Friday, July 11, 2003 :::
I have less than full-throated approval for some of the anti-rich snarkiness in this editorial from OpinionJournal on vouchers for D.C. students, but am willing to exploit the opportunity to babble incoherently on a philosophical topic of some relevance here.It is routine for opponents of vouchers to complain that supporters are "giving up" on public schools, in spite of the studies suggesting that public schools improve where voucher programs are introduced; as a tool to improve public schools, rather than merely one to educate children (and I can't think this isn't the higher priority, but put that aside), vouchers are essentially a management solution, and I think it's hard for some people to accept that as a "real" solution. It doesn't tell how to teach differently, how to change curricula, what books to use; it just changes the environment in which the people making these decisions are making these decisions. (This is, to some extent, true of increased testing as well, especially insofar as the tests tell us that the kids are dumb rather than what their specific weaknesses might be.) Management solutions are really the kind that we should expect from elected officials, though; they can't go from classroom to classroom enforcing a new teaching style, nor do they have the expertise to decide what the correct teaching style is. What they can do is create a system in which the skills of others are best applied to the problems that are there, and that is what Congress may finally be doing.
::: posted by dWj at 1:41 PM