Privatization Will Improve Education
by: Cap Pritchett ‘12The question of private versus public education is not new; neither are the means I will use for examining it. I should begin by issuing a disclaimer: since third grade, I have attended private schools. After leaving Highland Park when I was seven, I started at Community School, and continued on to Community High School. I attended private arts-focused schools although I am more of a reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic specialist.
Even though my private schooling did not cater to my abilities, I actually ended up learning a great enthusiasm for film design and criticism, theater, and music. Right off the bat, I was taken away from my comfort zone in the classroom and benefited from it. It was not until my time as a Senate Page (when I was 14) that I was re-acquainted with public school thinking. All of my page friends readily accepted that it was normal to be confined to specific rooms at all times of the day, while I had become accustomed to dictating my own arrival and departure times, and being responsible for my own actions. My friends were used to public school, and they were not used to independent thought.
Let us move away from my anecdotal evidence. Many noted economists have discussed the apparent ineffectiveness of standard education, including George Mason University’s Bryan Caplan. The basic difficulty they bring up is one of wasted time and money (the two key measurements of value). Why should a Spanish/English translator have to learn calculus? Why should a calculus teacher waste his time teaching the translator rather than another potential mathematician? Obviously, our overall educational system should allocate resources to their most valued students in each area. My private school is a perfect example—an artist, actor or musician would all be in hog heaven there.
Moreover, because there was so much free time allowed, I was able to construct my own curriculum in large part. As such, I exercised my political interests as a Senate Page, which I was given two months off for, then as a field assistant for the Jim Webb campaign I received the last two weeks before election night off and actually spoke with Webb on the phone around 1 AM that morning as a courier. Finally, my senior year I was appointed the media chairman of the Mike Breiner campaign for Senate in the 22nd district for a time, and this campaign went on to lose by a couple thousand votes. Community High is not a feeder school for politics, but because it allowed free time and specialization I was able to make it work for me.
Other private schools, of course, are feeder schools for particular types of undergraduate learning. Certainly George W. Bush would attest that his Exeter education served him well. Private schools work not only through streamlining unnecessary parts of education, but also through bringing together like-minded people who can assist each other throughout life.
The most basic economics teaches us that specialization and trade is the most efficient way for laborers to spend their time—doing only those tasks that they are the best at, compared to their other possible options. Our educational system could only become more efficient by shifting to privatization.
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