Diane Ravitch on Schooling

Econ talk had an interesting discussion on charter schools here.
My response.
I used to believe that vouchers could improve test scores but the data came in and it seems like Diane Ravitch is correct that vouchers and charter schools do not raise test scores. I do though think it's possible that tutoring or direct instruction could improve test scores but for the most part I think it is an intractable problem. We should admit that
But I disagree with Diane Ravitch on:

1. It is NOT true that 1 in 5 US children LIVE is poverty.  1 in 5 US children live in families whose market income before taxes and transfers is below the federal poverty level. NIMBY is a problem in some places though.
2. A Rational Argument Could Made that the USA has Best Education in the World and Florida has the Best Education in the USA
3. What we in the developed world call poverty is almost irrelevant to how well children do in school. It looks like it is relevant because parents' ability in school correlates with income but the children of very low income parents who did well in school do fine. For example, the children of poor grad students do great at school, as do the children of very low income Hasidic Jews. Taking a vow of poverty will not make your children do bad in school.

So IMO we should:

1. Since we seem unable to teach children more, put more effort into finding out what are the most valuable things we should teach and teach more of that and less of other things.
2. Cut the overhead to save money and let principles and teachers run the schools.
3. Force more direct instruction on the schools and teachers
4. Experiment with older student and volunteers tutoring younger students and teach doing more tutoring.

Realize that a school system the spends less for the same results is doing better.
Realize that there are only an insignificant number of bad schools in the developed countries (that does not mean they can't still get better). What we call bad schools are schools that have bad average students.

A Profit Opportunity?

There is a lot discussion lately of whether or not Federal subsidies to student cause tuition to rise and by how much. (here is one) The discussion extends to who captures the additional money that goes into the system and why the state universities are not lowering costs.

Harvard is awash in money, they charge tuition $30,000/year.  Harvard is quite a profitable not-for profit and yet Harvard has not increased its enrollment to even keep up with population growth let alone an additional amount for the fact that more people attend school longer.   If they did they could probably increase the bottom line but they are run by people that has other things in mind.  They are among the top hand of Universities in the world and are determined to keep that prestigious position.  They also know that the way to maintain that position is to reject a lot of well qualified students only taking the some best of the best.

I think that you that you could provide education some majors for as low as $2,000/year.  For example there are many well qualified, would be history professors with phd's available at fairly low cost, lets say full compensation of 70,000/year.

The obstacle is that to get respected a university needs to get enough applications from good students so that they can reject most of them and still fill the school.  That takes reputation and that is difficult to get.

A long term might be to hire some famous professors and start a school that charges no tuition.  This would allow you to attract some of those students that you need.

High School Should not Just Prepare Adolescents for College

Edububble excerpts:

High school, in short, should not just prepare adolescents for college and careers, but for successful lives as adults. And far from backing off modern notions of success, this approach actually embodies new understandings of what really helps people succeed: not just reading and math, but deeper life skills that aren’t reflected on exit exams or college applications.

I have been saying something like that for years.
Why is it that people complain endlessly about US children not do well on PISA and similar test but we seldom talk about what knowledge or skills would help them live better lives and what are the most efficient ways to get that knowledge and those skills to people.

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