Essay: Privatization - 8/3/07

Few things can get people to circle the wagons more quickly and mindlessly than the idea of privatizing anything having to do with the public schools. We know what the libertarians and Ayn Randers over at the Mackinac Center think. Privatization is the greatest thing ever. That is, at least till they figure out a way to outsource the White House and Congress to India. On the other hand, take the folks over at the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.

They seem to regard contracting out public school lawn care as the beginning of the end of civilization as we have known it.

Basically I think both sides need to get a grip. What we need to do is keep our eye on the goal, which is education. We need as a society to offer the best public education to our citizens we can. That, to me, is one of the most important provisions of the social contract. Reality, however, dictates that we have to do so with limited resources, resources that are becoming more limited all the time.

Common sense would seem to imply that we ought to use those resources for education itself. If it is cheaper to have the lawns cut or the bathrooms cleaned by private, independent contractors, that is what the schools should do – even if it means eliminating the jobs of full-time custodial or cafeteria employees.

We do need to make sure any outside contractors who come into the schools have been screened and are safe to have around children.

But we have to remember that what matters is education. On this issue, I think both the unions and the people who are supposedly against big government don’t have their priorities straight. I think the state of Michigan’s major priority should be educating its youth, to give both them, and hence us, a chance to compete for the jobs of the 21st century.

That means we should be spending more money on the poorest kids from the most desperate backgrounds. I simply cannot understand why people who have nice lives and decent incomes aren’t frightened by the thought that we are currently creating a vast underclass.

Seventy-five percent of Detroit teenagers don’t graduate from high school. Today, that is pretty much a sure prescription for a life of crime, unless you have somebody else who is willing to support you.

There are not, by the way, a lot of sugar daddies in blue-collar Michigan these days. I don’t think we can or should outsource education itself, especially at the elementary and secondary levels.

But when it comes to everything else in this world of economic scarcity, I think we should adopt as our motto what Franklin D. Roosevelt once said when asked with his ideology was. “I try something,” he said. “And if it doesn’t work, I try something else.” If we keep that in mind and are honest with ourselves about what works and what doesn’t, we just might make it through this mess.

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Comments

[Anonymous]

I think I agree with every word of Mr. Lessenberry's commentary, even his categorization of the two polar extremes in the debate, which he probably didn't exaggerate despite an attempt to do so.

One could easily argue that where Mr. Lessenberry's wife teaches, which is a well-run, high-performing shcool, where the teachers earn every dime and more of what they are paid, that perhaps there should be no changes made. Privatizing that school system would be hard, under any circumstances, to justify.

On the other hand, it is impossible to imagine a more dismal and comprehensive failure than what passes for a school system in Detroit.

The MEA has its protectionist fingers in both systems. There is enough in common in both school systems -- per pupil funding, teacher qualifications, etc. -- to presume that based on the school systems alone, student performance ought to be different only to a small degree.

But there is a world of difference in fact, between the general performance of Birmingham and Detroit students. So, is it appropriate at all to blame school sysem activities for the failure of so many Detroit students? Or should we look outside of school systems altogether?

Now, if only we could get all of the political candidates whom Mr. Lessenberry might endorse over the next 4 to 6 years to agree with him that no good comes from MEA protectionism...