Education should not be something that involves competition.

Competition is a staple of this country. Since our roots we have encouraged people to set out on their own and discover their riches. People like Milton Friedman advanced the idea of competition by showing that it could be applied to other aspects outside the business world.

School choice was Friedmans idea. This program, for those of you who do not know, is based on the idea of free market competition. It seems like a bipartisan group of people support this: on one side there is the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and in the same bracket is the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. It seems like a great idea.

But there are many problems with the school choice program. Most important is the ideological application behind the program and the way the program is instituted now.

The first problem is with the application of market-based principles in education. The problem with this is that education, at least in my esteemed opinion, is not a quantifiable product in the mathematical sense.

Albert Einstein is the most obvious example of someone who did poorly in school but then made miraculous advances in our epistemological history. I could mention many friends who are of the most inspired minds that inexplicably hover around the 2.8 GPA mark (the opposite of this holds true, as well).

Yes, competition does tend to create better products in the commercial world, but, it also has its problems.

These are problems that, if they occurred in our education system, would spell disaster for our society. Think only of Enron and the other corporate scandals that come to light every so often (currently: student loan industry problems. Look it up verbatim on Google.)

Competition breeds short cuts and kill-or-be-killed mentality. It is hard to expect educators to operate their best with a gun to their head. Education is not building a product faster; it is responding to the multitude of needs of the different students.

Teachers do not make a lot of money on average, regardless of the rumors you have heard. A $30,000 yearly starting wage is peanuts to pay for the effect teachers have on a childs future.

It makes you think about why the only stories on television involving teachers are negative and never about how a certain teacher made that woman the CEO she is today.

My second criticism is the way in which the program is being used today. A full 70 percent to 80 percent of the money that the state issues for the school choice program in Milwaukee goes to religious schools. Now, I believe in the whole first amendment, including the second half of it.

But I do not believe that the interests of the whole of Milwaukee should be lessened for the benefit of private interests, religious or otherwise.

I understand that private schools do a better job with the funds they are given than public schools. However, the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) system has to cater to a multi-faceted student population that private schools rarely have to face. Currently, private schools, even if they do get government money, do not have to allow people with disabilities.

They also do not have to conform with a bunch of other laws on the books applied to public schools. And, by helping prop up the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the education entrepreneur, who does this all hurt?

The kids, thats who. The kids whose parents are too screwed up to even think about trying to enroll their child in the school choice program. The kids who watch as their schools arts & crafts funding is sliced yet again, while a few lucky ones get transferred to better performing schools.

My point is that we can fix the system as a whole instead of working on bits and pieces under an impractical ideology. We should not support a program that has not shown tangible results “ test wise or in any other measure “ other than parental happiness.

Rather, we should return the money to the public schools and try to better the schools from the inside out. It is possible, and it can be done.

The best test results between different experimental programs were garnered by the smaller class size program done in-house by MPS. This proves that we should have a little more faith in our public education system here in Milwaukee, instead of so much apprehension of it.

By Ross Miller

Special to the Post

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