This is gonna be more cut/snip/jokey/argumentative than normal, I'm MOSTLY doing that to try and be funny, sorry in advance (I hate when people do this -- it's like interrupting, but digitally). It's gonna sound like I'm laying into you and I don't mean it that way. It's early and I'm snarking, nothing personal. [quote=@catchamber]It appears to me that private education is deemed to have higher quality due to the scarcity and costs, but between the cases of sexual misconduct, exaggerated postgraduation job placement rates, charter school embezzlement, and lack of transparency from tax funded private schools, I'm not so sure about that axiom.[/quote] We could say the same things about the Democrat party, and/or any and all socialist governments/programs in the history of the world (though they usually also murder people). [i]*shrug*[/i] Call me "unconvinced that making it a public good will help." With ANY of that. [quote]Something entirely new, more efficient, highly transparent, publicly overseen, voluntarily funded, and unaffiliated with but integrated with older systems sounds like a better alternative.[/quote] Baby with the bathwater. On what grounds do you argue that 'something entirely new' will be better? How could we possibly have any data whatsoever to back that up, and why on earth would we burn the whole education system down in pursuit of something that's never existed? BEAR IN MIND (I feel like I have to keep saying this), I'm not arguing we don't need education spending reform -- but I'm saying that because my tax dollars are watering campus quads in the desert, not because I'm huffing fairy farts. [quote]Extant institutions will adapt, because many are preparing for this paradigm shift already, as evidenced by Harvard offering free online courses, MIT offering free archived lectures, and OpenStax offering free digital textbooks.[/quote] ....so you're saying private industry is already making this change on its own, at the intersection of supply and demand, organically and without a jackboot on their throats? GO FIGURE! Gosh it's almost like we don't need a government mandate... [quote]By voluntarily applying the new system universally, disparities can diminish as productivity is maximized across the market.[/quote] "Voluntarily" and "Universally" are incompatible words. "Productivity" is maximized by the invisible hand and [b]NOTTTT[/b] by price ceilings and government interference. Maybe take a free Harvard economics course online? [quote]If you could turn rocks into gold, and did so considerably or indefinitely, you might cause an economic decline due to systems dependent on the scarcity of gold. But after a while, the market just might grow by exploiting that scarcity reduction, due to the multisector value of gold. Now, if you could teach people how to do that, the growth rate just might rise like a progressively exponential S-curve.[/quote] Here's a thing you're doing that I think is confusing the argument -- you're conflating market growth (ie "what's good for the education industry) with overall economic health of the population (ie "what makes a stronger overall economy"). Or maybe I'm just reading it that way elsewhere -- you're making the point more clearly here in this paragraph. [b]It's not a wrong statement.[/b] More access to education = better average outcomes -- fact. But let's stick with the gold analogy -- let's say you can turn rocks into a gold-like substance that [i]isn't quite[/i] gold, but is still pretty useful (goldium maybe?). Goldium isn't as high quality as bonded, certified Real Gold, but you're pretty sure it's good enough for most things. The correct way to get goldium into the market is to make it, sell it, and compete with gold in relevant markets -- the price of gold comes down because supply is increased in relevant sectors where that's applicable. What you don't do is issue a federal proclamation that all gold mines must be shut down and converted into goldium-production facilities. You can subsidize it differently (though why would you have to, unless Big Gold isn't playing fair). You just let innovation happen -- because governments don't innovate. They're not equipped to do so. I think what you're talking about here is dairy-free non-soy non-GMO Gold Substitute, and if you're into that, [i]make it, sell it, start a website.[/i] Be the University of Phoenix, and if people really believe that's good enough, they'll buy your product. If not, well, you'll be University of Phoenix I guess. [quote]Information is like this on steroids, making education the most crucial industry ever. By reducing barriers and increasing quality in macro/micro-economically sensible ways, you allow all industries to profit significantly enough to make reinvestment feedback loops much easier.[/quote] I disagree that you can (effectively) mandate an increase in quality by law. If you could, the VA wouldn't suck. [quote]It's not just college education, but all postsecondary education, regardless of its form or public/private/public-private distinction. Like all industries, education should be made affordable for everyone involved, but the current paradigm is showing its lack of fiscal responsibility and desire for self improvement. Unless a more efficient alternative is implemented, funding reductions will just cause more scarcity that can increase cost while quality drops.[/quote] The current paradigm has also produced the most dominant economy in the history of civilization, so... again, baby, bathwater, etc. If you want the best minds to be educators, you don't offer a pittance as salary; quality and access are opposed. [quote]No kidding. I want the entire public to do a better job than the federal, state, county, municipal, private, and charter schools, and give them the means to do so by giving them access to archived data from all institutions that either: receive government funds, or are part of a citizen monitored and willingly funded education system.[/quote] Remember we started this conversation because the citizen-monitored-and-willingly-funded-education-system can't teach kids how to read. [quote]TL;DR It's been said that school choice is desirable, but the proposed methods to achieve it seem suboptimal given the current possibilities. Maybe rather than school choice, it should be the freedom to choose how to reasonably educate yourself or those under your care. After all, there's evidence that institutions are routinely more self interested and less accountable when they cozy up with the state, due to capitalizing on practically assured private gains and public subsidies, thanks to the supply-demand inelasticity of education. [/quote] Maybe we can solve all of this by making it more elastic? If prices are stagnant and too high (gosh I wonder if federally-guaranteed student loans and education subsidies could be inflating the costs at all), perhaps the answer is to unlock those prices through competition? Why is your idea better than a free market? Rational self-interest gave us a website that can deliver fresh vegetables to your door cheaper than the supermarket (caveat: there's no Amazon Fresh in my area, ymmv), or q quarter pound of fresh meat anywhere in the country on the goddamn dollar menu. Private gains are a good thing.