Answering the critics
Inside Liberty Watch Today - Jan. 17, 2006
Last week's missive promoting the idea of breaking up the Clark County School District generated plenty of negative emails from conservatives and liberals alike. So, despite wanting to go on about something else—like say the price of gold closing near $560 per ounce—I'll spend some more time on CCSD.
Many of the emails were thoughtful with the predominant theme being that breaking up CCSD wouldn't solve any of the education problems, would lead to higher taxes, more union featherbedding, and duplication of administrative functions. Readers pointed to Chicago and Long Island as examples of cities with multiple districts, but yet produce poor
education product.
Unfortunately, even with a CCSD breakup, government would still be the virtual monopoly provider of education. Thus, the concerns Liberty Watch readers have are valid and deconsolidation will not fix all of them; removing government from the education business will. However, the Nevada constitution requires that state government fund education, so for the moment we're stuck with the monopoly.
Nobody made the case that CCSD is doing a good job, but in the words of one reader, "when a ship develops a leak, you don't break it up into 43 ships. The leak is still there. FIX THE LEAK!"
My view is that you do break the sinking ship into 43 ships [to borrow from his metaphor]. When the Titanic hit the iceberg, keeping everyone on board and fixing the leak would have been impractical, and deadly. Rightly, the crew told passengers to man the lifeboats, essentially breaking the ship into smaller pieces. CCSD is the Titanic and its students are the passengers. We shouldn't let them drown, while the crew tries to fix a broken hull that's structurally unsound.
My critics also contend that breaking up CCSD would mean there would be schools that improve and others that get worse. They are correct and I don't feel that is a bad thing. I wrote that high performing districts would attract the most students, the most funding and ultimately the best teachers and that not all districts would be equal; some would be better than others: "Those who argue for one big school district say this is unfair, but, as it is now, the entire district doesn't perform."
A certain Democrat State Senator was less thoughtful, flinging multiple questions with great bluster. Theory will not sate the fine Senator; facts and figures are required for his vote.
"It is my theory that you are not an expert in education, transportation or medicine," the Senator wrote. "But you have been to school, drive on the roads and go to a doctor so therefore you see yourself as an expert in all of these areas."
I'm not sure I've ever tried to pawn myself off as an expert at anything. My background is economics and that's the basis from which I write.
"I want some hard information and figures before I vote to spend millions of dollars with a reasonably know [sic] outcome," the Senator demands. Unfortunately, the social sciences aren't nice and neat like mathematics and physics. People aren't particles or numbers in an equation. People are acting human beings. They act in their own self interest that changes minute by minute.
The Senator would like to know the perfect number of students in a district, how much to spend on these students and what their resulting test scores will be. The Senator is correct when he accuses me of not knowing. I don't. So the Senator should not hold his breath waiting for the "detailed analysis of the cost and outcome of the school district deconsolidation" that he pines for.
But, what I do know for certain is that given a choice between having just one provider to choose from and having two, I will be better off having two choices. If I have three choices, that is better than having two. And, so on. This is axiomatic. I don't need to provide the Senator with any figures or test scores to prove it. All your fancy statistics can't bend logic, Senator. More choices are better than fewer choices. If the premise is true, the conclusion is guaranteed to be true.
Interestingly, the Senator has an idea for our education problem…smaller schools. Parents and students alike would likely prefer smaller schools that provide ready access to teachers and administration. My approach would be to let competing districts learn from their customers which size schools are preferred and let the market take over. And, the Senator would likely get his smaller school size wish.
I repeat again, parents in Clark County are in favor of breaking up the Clark County School District by a two to one margin. I may not be worthy of the Senator's attention, but surely these parents are.
Doug French, Liberty Watch Columnist
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