Choice in Education

Kudos to Micha and Sarah for their thoughtful and persuasive opinion piece in today’s Albuquerque Journal. An excerpt:
“The public schools enjoy a virtual monopoly on education. So long as there are no real penalties associated with failure, nothing will motivate our schools to improve their performance. In markets for goods and services, the best cure for monopoly is proven to be competition, a powerful force that operates to increase efficiency and improve the quality of products. This principle applies equally to the market for schooling.”
Interestingly, Arnold King also has an interesting post today on the benefits of choice and competition in education. An excerpt:
“In my view, government’s biggest weakness relative to the private sector is its inability to reward success more than failure. The biggest reason that I believe private-sector education would prove superior in the long run is that I think it would tend to weed out failing teachers and failing processes in general.”
Do you know that some help is already available for school choice in New Mexico? Educate New Mexico has some scholarships available for low income families who want their children to escape from failing government schools. Your tax deductible contributions to this self-help program may be made to Educate New Mexico. While our state government sits on its hands proclaiming the charade of “reform,” we can be going around it to promote choice and competition. We can take matters into our own hands.