the public school versus private school one is both a bit misleading AND very illustrative to this discussion.
First, comparing public school achievement to private school achievement is incredibly difficult, because of self selection process. By definition private schools have students (parents) that are willing to put more into something that they clearly find important. Public schools have the mission to educate EVERYBODY, whether they give a shit or not. Academic studies that try to control for this self selection bias have had a very hard time showing a statistically significant difference in achievement.
On a similar line, I bet the public schools in my district are better than more than 95% of the private schools in the dallas/fw area. The magnet school flip-flops with soem school in marin county, CA as the top public school in the country, and the standard (non-magnet) "line" (ie elementary/middle/high school line) for my neighborhood is in the top 25 of all lines in the country... you have the self-selection bias going on with people's feet-- good school districts attract families that are willing to pay a significant real estate premium to live in those districts, and we end up with a hyper-involved pta.
(and our real estate taxes are a real bitch!)
would you be in favor of a similar system for healthcare? the government commits to pay for some basic level of healthcare for all that want it (poor/old/young/rich whatever) and then you can also have your premium services that you pay yourself, or through some job's plans or what not....? It is what we have in education. you pay for public schools whether you use them or not, for the right to having a population that has at least some basic level of eduation (ad keeps kids occupied at least some of the time, rather than stealing your car stereo)
|