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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (6902)	2/28/2001 12:05:09 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Lower cost, but not higher quality. Businesses need to make money- where is the profit going to come from? From a lower cost structure and greater flexibility then the government. In particular less bureaucracy and the ability to adapt faster then the government. Not all private companies or non-profit schools will have this advantage but the ones that will not will lose business to the ones that do. A free market will not always supply both lower cost and higher quality. If you have a curve representing quality at a particular cost then a free market will shift that curve in a positive direction. Whether better quality at the same cost or the same quality at a lower cost is provided depends on where the demand is. In a truly free market the demand comes from consumers which in this case would be the parents. In a highly regulated or politically influenced market then the demand may be more of a political issue which could reduce the benefit of competition but will probably not eliminate it unless the new regulations are very foolish. Special Education is not "efficient". Music and art programs are not efficient. Much of education, that desperately needs to be done is not efficient short term- it will be efficient long term Special education and music programs may not be cheap but that says nothing about efficiency. You can provide special education services or music and art programs efficiently or inefficiently. and no one will know what you are doing because there are no laws mandating that the public should have access to all you documents. Public education is open. Private schools could be required to be open as a condition to recieve vouchers. I don't think there should be too many conditions (or you lose a lot of the benefit) but this one might be reasonable. Public education has as it's goal the education of the citizenry of the US. Not for profit status assures that all students, even the expensive students (generally the ones who most need help) will be served. Expesnive students will be served if there is a profit in doing so. Right now, even without any new voucher programs, there are private schools that teach problem students or learning disabled students. There are even private schools that specalize in doing so. A private farmer or agribusiness does not have as its goal to feed people. Its main goal is to make money. Do you think we would do better with collective farms? Tim