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Privatizing public schools
What would be the economic advantages and disadvantages of privatizing oregon's now public kindergarten-12th grade schools? which would cause schools to compete for patrons dollars? what are the arguments for and against school vouchers and what would be your advice as an economist?
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I once wrote a 10pg economics paper on the benefits of the voucher system so maybe I can help out.
The main and most obvious benefit of the voucher system is that it gives private schools the ability to educate students more efficiently. That's what economics is all about: efficiency, and how resources can be allocated best. By privatizing these institutions, schools would have to compete for peoples' money- but this time it's a positive incentive, as opposed to a negative one, such as with the No Child Left Behind Act.
Another benefit is that it gives families with less money the opportunity to give to their children something they never had- a more valuable education. That's where the American Dream comes in as well- passing on something better to emerging generations. What better way to do so than through education?
A major factor of the voucher system, however, is that public schools would eventually be out of the picture completely. Depending on your political ideology, this can be good or bad. If you're liberal the idea of public schools disappearing is probably scary. In fact, it's a scary thought to conservatives as well, but the reason it might worry a more liberal minded person is because there would be less government involvement. Schools without federal funding means the government has to stay out of another area. Other people might like this idea, however, because with private schools left fighting for the patron's dollar, the federal government has more money to spend on other important things. Thus, the government could tax the people less (in theory, of course). Your view of course depends on more than political perspective, however.
This is an extremely brief analysis of the voucher system, but they're good ideas to start with.
God bless
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