As far as I understand, merit pay, which would incentivize teachers to do better in order to get paid more, has a lot of teachers skeptical because they don’t want governmental interference measuring their performance. Ironic, isn’t it? The statists don’t want more statism.
Proponents of merit pay seem to want it to add a bit of capitalistic inspiration into the public sector. I have the solution. End public education.
I was educated in public school, and I can tell you from personal experience that it’s an industry limping and begging to be killed. It’s socialism, for God’s sake!
I heard a man on the news say, “I know engineers who leave school with a bachelor’s and make $65k while teachers who have master’s degrees and have worked for 20 years only make $35k!” Right then, I knew there was no getting through to them. They don’t get it: they work for the state, and the state thus dictates the parameters and extent to which their profession rises or falls.
This idiocy almost makes me speechless. What have we learned throughout history other than that socialism fails time and again? How can people defend public education yet not address the obvious socialism involved? The government confiscates our property to fund an industry whereby the workers have little incentive to do their best.
I say end public education. What say you? More importantly, are there any realistic measures to take to make this happen?
I say end it all. Let the market and peace and rational self interest rule the day.
All government is socialism. When we accept the premise that some socialism is ok (defense, law etc) then it is hard to argue against welfare, imperialism and public eduction.
Most people are against statism when it affects them negatively, and for it when it benefits them. We recently had a discussion here where libertarians were happy to take government funds for their own personal use, even though they stringently object to having those funds taken from them in the first place.
“here where libertarians were happy to take government funds for their own personal use”
As I recall, a lot of libertarians in that thread weren’t happy but struggled with what level of involvement we should have with the state (which is involved with everything).
Jay, you’re too generous. There were people quoting Walter Block as an authority that it was ok to take as much as you can from the state because it only hurts the state and not the other people in society.
it depends. Personally I am undecided, but morally (in libertarian sense) I think it is wrong to take money from the state. However, pragmatically… they are stealing from us anyway, so why don’t try to benefit from it and at least get some amount of those money BACK?
Compulsory public schooling is probably the most destructive institution since slavery (though of course it relies on several kinds of slavery). It is a waste of time, and a huge destruction of wealth. Its result is indoctrination, and sets one up only to continue to demand state handouts. That it is lauded as the height of civilisation truly shows that the barbarians are running the show.