Contractors are Thatchers children

[DodgyAgent]

I think it would improve for a lot of kids. Do you really think the comps in London would not improve if everybody had to send their kids to them.

No. Give me an example of an effective monopoly. Do you think that the Trabant was a car of the highest quality just because it was the only car available?

Why should the provision of education be any different.

As things stand the state education system is run:

1. For the benefit of the politicians
2. For the benefit of the Education authorities
3. The benefit of the teachers
4. For the benefit of the schools
5. For the benefit of the kids

Choice (or the threat of choice) would turn this list upside down

The only thing that keeps pressure on the education system of the state sector is the outstanding performances by the private education system and those few very excellent state schools. Your "level playing field" would have the effect of levelling out such excellence.

[threaded]

I think it would improve for a lot of kids. Do you really think the comps in London would not improve if everybody had to send their kids to them.

You're funny. No, they wouldn't improve, no not at all. They would in fact get even worse. Once you bring in compulsion then the transformation decays and the product suffers.

[rootsnall]

Just like DA's supermarket analogy. Do you want to close the shop that's providing good service and products at a good price so as to give a chance to all the other shops, or do you think that the other shops should get their act together? I think the second option would lead to a higher standard all round.

The products are not being provided at a good price though. The kids who are currently getting a tulip education can't afford the product and end up with a tulip service. If the decision makers aren't stakeholders you are struggling.

[rootsnall]

Your "level playing field" would have the effect of levelling out such excellence.

Correct.

[rootsnall]

You're funny. No, they wouldn't improve, no not at all. They would in fact get even worse. Once you bring in compulsion then the transformation decays and the product suffers.

So you are saying the more affluent would just send their kids to the tulip schools and not do anything about improving them ?

[threaded]

The products are not being provided at a good price though. The kids who are currently getting a tulip education can't afford the product and end up with a tulip service. If the decision makers aren't stakeholders you are struggling.

Ah, but state education costs an awful lot more per child than the private sector. So the reality is everyone is being taxed extra to subsidise the poor quality service.

[rootsnall]

Ah, but state education costs an awful lot more per child than the private sector. So the reality is everyone is being taxed extra to subsidise the poor quality service.

Figures ? Sources ?

[threaded]

So you are saying the more affluent would just send their kids to the tulip schools and not do anything about improving them ?

They would not be allowed to try and improve them. It is the way such systems work. Think Trabant.

[DodgyAgent]

The products are not being provided at a good price though. The kids who are currently getting a tulip education can't afford the product and end up with a tulip service. If the decision makers aren't stakeholders you are struggling.

This is an interesting point.

I dont know how much it costs to educate a chid at a state school but I would imagine that it would not be much less than it costs to educate a child at a private school.

If this is the case then by giving every a child an outstanding education with currriculums packed with sport, art and music (for especially the more intellectually challenged kids) then the huge savings that this country would make in welfare, health, police would more than offset the differentials of cost (assuming there are any)

There is no reason why we cannot like supermarkets create large numbers of new schools with their own identities and specialisms from which parents and guardians (and social services for those with feckless parents) can make their choices.

Mobility of consumer would bring about mobility of supply and enable for example poor or inappropriate teachers to be weeded out, class sizes to be reduced and sports facilities expanded.

[darmstadt]

They would not be allowed to try and improve them. It is the way such systems work. Think Trabant.

New Trabant