In Episode 153 of The Remnant podcast, Jonah Goldberg raises the question of school choice and public school to guest Andy Smarick at around 29:55. He suggests that the problem isn't public versus private school because he knows from personal experience that school choice, presumably he means publicly funded charter schools, doesn't resolve the issue that conservative activists complain about, namely the prevalence of leftist propaganda in schools. School choice options, including private school, often end up preaching the same stuff. The problem, Goldberg says, is not really the organizational structure of the schools but rather the ideology.
Well...
First of all, public schools educate around 90% of American children. That is a monopoly. Monopolies are well known to generate this exact sort of dynamic, where the smaller market players are forced to conform to the practices of the large market player. The classic example of this is Microsoft. Any programmer who wants to develop and sell a program of any kind for a desktop PC must program it to work on Microsoft Windows or immediately lose 90% of his potential customers. Only after making sure he can make it work on Windows will he then develop it for other OS's. If he can't make it work for Windows, he likely won't have a viable business model at all and will never enter the market. This also means Apple customers often only have programs available that were primarily developed to work on the Windows OS.
There is also a clear example of this dynamic in education. Textbook and curriculum publishers must conform their material to the state education standards of Texas and California or immediately lose a large percentage of their potential customers. The state education standards in Texas and California are decided on by state government level education boards populated by politicians who must be elected by a popular vote. This board then decides on curriculum standards for the entire state, which then dictates what kinds of curriculum get published in the first place. This is a far cry from the local control of schools that Andy and Jonah insist dominate public education, to say nothing of what it means for smaller states.
In addition to all of this, teacher training programs in college inevitably must prepare their students to teach in public schools because that is where 90% of the jobs are. Naturally, if those teachers end up in the other 10%, charters and private schools, they are still trained to teach in public school and their teaching will tend to reflect that. It is simply not true that the mere existence of school choice means the market is free to do as it pleases under monopoly conditions. This is why free market conservatives have worked to prevent monopolies as corrosive to the normal operations of the free market, all the more so when it is a publicly funded, state-run monopoly.
Secondly, what ideology is Jonah talking about, and what is the ideology he would prefer? Doesn't he prefer privately run enterprise to socialist, publicly funded and run programs? Is he really okay with government run schools because of some outward semblance of local control? Does Jonah oppose socialism? If so, why the apologetics for a clearly socialist program? The arguments against socialized education are exactly the same as the arguments against socialized medicine. What is called the "public option" in healthcare is clearly the same as the already existing "public option" in education. If Jonah really has a free market ideology, why doesn't he criticize one as much as the other?
Thirdly, given that public schools are socialist and educate 90% of American kids growing up, that means, tautologically, that 90% of Americans grow up in a socialist system. When they hit adulthood and enter the marketplace, they are blindsided by a market economy that is totally unfamiliar to them. It is entirely understandable that they would react against it. It seems "wrong" to them because they grew up in a system where everything is "free", paid for by the government through taxes, where they have no customers whose needs must be respected. Rather they must respect only government standards decided upon by politicians they have never met, and as long as they follow the government's rules they expect, and are told, that everything will work out great for them. They are taught that when they graduate they will have all the skills they need for getting a job, that they will be rewarded for doing virtually nothing at all useful to a real life customer, and that their work ethic is primarily to be directed towards gaining the approval of their superior which is, ultimately, the government. It's no wonder so many young people are just fine with socialism. It's the system they grew up under. If Jonah worries about the ideology of the country, maybe he should be worried about how people learn their ideology. Do they learn by listening to the Remnant podcast or are they more likely to learn it by their own personal experience during their formative years?
Now that's whack.
Well...
First of all, public schools educate around 90% of American children. That is a monopoly. Monopolies are well known to generate this exact sort of dynamic, where the smaller market players are forced to conform to the practices of the large market player. The classic example of this is Microsoft. Any programmer who wants to develop and sell a program of any kind for a desktop PC must program it to work on Microsoft Windows or immediately lose 90% of his potential customers. Only after making sure he can make it work on Windows will he then develop it for other OS's. If he can't make it work for Windows, he likely won't have a viable business model at all and will never enter the market. This also means Apple customers often only have programs available that were primarily developed to work on the Windows OS.
There is also a clear example of this dynamic in education. Textbook and curriculum publishers must conform their material to the state education standards of Texas and California or immediately lose a large percentage of their potential customers. The state education standards in Texas and California are decided on by state government level education boards populated by politicians who must be elected by a popular vote. This board then decides on curriculum standards for the entire state, which then dictates what kinds of curriculum get published in the first place. This is a far cry from the local control of schools that Andy and Jonah insist dominate public education, to say nothing of what it means for smaller states.
In addition to all of this, teacher training programs in college inevitably must prepare their students to teach in public schools because that is where 90% of the jobs are. Naturally, if those teachers end up in the other 10%, charters and private schools, they are still trained to teach in public school and their teaching will tend to reflect that. It is simply not true that the mere existence of school choice means the market is free to do as it pleases under monopoly conditions. This is why free market conservatives have worked to prevent monopolies as corrosive to the normal operations of the free market, all the more so when it is a publicly funded, state-run monopoly.
Secondly, what ideology is Jonah talking about, and what is the ideology he would prefer? Doesn't he prefer privately run enterprise to socialist, publicly funded and run programs? Is he really okay with government run schools because of some outward semblance of local control? Does Jonah oppose socialism? If so, why the apologetics for a clearly socialist program? The arguments against socialized education are exactly the same as the arguments against socialized medicine. What is called the "public option" in healthcare is clearly the same as the already existing "public option" in education. If Jonah really has a free market ideology, why doesn't he criticize one as much as the other?
Thirdly, given that public schools are socialist and educate 90% of American kids growing up, that means, tautologically, that 90% of Americans grow up in a socialist system. When they hit adulthood and enter the marketplace, they are blindsided by a market economy that is totally unfamiliar to them. It is entirely understandable that they would react against it. It seems "wrong" to them because they grew up in a system where everything is "free", paid for by the government through taxes, where they have no customers whose needs must be respected. Rather they must respect only government standards decided upon by politicians they have never met, and as long as they follow the government's rules they expect, and are told, that everything will work out great for them. They are taught that when they graduate they will have all the skills they need for getting a job, that they will be rewarded for doing virtually nothing at all useful to a real life customer, and that their work ethic is primarily to be directed towards gaining the approval of their superior which is, ultimately, the government. It's no wonder so many young people are just fine with socialism. It's the system they grew up under. If Jonah worries about the ideology of the country, maybe he should be worried about how people learn their ideology. Do they learn by listening to the Remnant podcast or are they more likely to learn it by their own personal experience during their formative years?
Now that's whack.
