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Re: OT: Politics [Was:Social Contract]



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On Monday 01 May 2006 21:02, Matthias Julius <lists@julius-net.net> 
was heard to say:
> > The public schools in the United States spend MORE THAN $10,000
> > (TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS) per student EACH YEAR, EVERY YEAR, and
> > it's only going up.
>
> Why is that so?  Just because it is a public school?  Why is a
> public school by definition so different from a private school?  Is
> there no way of making a public school more (cost-)efficient?

That's an exceedingly basic question, but one which it is important to 
make sure gets an answer. Other posters have been correct, that it is 
due to incentives, but let me give you an example:

==========Ok, I tried Google to find a citation for this story, but 
can't. Sorry. I will leave it has anecdotal "from memory".======
Just a couple of years ago, there was still a one-room schoolhouse in 
Vermont. It was a small community, with few students, and the school 
had been producing well-educated graduates by any standard.

But it wasn't up to "standards". The state education board and the 
Department of Education came in and made sure there were some 
administrators, a Principle, secretaries for them of course. The 
community could no longer afford to support their own school. It 
closed down, the kids are now bussed to a different town, and their 
academic performance has dropped to match the rest of the state.
====================

There is a book you really need to read:

Bureaucracy by Ludwig von Mises (1944)
http://www.mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy.asp

Since you're still here, did you bother to read the short articles I 
linked to early in the discussion? Here are two again, just in case:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Apr-16-Sun-2006/opinion/6593902.html
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Apr-23-Sun-2006/opinion/6595142.html



- -- 
September 11th, 2001
The proudest day for gun control and central 
planning advocates in American history

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