Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

The Wonk Salon, November 17, 2011

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Students without BordersThomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy

Providing education in virtual classrooms costs 65% of what it does in traditional bricks-and-mortar classrooms. But Virginia’s education funding formulas get in the way of more widespread adoption. Chris Braunlich has a plan.

By 2030, K-12 Education Will Be Privatized
Hoover Institution
Eventually, the United State will emulate the example of South Korea, Japan, India and Sweden, which encourage vigorous private-sector competition in educational services and achieve far better results.

What a Broadband Boost Would Mean for Rural New England
Maine Heritage Policy Center
A seven percentage-point increase in broadband adoption in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont would increase annual economic output by $1.4 billion, create or save $27,221 jobs, and boost annual income by $1 billion.

Income Segregation Has Grown Since 1970
US2010 Project
Not only are the rich getting richer, they’re living in places where they don’t have to mix with the hoi polloi.

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One response to “The Wonk Salon, November 17, 2011”

  1. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    re: privatizing K-12. The Hoover folks cite South Korea, Japan, India and Sweden. What they do not talk about is that these countries have national curriculums, national testing – and a readily-usable way to evaluate schools and instructors whereas in this country – the advocacy from folks like Hoover is to turn over education to the private sector – without such standard curriculums and standards – i.e. methods for measuring.

    In this country, our current problems are due, in fact, to a lack of a national curricula and a national standard way of evaluating students and teachers so privatizing – without transparency and accountability is going to be an even worse unmitigated disaster.

    My view here is that let’s do have private sector competition – I’m all for it – but let’s also have a standard way of measuring that applies to both private and public sector – AND lets recognize that part of the massive cost of public schools is the “extras” which are not going to be “free” in privatized schools.

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