[extropy-chat] Re: "if we cannot be free, at least we can be cheap"

[Rik van Riel]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005, Russell Wallace wrote:

> I'll answer that question with a memory of a little conversation I had
> with an American once, on the stunningly vile custom that Americans
> somehow let their governments get away with, of (given public
> schooling) _forcing children into a particular school based on
> address, rather than letting the parents choose, given that they've
> paid the tax money_. It didn't seem to bother him much.

Making schools compete for pupils that way, and having
public funding on a per-student basis, so a more
successful school gets more money, seems to work well
in the Netherlands.

Where I grew up there were several schools competing
with each other, constantly trying to improve education,
because the other school also did.  Parents and pupils
would constantly pressure the schools to improve, and
they had a way to vote with their feet.

I like a public education system where the schools face
market pressure, but poor children can still learn at
the school of their choice.

-- 
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it." - Brian W. Kernighan