Wal-Mart Helps The Poor More Than The Government Does

"That is the big effect of Wal-Mart in terms of macroeconomic policy," says Jerry Hausman, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose former students include Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. In a recent study, Prof. Hausman estimated that the advent of Wal-Mart and similar superstores had shaved 0.75 percentage point off annual inflation in food prices in the four years ending with 2001. "These guys have done much more than any antipoverty program," he says.

Our Leaders Do Not Speak From Experience

Democrats:
Al Gore: Attended a private high school. Sent his children to private high schools.
Hillary Clinton: Sent her child to a private high school.
Barack Obama: Attended a private high school. Sends his children to private schools.

Republicans:
George W. Bush: Attended a private high school.
John McCain: Attended a private high school.

Wouldn't it be nice if those who propose to fix our public schools actually attended public schools themselves? The private schools that our current and future leaders attended seem to have benefited their lives enormously. Why not give everyone the chance to attend a private school then?

Colleges Have To Be The Best That They Can Be Or They Might Not Be At All

Colleges, unlike primary and secondary public schools, recruit students.

"The average, private, four-year college spends more than $2,000 on marketing and recruiting for each student it successfully enrolls, according to a survey by Noel-Levitz, a college recruiting advisory firm."

If colleges did not actively recruit students, then they would face a decline in their student body and possible closure. This motivating factor is the primary reason that United States higher education system is the best in the world. Student recruitment has the added benefit of helping students with their high school education choices:

"Most sophomores don't even know what courses they need to get into selective colleges."

In contrast, public primary and secondary schools do not recruit students because they don't have to. They have a guaranteed monopoly over the students that live within their government assigned district. This lack of competition for students is the primary reason why the United States K-12 education system is failing it's students.

Wisconsin School Choice Has A Long Way To Go

Wisconsin, home of "The Nation's School Choice Capital" in Milwaukee, has a long way to go before it has an operating education market.

This fact was highlighted recently when The Cato Institute reported that "Wisconsin’s voucher program enrolls only about 1 percent of the state’s students, while its charter schools only enroll about 3 percent. These numbers are too low to have a significant impact on the level of education market activity statewide. And public school choice just isn’t close to real market activity because public schools are too standardized by state and disctict policies and regulations, can’t be operated for profit, don’t charge tuition, and neither open nor close exclusively in response to consumer demand."

Mayor Of New York On Teacher Quality

"We recruit a disproportionate share of teachers from among the bottom third of their college classes. Then we give them lifetime tenure after three years, and we reward them based on longevity, not performance."

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York
Wall Street Journal 12/14/2006

72% Of 8th Grade Public School Students Not Proficient In Math

According to the 2005 National Assessment for Educational Progress, 72% of 8th grade public school students were not proficient in math.

14.1% Of Public School Students Earned At Least A 3 On An AP Exam In 2005

In 2005, 14.1% of public school students in the United States earned at least a three on an advanced placement examination, the minimum score necessary to receive credit at most colleges. New York had the highest percentage of it's public school students earn at least a three on an A.P. exam, at 22.8%. Louisiana had the lowest percentage of it's public school students earn at least a three on an A.P. exam, at 2.5%.

Some schools set a higher bar when granting credit for advanced placement examinations.
Harvard requires a five, the highest possible score, for students to receive credit. The California Institute of Technology does not give credit for advanced placement examinations. This is because some have discovered that earning a high score on an advanced placement examination does not necessarily mean the student is ready for college level work:

Ronald M. Latanision, a material science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: "About two years ago, we decided we would no longer give AP credit in chemistry, because the previous year, a third of the freshman class placed out of chemistry, but when they went into upper-level courses, they were clearly not prepared. We don't discourage kids from taking AP courses, but we're not going to give credit."

Public Education Lacks Financial Incentives

Public Schools:

"They are essentially guaranteed a stream of revenue regardless of how they treat current or potential students,"
Jay Greene, Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas

Public School Teachers:

"It's astonishing to me to have a system that doesn't allow us to pay more for someone with scarce abilities, that doesn't allow us to pay more to reward strong performance," he said. "That is tantamount to saying teacher talent and performance don't matter and that's basically saying students don't matter."
Bill Gates

Public School Teachers Exercise Private School Choice For Their Own Children

Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, a study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools. In Philadelphia, 43.8 percent of public school teachers put their children in private schools.