customer satisfaction than governmental entities, debate has shifted to what functions are appropriately in the government’s realm. Over the past several decades various institutions have arisen to challenge the notion that higher education is among the activities that [...]
29Jun2010 | Keith Wade | 1 comment | ContinuedE.G. West: Champion of the Market for Education
(Editor’s Note: Professor E. G. West, the distinguished economist and historian of education, died last October 6 at the age of 79. His most recent articles in this magazine, “The Spread of Education Before Compulsion: Britain and America in the Nineteenth Century” and “Classical Libertarian Compromises on State Education,” appeared in the July and October [...]
29Jun2010 | Charles K. Rowley | 0 comments | ContinuedR. C. Hoiles and Public Schooling
In a letter dated May 23, 1946, the libertarian publisher R. C. Hoiles wrote to Leonard E. Read, who would establish the Foundation for Economic Education later that same year. Hoiles advised Read on what he believed was the underlying cause of America’s alarming shift from individual liberty toward socialism: I am inclined to think [...]
20May2010 | Wendy McElroy | 2 comments | ContinuedForgotten Lines
In the January 23, 2010, Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle, one of the clues was “Sassy reply to criticism.” The answer: “It’s a free country.” Why do I find this so striking? For two reasons. First, when I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, not many people around me considered that a sassy reply. [...]
20Apr2010 | David R. Henderson | 4 comments | ContinuedPositive Rights as Means Not Ends
Even though the House passed so-called “health care reform,” the debate over “entitlements” will not be going away. This is especially true if, as I believe, the bill makes things worse not better.
25Mar2010 | Steven Horwitz | 15 comments | ContinuedThe Beautiful Tree
In the poorest parts of the world you’ll find private education. From Ghana to India to China, private schools are sprouting up everywhere. There are new schools opening where none were before. There are also new schools where government “free” schools already exist but languish. Why? Simple: Parents want the best for their children. They [...]
24Mar2010 | Max Borders | 2 comments | ContinuedMy New Hero
A superintendent voids a union contract, fires all the teachers, becomes my personal hero. Of course she can hire the good ones back, but it will be under a new contract.
25Feb2010 | Mike Van Winkle | 2 comments | ContinuedWe Don’t Need No State Education
Finally ending the State’s monopoly — which means taking away the money — will let us bring education back to human scale, with all the respect for individuality that this implies.
19Feb2010 | Sheldon Richman | 17 comments | ContinuedMontessori, Dewey and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market In Education
For years, school-choice proponents have assessed and reassessed the possibilities of expanding government support for vouchers. Jerry Kirkpatrick’s Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market in Education is a refreshing alternative to those tired discussions of political coalitions, legislative machinations, and disparate school-choice programs. Indeed, Kirkpatrick’s book is one of the first [...]
15Oct2009 | Terry Stoops | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Complete Idiot’s Guide to Economics
For years the series of Complete Idiot’s Guide books has been a great commercial success, dealing mostly with “practical” topics as varied as dog training and wedding planning. Useful to be sure, but not exactly intellectually stimulating. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Global Economics, by economist Craig Hovey and former FEE staff member Gregory Rehmke, [...]
19Aug2009 | George C. Leef | 5 comments | ContinuedHigher Education in America: Individualism or Central Planning?
In education individual decisions are determinative. Each person (for children, with the assistance of parents) is able to choose the best kind and the ideal duration of education. That is why it’s foolish to talk about the “national education level” as too low or too high. There is no “national level.” If any individual should decide that he would benefit from more education, he will act accordingly. There is no more need for government action here than on the “national fitness level” or “national artistic level.”
21May2009 | George C. Leef | 3 comments | ContinuedIn Praise of Educational Pluralism
I often hear it said that if the government did not determine what our children are taught, we would have no way to assure they learned the right things. The idea here is that every child deserves a proper education and that, although government education has its share of problems, at least we can keep [...]
20Jan2009 | Danny Shahar | 3 comments | ContinuedCharacter Crisis Origin in Government Schools
Seven faculty and staff at Spirit Creek Middle School in Augusta, GA have recently been implicated in a sex scandal that was being carried out on school premises during school hours. With principals, teachers, and coaches like these, is it any wonder that so many students are becoming adults with corrupt moral compasses? This is [...]
11Dec2008 | Mason Drake | 0 comments | ContinuedMarshall Fritz, 1943-2008
Marshall Fritz, my friend, constant source of inspiration, and a Freeman author, died earlier this month at age 65 after a long struggle against cancer. Marshall was founder of both the Advocates for Self-Government and the Alliance for the Separation for School and State. It was in the latter context that he and I worked [...]
14Nov2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued-
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