Democrat & Chronicle – January 7, 2006:
About 81,000 students in the Rochester area will join students across the state for the first round of standardized tests mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Starting Monday, children in grades 3 through 5 will take the English Language Arts exam. The following week, students in grades 6 through 8 will do the same.
The school on Genesee Street sought to increase student motivation with pep rallies in the gymnasium Friday.
When I was a kid, we used to take tests without any motivation other than our own pride. But then again, we used to walk three miles to school, in the snow, up-hill both ways, so we were a little tougher back then.
The government is mediocre at best in everything it does, except wasting money.
Like Mike said,
and then they excel.
Is there another industrial country where its government doesn’t control public education? The major problem in the US is our society is too diverse, and in the attempt to please everyone the net result is mediocrity. A Japanese school doesn’t have to address several major cultures. Our litigious crazed society bears some blame also.
At first this seems really pathetic, but its actually less stupid than a pep rally to boost performance of the football team, IMO. At least this is actually trying to achieve a worthwile goal
The government is the worst kind of monopoly there is — it doesn’t have to compete in the marketplace, it will never go out of business no matter how poorly it performs, and if you refuse to pay for it, it will put you in jail.
The USPS is actually a rare example of a government agency which has improved its services thanks to competition with other providers such as UPS and FEDEX. Government works best when it is charged with doing a few things well (providing a military, court systems, etc…). Most things that the government does these day would be better run. both in efficiency and cost wise, by private organizations.
So anarchy is better?
Sorry Mike, the Post Office has a virtual monopoly. Only they may deliver first class mail at their price. In order to also deliver first class mail, the competition would need charge a minimum of three times the rate charged by the USPS, and I believe a part of that goes to the USPS. Also, as a Federal Government agency, the USPS does not pay local taxes. Plus they are at arms length from Congress so they really don’t answer to anyone. I will state that the USPS is a relatively good service provider.
As for the governments wasting money, it only does so when you disagree with them. If you support the war in Iraq then it is very doubtful you think the $500 billion spent there so far is a waste. If you don’t think the government should paint lines on the roads then you will also think that is a waste.
The Florida Supreme Court very recently ruled that Charter Schools may not be supported with taxpayer money. Their main reasoning was two fold, first it was support of parochial schools was unconstitutional, and second, because the private schools are not subject to the same standards of achievement as public schools are.
Seldom are private institutions expected to perform to the same level as public institutions. And this is the crux that allows government leaders to want private businesses to take over public functions. Here in northern Indiana we have a toll road, I80/90. It makes money and that is shared with local governments. The Republican Governor want to lease the road to private interests. Why? In order to provide a profit to their investors, they will need to either raise the tolls or reduce service. Both will harm the users.
Who said, or implied anything about anarchy?
“the Post Office has a virtual monopoly.”
Actually they are a monopoly when you consider that under federal law ONLY the post office can put mail in a mail box. Can you imagine the competition the post office would get if any company could use your mail box, e.g., fed ex or UPS? That’s really the only impediment to non-government delivery services taking over regular mail and wiping the post office off the face of the earth.
Pat,
Even with the things I agree with the government doing, I have no doubt in my mind that a responsibly run, private organization would do them with a significantly lower cost and higher level of efficiency. This is simply because of the fact that of the fact that government doesn’t have to be cost effective or efficient, and it will never go broke since it has the unlimited power to tax and draw debt.
If you don’t believe that the widespread use of email services, along with competition from other providers has caused a significant improvement of the services the USPS provides, you must be blind. But, yes they do have built-in advantages over private companies which I would say should be eliminated.
Charter schools are public schools and are supposed to be non-sectarian. So what is the point of brining it up? People should be able to spend locally collected tax money on whatever local projects or initiatives they deem appropriate. To say that doing so is unconstitutional is to completely disregard the federal system we have in this country.
Most, if not all private schools are accedited. If they are not meeting the requirements set for by the accrediting association, then it gets taken away. If children are not being properly educated by a private school which is not accredited, and the parent didn’t bother to look into the school beforehand, then it’s the parents responsibility. Ultimately, education should be the responsibility of parents, not the government.
But anyway, to insist that the government has higher standards and is a better performer simply because it’s the government, is quite naive. Especially since there is no real incentive for it to be so.
Fish, the USPS would likely NOT be wiped away — if competing providers had to offer the geographic service required of the Post Office. UPS, FedEx, etc., simply don’t offer 6-day/week service to every zip code. They needn’t crawl a set daily route to deliver everything from 1st class to junk mail to every address. Since they’re are essentially parcel carriers, they needn’t concern themselves with federal tariffs which have 1st class mail subsidizing junk mail.
I think a level playing field would be great. But, it would have to be level in every axis.
Eideard, you talk about how a carrier such as FedEx does NOT offer “6-day/week service to every zip code.” Of course they don’t. There is no profit for them to do so for one simple reason: It’s essentially against the law for them to do so. But if they could deliver mail to mailboxes, they would. Not everywhere, but some places. Then more places. Then everywhere.
I’m not saying it’d happen overnight, but if anyone could put mail in a mailbox, only the most efficient would survive. Which would clearly kill the post office. Maybe it’d take ten, maybe twenty years, but it’d be gone.