Time to Outsource Education
There’s a lot of news about education in Indiana today. We discovered the dropout rate (1 in 4) is worse than anyone thought. The Governor wants to move forward with full day kindergarten. And IPS wants to give everyone a raise, regardless of whether they’ve earned it. The more I look at this situation, the more I think that education really needs an overhaul and maybe an outsourcing.
Don’t get me wrong, I am the product of public education and I would not trade my grammar and high school years for anything. However, I want today’s students to be just as successful and have as many opportunities as I did. I think the only way to do, is to institute real reform.
The fundamental principle of that reform has to be choice. We can debate how that choice can occur, but there should be choice. Whether vouchers for competing public schools, an education tax credit for all schools, or my personal favorite, refunding the school portion of your property tax bill and letting you take it to the school of your choice.
In the absence of any choice option to reform education, might I make another suggestion: outsource public education. Allow school districts to “contract” out to private schools to educate their kids. We do it to a certain degree with the charter school concept. Private schools tend to get better results and can educate kids cheaper. For example, if it costs public school district A $13,000 to educate a kid and private B, $9,000, then why not allow the public school student to opt in to a private school and the public school district saves $4,000 which it can use to boost pay and other programs. The constitutional issue of church and state can be addressed easily by allowing student to opt out of any religious instruction. If parents want it for their children, they can pay that part of the tuition out of their own pockets. This model would especially be helpful in areas where there are poor public schools and private schools struggle because they do not have enough students.
If you’re not crazy about my ideas, I ask you for your suggestions. If you’re going to suggest decreasing the school code and regulations, I’m with you. If you’re going to suggest outsourcing non-education school functions such as support staff, food service and janitorial work I am with you. If you’re going to suggest just throwing more money at the problem, we need to have a long talk.
