All Posts Tagged With: "government schooling"

Public Schools through the Public Choice Lens

Regarding the state of government (“public”) schooling in the United States today, two facts stand out. The first is that the average amount of money spent per pupil has dramatically increased during the past 35 years and is now one of the highest in the world, and the second is that student achievement, by both [...]

22Sep2010 | Michael Bors | 7 comments | Continued

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 | Continued

The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn

In the endless debates over political correctness, champions of PC like to argue that their foes exaggerate the harm it causes. If you study the issue closely, you’ll find that political correctness is not as bad as you think it is—it’s much worse. Diane Ravitch found out this unwholesome truth in 1998. A prominent education [...]

7Jul2010 | Martin Morse Wooster | 1 comment | Continued

The Worm in the Apple

Just as a government monopoly in postal service would be a bad idea even in the absence of postal-worker unions, so would “public education” be a bad idea even in the absence of teacher unions. There can be no doubt, however, that the major teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of [...]

5Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 5 comments | Continued

The Harsh Truth About Public Schools

Prepare for a mind-altering experience as you take a scary but empowering read through Bruce Shortt’s book The Harsh Truth About Public Schools. The reader should not be deceived by what seems an overwhelmingly sectarian starting point in this well-organized, reader-friendly book. Shortt’s style is highly effective in convincing readers that the “public school” system [...]

18May2010 | David L. Littmann | 2 comments | Continued

Where Does Your Vote Really Count?

To encourage us to participate in the political process, we are told that every vote counts. That is true if one is adding up the total votes, but what is the likelihood of any one person’s vote affecting the outcome of a presidential election? Simply put, it is equal to the probability that the person’s [...]

1Apr2009 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

In 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 | Continued

In Praise of an Uncommon Woman

Popular literature is full of praises for “the common man,” but I am much more impressed by the men and women who stand apart from the crowd. Some wise observer once said that only three kinds of people exist in the world: a very few who make things happen, a somewhat larger number who watch [...]

1Dec2007 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | Continued

Big Government–Big Risk

In his Freeman column last June, “The End Run to Freedom,” economist Russell Roberts makes the following argument: As people get wealthier, they demand more security. Their demand for security leads many people to favor the welfare state or the nanny state. The welfare state refers to a government that subsidizes people who bear losses; [...]

1Jan2007 | David R. Henderson | 11 comments | Continued

Grutter v. Bollinger: A Constitutional Embarrassment

“All animals are created equal—but some are more equal than others.” So goes the crucial line in George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Grutter v. Bollinger makes one think of that line, since it gives constitutional approval to the policies used at many colleges and universities that group applicants by [...]

1Nov2003 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued

Government Education Reinvents Government

Perhaps the most important principle one can ever learn about the nature of government is this: It is different from all other institutions in society because it is the only one that can legally employ force. Unfortunately, it is a principle that has been largely erased from the American memory bank. More than a hundred [...]

1Dec1999 | Lawrence W. Reed | 4 comments | Continued

The Central Fallacy of Public Schooling

Daniel Hager is a writer in Lansing, Michigan. When World War II ended, Congress authorized a tax cut to take effect January 1, 1946. Young America, a publication distributed through public schools, ran an article in its December 13, 1945, issue discussing the measure and presenting a brief history of American taxation. The article concluded [...]

1Sep1999 | Daniel Hager | 14 comments | Continued

Educational Savior?

Daniel Hager is a freelance writer in Lansing, Michigan. George S. Counts is not a widely recognized figure in twentieth-century American education, but he was extremely influential. Twenty-five years after his death, the damage caused by this one-time president of the American Federation of Teachers lives on. The first step in counteracting his effects is [...]

1Jun1999 | Daniel Hager | 1 comment | Continued

Educational Decarceration

Daniel Hager is a senior research associate with Patrick Henry Associates in East Lansing, Michigan. When I was a teacher I reached a conclusion that put me at odds with the mystique that surrounds government schooling: the most beneficial times during the school year for many of my students were snow days. These kids were [...]

1Jul1998 | Daniel Hager | 2 comments | Continued

Frank Chodorov: Champion of Liberty

Mr. Steelman is a staff writer at the Cato Institute. December 28, 1996, marks the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Frank Chodorov, one of the giants of the American Old Right. It seems appropriate to look back at his life and career, not only to pay homage, but also to rediscover some of the [...]

1Dec1996 | Aaron Steelman | 1 comment | Continued

The Spread of Education Before Compulsion: Britain and America in the Nineteenth Century

Most persons agree that children need the protection of the law against potential abuse by parents. But evidence shows that only a small minority of parents turn out to be delinquent. In practice it is very seldom indeed that governments remove children from their family home. At the end of the 1980s fewer than two [...]

1Jul1996 | Edwin G. West | 3 comments | Continued

Education: What About the Poor?

In various forms, the question “what do we do about the poor?” outstrips all others as the most frequently asked question about separating school and state. The implicit assumption, only natural after 60 years of the welfare state and 150 years of government control of education, is that government is the only entity capable of [...]

1Jul1996 | Chris Cardiff | 1 comment | Continued
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