Public Schools and Empirical Tests

jeffmiller:squashed:jeffmiller writes:

Every public teacher is paid with tax money collected by the state.  For non-libertarians, this seems ordinary and right.  For libertarians, it’s an obvious, blaring conflict of interest.  If a college professorship in Middle East Studies were endowed by Saudi royals, the conflict would be clear to all, wouldn’t it? Is the conflict significantly different when a Civics teacher at a high school gets paid by the local government? […]

This is actually one we could test empirically. Does a private school education lead to a significantly different understanding of civics than a comparable public school does? Does a private school teacher give a different understanding of the private sphere?  …

But you can’t, really. Yes, you can look at private schools, but how many teachers in the private schools were sent to public ones when they were kids?  How many parents of private school kids went to public schools, and have brought those public school values into their homes?  When this country committed to public schools so many years ago, it set our nation on a course, and this infected (I mean this in a clinical, non-pejorative way) everything that happened after it.  Once the state undertakes to educate its citizens, then the mass of accumulated knowledge and thought that follows is tainted by the inherent bias of this undertaking.  Just how big is the resulting pro-state bias?   Bigger, I suspect, than even the most libertarians suspect; bigger, I suspect, than I can imagine.

I think ya’ll are taking out the human element too much. You are discussing the giant machine that is educating our children. While on a purely functional level, of course this is true. But at the end of the day you have human beings in the classroom. As a public school teacher I can tell you I know very few of my collegues that have and demonstrate a “pro-state bias” regardless of where our checks come from. Actually, most every teacher I know refers to it as paying ourselves.

You say that we can’t be objective in our views due to the nature of the system, but this is the same system that just cut all our required CEU workshops, but not the # of CEUs required to maintain our licenses. This is the same system that publically patted itself on the back for giving us a 3% raise for next year but failed to mention they are increasing our state retirement contributions by 3%.

It’s also a tad offensive to suggest that teachers are incapable of separating ourselves from the state to the point we are brainwashed.

∞ 8 months ago
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  1. combray reblogged this from jakelodwick
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  4. dangergator reblogged this from lenxo and added:
    My wife is a teacher and has been a 1st year teacher twice now and will be lucky if she can get sub jobs next year and...
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  7. lenxo reblogged this from singlemomblog and added:
    jeffmiller:bowlingalleylawyer:
  8. renegadeoffunk reblogged this from jakelodwick
  9. suitandsneakers reblogged this from jakelodwick
  10. bowlingalleylawyer reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    I didn’t take it as a personal offense! I understood what you were saying, but it did seem there was a disconnect with...
  11. kari-thoughts reblogged this from justin
  12. motionsensorsoundtrack reblogged this from shorterexcerpts and added:
    Most libertarians believe in abolishing the DoE and bringing educational decisions to the state and community level. Not...
  13. shorterexcerpts reblogged this from squashed and added:
    From the comments,...have this: >I’m curious what
  14. singlemomblog reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    bowlingalleylawyer: I’d like to chime...on this argument.
  15. jeffmiller reblogged this from bowlingalleylawyer and added:
    BAL, I certainly don’t mean offense, and I can’t reiterate enough that I had many incredible, inspiring teachers in...
  16. mark reblogged this from jakelodwick
  17. yourwonderingmind reblogged this from poortaste
  18. noddinginnola reblogged this from jakelodwick and added:
    That erroneous assumption is to the effort that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with...
  19. yourwonderingmind reblogged this from poortaste
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  21. robot-heart-politics reblogged this from squashed
  22. robot-heart-politics reblogged this from squashed and added:
    My primary concern is about the alternative: cost-prohibitive education which excludes millions of American children who...
  23. struckbell reblogged this from francine
  24. vivresavie reblogged this from squashed and added:
    I only started reading Squashed’s blog recently, but I’m enjoying it so far. Enjoy reading anything about education.
  25. stevenwylie reblogged this from bendelaney
  26. moorewr reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    I find this whole conversation very peculiar - both f you seem to conclude that public schools should desire to be...
  27. bowlingalleylawyer reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    squashed:jeffmiller writes:...I think ya’ll are taking out the human element too much. You...
  28. vivresavie reblogged this from squashed
  29. jeffmiller reblogged this from squashed and added:
    … But you can’t, really. Yes, you can look at private schools, but how many teachers in the private schools were sent...
  30. shorterexcerpts reblogged this from squashed and added:
    I’m curious what the “abolish public schooling” can’t-admit-they-really-want-to-be-anarachists libertarian crowd plans...
  31. herheadhurts reblogged this from afghanibanani and added:
    Just putting the first clause and the last sentence together sums it up.
  32. squashed reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    jeffmiller writes:...could test empirically. Does a...school...
  33. poortaste reblogged this from afghanibanani
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  35. jeffmiller reblogged this from squashed and added:
    problem with public education is only sometimes...great education. (Of course,
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  37. squashed reblogged this from jakelodwick and added:
    Satirist, cynic, and generally poor role-model
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