tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post7445994377121850528..comments2024-02-24T00:37:43.087-05:00Comments on The Other McCain: Public education and liberal guiltRobert Stacy McCainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03084541621503669804noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-24150366104218198562009-04-07T14:47:00.000-04:002009-04-07T14:47:00.000-04:00Eloise's conflict becomes a little more understand...Eloise's conflict becomes a little more understandable if you share one of her basic premises: She thinks - or she operates on the unconscious assumption - that "quality of education" is an <I>objectively quantifiable and finite resource,</I> and that to maximize one child's quality of education is, by inexorable mathematical definition, to minimize another's.<BR/><BR/>There are both true and false aspects to this belief. It is true that demand for quality teachers and facilities will always exceed supply, and that where demand exceeds supply in a free market the wealthy will end up commanding a disproportionate share of that supply (which may be fine for luxuries and commodities, but can be legitimately challenged as a suitable delivery for a basic right like education). Likewise, it is true that the more children who are taken out of the public school system, the less funding it will receive and the more problems the public system will face. But it is not necessarily true that enforced distribution of supply will result in equal distribution of quality, or that greater funding through more students will result in better quality. And, of course, buying a top-notch place in a good school does not ensure a student will gain good grades.<BR/><BR/>As you rightly note, if parents concentrated on making all their children better <I>students</I> - instead of assuming that the solution was somehow a government-equalized provision of better teachers, an unquantifiable and uncontrollable resource at best - society might as a whole be much better off.Stephen J.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-8678209343182240122009-04-07T12:29:00.000-04:002009-04-07T12:29:00.000-04:00Yeah, but Eloise isn't all that guilty, is she? S...Yeah, but Eloise isn't all that guilty, is she? She's just posturing for her friends ("Oh, I feel so bad about it"). <BR/><BR/>Anyway, 10-1 Eloise would make the same choice if the public school was populated by little angels, since her goal is to get her kid into Stamford or Harvard or Yale.J. E. Burkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08682657792334163396noreply@blogger.com