Education panel wears blinders
Sometimes it is as important to look at what is not in a report as what is.
Such is the case with the governor’s blue-ribbon education panel that recently published its recommendations for Nevada education improvements under the title “Nevada’s Promise: Excellence, Rigor, and Equity.”
It starts with high-minded ambition and a forthright confession, saying that, for American to remain vibrant as an economy and a civilization, we must teach our children well. Then states categorically, “In Nevada, it is clear we have abandoned this responsibility. By all measures we have failed our children.”
Both the 30-page executive summary and the 1,500-page behemoth that is the complete report from the panel and the more than 200 contributors contain the customary general objectives.
What is glaringly absent is any concept of free-market competition. The closest the reports come is with passing references to charter schools, which in most cases are little more than quasi-private schools saddled with most of the public school rules and bureaucracy.
The concept of vouchers is conspicuously absent. And I could find no recommendation to break up the massive Clark County School District, fifth largest in the country, so parents who work in the county might be able to choose where to live based on the quality of schools.
The report assumes education is solely a public school function and role. It seems to assume classrooms of students assembled in front of a teacher, all progressing at the same rate to the same level of achievement and understanding. All thinking alike.
The best products come from those competing in the open marketplace. Central planning is a failed concept. Just ask the Soviets about an automobile called the Lada, a notorious rattletrap compared to the sleek machines from Detroit, Tokyo and even Seoul.
