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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part V Welcome to This Failed Government School

This post is a letter public school principals should be required to send annually to all parents.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part V

Welcome to This Failed Government School

By: George Noga – August 29, 2021

Dear Parents:

As principal of the government school your child will attend, there are some hard truths I must tell you. This school has failed for many years, but it never will close. Most of our teachers graduated in the bottom deciles of their class; they are marking time until their mega-pensions begin; however, a few harbor delusions of adequacy.

I can’t fire bad teachers due to the public sector unions which exert Herculean efforts defending the worst teachers, even those who pose an imminent danger to your child. I can however get a few placed in rubber rooms where they draw full pay and benefits for doing nothing, but at least they can do no further harm. If there should be a pandemic or other emergency, we will immediately shut down the school and hold your child hostage until we shake down and extort everything we possibly can.

Our unionized teachers bargain for work rules at your child’s expense; that’s why our school day begins at zero dark thirty, even though that is detrimental to learning. Always remember that government schools are a jobs program for adults; your child is an afterthought. Our teachers and staff are anti-competitive government workers who oppose pay based on merit or results; they are overpaid for what they produce. Our problem is not just a few bad apples, but that the barrel contains mostly bad apples.

Regardless of your family’s religion or values, we indoctrinate your child in a secular religion that is pro-government, anti-business and politically correct. We scare the bejesus out of your child about the environment and climate change. We teach your child Critical Race Theory, i.e. America is a racist country and the only thing that matters is your child’s race. We teach America was founded in 1619 when slavery was introduced. We encourage your child to question the gender that was assigned at birth.

Perish any thought about escaping this failed school; you have no choice. Your family must be low-income because no children of affluent families (who have choices) will attend this school. School choice may be the civil rights issue of our time, but our teachers will stand in the schoolhouse door if necessary to stop your child from escaping. We are unaccountable to parents, but live in constant fear that if you had a free choice your child would escape the clutches of our government monopoly.

Most students at this school are minority. Even though we know it is systemic racism, we force children of color to attend this failed government school. We throw poor black and brown kids under the school bus with an assist from the NAACP, public sector unions and the Democratic Party. These groups each made a devil’s bargain with teachers unions. They support public sector unions over your child in exchange for campaign funding and votes – despite the great harm this inflicts on your child.

By the time your child leaves this school, he/she will be several grade levels behind. It is not about money. We spend nearly as much per pupil as the most elite private schools in our area, but the spending is wasted on a gaggle of administrators and union inflated salaries. We are lucky if half the money ever sees the inside of a classroom. We have a constant police presence and metal detectors reminiscent of prisons. Nonetheless, we cannot promise your child will be safe here. To the contrary, violence is endemic and our school is a petri dish for every possible dysfunction and social pathology. It is good if your child plays sports as we value that above education.

Graduation is a testament to perseverance, not learning. Your child won’t be able to attend college – even community college – without extensive remedial work. Your child will be ill prepared for any desirable job. Any awards or honors your child receives at this school are cruel hoaxes intended to beguile you into believing learning actually is taking place. Even if your child becomes our valedictorian, don’t get your hopes up. None of the past several valedictorians here was accepted at any university.

I did not sugarcoat what you and your child can expect here. If you ever have any complaints, I will listen politely but nothing will change because I am not accountable to you. Welcome to this failed government school.


Next: Capitalism’s success has sown the seeds of its own destruction

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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part IV Teachers In America Are Overpaid – Not Underpaid

Teachers claim to be underpaid; all the evidence points in the opposite direction.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part IV

Teachers In America Are Overpaid – Not Underpaid

By: George Noga – August 22, 2021

If you missed the prequel (July 25) or any of the prior posts in this series, they are easily viewed here on our website: www.mllg.usNext week is the must-read series finale: a letter every government school should be required to send to all parents each year.

It is possible that at some time in the distant past (50-60 years ago), teachers truly were underpaid. This belief has persisted to the present, no doubt with much encouragement from teachers. Nonetheless, all the available evidence (which is presented in this post) leads to the opposite conclusion, i.e. teachers in America today are overpaid.

Every child in America should be entitled to a voucher to attend a school chosen by his/her parents. Teachers should be paid based on merit as determined by free markets and not by tenure or public sector unions.

Compelling Evidence Proves Government Teachers Are Overpaid

Objective Surveys: The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) shows no underpayment. Forbes magazine listed the 25 most underpaid jobs in America; teaching was not among them. The same is true of every other job survey that has been published.

Public Sector Unions: Teacher pay is determined by bargaining between public sector unions and governments which have symbiotic relationships. Teachers are paid via tax dollars, not free markets. No scient person can believe that, after decades of highly coercive union bargaining, teachers (and only teachers) somehow are underpaid.

Private School Pay: If unionized government school teachers truly were underpaid, we should expect to see teachers in private schools earning more. Instead, nonreligious private school teachers earn 15% to 20% less than their public school counterparts.

Logic: No other job in America has been so consistently asserted to be underpaid. Such an imbalance simply cannot persist for many decades in a market economy.

Post-teaching Pay: When teachers leave to accept non-teaching jobs, their pay does not increase; this is a prima facia case they were not underpaid while teaching.

Benefits: Teachers receive guaranteed lifetime employment (they cannot be fired), lifetime health care for their family, uber-generous pensions and lots of vacation and holidays. When factoring in these benefits, their total compensation skyrockets.

Overpaid Government Workers: Study upon study shows public sector workers are compensated about 25% more for the same work compared to the private sector. Since teachers are government workers, it is logical they are overpaid by the same amount.

Apples to Apples: Teachers (who should know better) use false pay comparisons. They disingenuously compare those with STEM degrees who graduated in the upper deciles of their class to teachers with education degrees mostly from the lower deciles.

Not Merit Based: Teacher pay is based on tenure – not on merit or on any objective metric of job performance. In fact, basing pay on results or merit is anathema to teachers. Union rules reward the worst teachers at the expense of the best ones.

Lingering myths about low teacher pay are fueled by elites, liberal media, pubic sector unions and government. Outstanding teachers undoubtedly are underpaid; however, all objective data and logic leads inexorably to the conclusion that teachers in America today (taken in the aggregate) are overpaid by somewhere between 15% and 25%.


Whatever you do – don’t miss the series finale next week!
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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part III

Accountability of Private vs. Government Schools

By: George Noga – August 15, 2021

Accountability is the go-to argument of those opposed to school choice.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part III

Accountability of Private vs. Government Schools

By: George Noga – August 15, 2021

Since the founding of the school choice movement 30 years ago, opponents in government, unions and the media have tested many arguments against vouchers. They first claimed private voucher schools could be used as witches covens or Ku Klux Klan klaverns. When that failed, they argued vouchers would drain funds from public schools – even though per pupil funding actually is increased. Next, they asserted religious voucher schools are anti-LGBTQ. When that failed, they screeched private schools are unaccountable and that has been their go-to mantra ever since. In this post we contrast accountability of private schools versus government schools.

Accountability in the Private Sector

Private sector businesses compete to provide accountability to consumers; there is no such thing as an unaccountable free market. Von Mises said it best, “Markets are a daily plebiscite in which every penny confers the right to vote”. The private sector is accountable from the bottom up, with consumers exercising control directly by what they buy. Consumers register their choices about one specific product at a time.

Markets, including for private schools, deliver safety, quality and value in many ways. The primary method is branding; when you buy an Apple computer, the company’s reputation is on the line. Another method is franchising; when you eat at Olive Garden, you know what to expect. A third method is independent rating services like Consumer Reports, BBB and Underwriter’s Laboratories. Another powerful method is social media and online ratings, where even a few lousy reviews can torpedo any business.

A good example of market accountability is Uber. With Uber, consumers get location, name, photo, driver rating, fare and arrival time. They get a spotless car, prepay via credit card, get an email receipt and rate the driver. Uber drivers are solicitous of the customer’s comfort and safety; many even offer complimentary bottled water.

Government Accountability (Oxymoron Alert)

Government (including public schools) doesn’t compete and is accountable to the consumer (voter) only indirectly and infrequently. Government schools do not have branding, franchising or independent ratings and are oblivious to social media. To the limited extent it may exist, accountability is from the top down. Consumers can exercise limited control only through the political process once every four years. Voters must select among candidates with positions on numerous issues; they cannot register a choice about any one product or service. Further, in many jurisdictions accountability is impossible due to political dominance by interest groups or voting blocks.

Let’s contrast Uber with government-regulated taxis. With taxis you get no information about location, the driver, fare or arrival time. What you do get is an unkempt driver with poor English who drives aggressively. The taxi has a musty odor, blares obscene music and costs triple Uber – and no credit cards accepted. Complaints are futile. Which is more accountable, the private sector (Uber) or government (taxis)?

In one school district (Providence, RI) with 25,000 students, an independent review found peeling lead paint, brown water, leaking sewage, rats, frigid temperatures, classroom chaos, bullying, no discipline and rampant violence. Only 5% of students were at grade level. And they spent $18,000 per student – 50% above the national average. These horrors have been going on for decades with no accountability.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Private schools are immediately and directly accountable. If parents are unhappy for any reason (educational quality, cost, safety, values), they can switch to another school; if enough parents are unhappy, the school must improve or go out of business. Contrast this with the Providence, RI schools which have failed for decades, will continue to fail and will never close. If Providence parents are unhappy, they cannot change schools. Complaining to elected officials is pointless because one party (Democratic) controls all elections. How much of that kind of accountability do you want?

The next time you hear voucher schools are unaccountable, remember the parents of Providence, Rhode Island. Teachers unions, government and media claim they want to regulate voucher schools to make them accountable to politicians who will promptly turn them into the same veritable hell holes parents are desperately trying to escape.


Next week in Part IV we take on the issue of teacher pay.
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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part II Pandemic Exposes Appalling Behavior of Teachers Unions

Government schools are jobs programs for adults; children are mere afterthoughts.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part II

Pandemic Exposes Appalling Behavior of Teachers Unions

By: George Noga – August 8, 2021

During the pandemic teachers unions and government apparatchiks shut down public schools. They shamelessly held children hostage to shake down and to extort every conceivable benefit possible. Their greed may come back to haunt them as their contemptible behavior revealed their true nature to a great many Americans.

It has been crystal clear for well over a year that there is no basis in science for failing to resume traditional classroom teaching. Children are highly unlikely to get Covid or to pass it on. Per the CDC, “There is scant evidence of significant virus transmission among grade school age children.” Schools in Europe, Japan and other places demonstrated schools could safely reopen with proper protocols. Catholic schools in the USA, with over 1.6 million students, stayed open through the pandemic providing yet further evidence that schools could safely remain open for in-person learning.

Teachers in government schools and their unions didn’t care about the horrors that resulted from their greed and disregard for the children entrusted to them. There was at least a year of lost learning that never will be recovered. There was widespread depression and increased family pathologies. There was lost earnings as many parents could no longer work and were forced to remain home to care for children. Meanwhile, unionized teachers went on vacation in a flagrant display of selfishness and contempt.

Parents Lose Faith in Government Schools

The avarice of teachers unions is coming back to bite them. Government schools have been failing for many decades, but the pandemic brought this into sharp focus for many parents. They have lost faith in the public system and are deserting it in droves. Private schools and home schooling both report skyrocketing increases in enrollments, as do Catholic schools. Many more parents are searching for alternatives.

50 school choice bills have been introduced this year in 30 states.

Meanwhile, the failure of government schools to open has led to astounding advances in school choice throughout America. West Virginia just enacted its first educational savings account; Georgia is increasing its voucher program; South Dakota expanded its tax credit vouchers. Arizona, Indiana and Florida are in the process of expanding school choice. Altogether, 50 school choice bills have been introduced in 30 states.

The pandemic unleashed tectonic forces; one can viscerally feel the ground shifting beneath support for government schools run by and for educrats and public sector unions as jobs programs for adults – the children be damned. Thanks to lessons learned in the pandemic, a rapidly expanding cohort of Americans now wants to end the evils wrought by the monopoly of government schools and public sector unions.

Although the pandemic inflicted great harm, it may have hastened the day when every child in America will have the ability to attend the school chosen by his/her family.

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Next is part III in the series – Accountability and School Choice.

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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Introduction and Universal School Choice

Every child in America deserves educational choice; the money must follow the child.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America

Introduction and Universal School Choice

By: George Noga – August 1, 2021

This month is the 30th anniversary of Patrick Rooney’s founding of the school choice movement in America. In observance and celebration, we present a six-part (counting the prequel) series dissecting critical issues pertaining to educational choice. This post presents a summary of each part. First however, a few words about teachers.

This series is highly critical (perhaps even brutal) toward teachers in government schools and their unions. We unapologetically call them as we see them. Nonetheless, we are mindful many readers and/or family members teach in government schools. There are 3.5 million K-12 teachers in America; many are excellent – like those related to our readers. It would be wrong however to ascribe the problems with our schools to “just a few bad apples” when, in reality, the barrel contains mostly bad apples.

Our goal is for every child in America to receive a government voucher sufficient to attend the K-12 school chosen by his/her family – including private, public, religious, home and virtual.

30th Anniversary of School Choice – Summary

School Choice Movement in America (Prequel – July 25): This was published last week; if you missed it, please read it on our website: www.mllg.us. That post presented the history of the school choice movement in the USA and Florida. Yours truly founded the Florida movement in 1994; today, it provides educational choice scholarships each year to 103,000 children from low-income families at a cost of $700 million. I also served on a national board that started private voucher programs in 100 US cities.

School choice is the civil rights issue of our age. Forcing children of color

to attend failed government schools is the worst systemic racism extant.

Covid Unmasks Teachers Unions (Part II – August 8): The pandemic opened a window for Americans to see teachers in government schools and their unions for what they really are. Teachers shutting down schools unwittingly put support for school choice on steroids, as parents lost all faith in government schools and public sector unions.

Accountability and School Choice (Part III – August 15): We once and for all demolish the myth that private schools are not accountable. Free markets always are accountable and government accountability is an oxymoron. The most potent force on earth is a consumer armed with a free choice. Private schools are accountable through branding, franchising and social media, where even a few bad reviews can sink any business.

Shattering Myths About Teacher Pay (Part IV – August 22): This post provides compelling reasons why the shibboleth that teachers are underpaid is false. The facts show teachers are overpaid by about 15%-25%. Teacher pay should be determined by markets based on merit, not by public sector unions based on tenure.

Welcome to this Failed Government School (Part V – August 29): The not-to-be-missed finale in our series is a letter the principal of every government school should be required to send to parents of students prior to the start of each new school year.


Next on August 8th – How Covid unmasked teachers unions.

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