Dan McLaughlin

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To Home Page Latest Newsletter Column Archives Click to get these columns for your local paper	© 2007 Daniel J. McLaughlin Educational Competitiveness “We must confront the scandal of illiteracy in America”. “We must address the low standing of test scores amongst industrialized nations in math and science”. “We need real reform”. President Bush thinks the American education system is not working well. He is right. He is not right, however, about the cause and the cure. American companies and agencies that require highly educated, very competent employees are finding a lack of qualified candidates among American graduates. These organizations have to increasingly turn to graduates from India, China and other countries to meet the high level needs. It is apparent that something is broken. The education system is failing for students and for us as citizens. American education is the victim of central planning. Increasing centralized control over the workings of the system burdens schools and colleges with layers of regulation and removes control from the local level, where it is most effective. As Nobel Prize winner, F. A. Hayek, noted, the pretense of knowledge blinds planners to their own weakness and the damage they do. In his words, “To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm”. Much harm has been done. America also suffers from the equality delusion. The No Child Left Behind act (NCLB) is the current manifestation of that delusion in education. The NCLB assumes all students are equally intelligent, motivated, eager learners, and that if some students move ahead, others are left behind. It is a delusion because all students are not equally capable and motivated, and each student has different interests, goals and ambitions. They will take different career paths, some requiring or capable of little formal schooling, others requiring extensive education. The net effect of the requirements of the program is to hold every student back while trying to put square pegs in round holes. Every child gets left behind. India and China realize this. In those countries, high achieving students are put in a different track and given expectations to excel, to not be the same, to be unequal in their achievement, to leave other students behind. That treatment produces great students and desirable hiring candidates, the kind that high level organizations are craving. Even though those nations produce some very high quality students, they are not the pictures of education systems in full bloom. China has lots of rhetoric and some high published test scores, but the reality is that a significant portion of it’s population, especially in rural regions, goes without much formal education at all. India’s government schools are a mess, as Gurcharan Das, the author of “India Unbound”, puts it. Two thirds of the students in three of India’s largest states now attend private schools. Given American politicians’ penchant for manipulation and control, one important foreign policy initiative could help our students compete. Our politicians could work tirelessly to impose the burden of NCLB on India, China and other countries having the audacity to produce excellent students. If they could accomplish this, parents and citizens could sleep better at night, knowing that their education systems will be at least as uncompetitive as ours, and will be as effective as ours in holding the brightest students back. On the other hand, given our heritage as a free country and a free market, and the impressive record of progress before the heavy hand of excessive government in education, we could decide to unbreak the system by removing the Federal Government from any role in control or funding of education. The diagnosis is Department-of-Education-itis. The prescription is a radical Department-Of-Education-ectomy. Central planning in education is just as disastrous and self defeating as it is in any other area of life. Good education is essential for the continued progress of any nation. It is a grave mistake however, to believe that education is the long term engine for economic development. The long term engine for development is economic freedom and property rights. The demand for education arises from economic activity, and the supply of education would take place quite naturally, because of the demand for it. If there is a need, someone will be willing and able to fill it. The government education monopoly gives continual proof of how ineffective it is in fulfilling that need and making our students competitive. As the President says, “We need real reform”.
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Daniel Mclaughlin Copyright © 2006 [Daniel McLaughlin]. All rights reserved. Revised: 03/18/08

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Educational Competitiveness

“We must confront the scandal of illiteracy in America”. “We must address the low standing of test scores amongst industrialized nations in math and science”. “We need real reform”. President Bush thinks the American education system is not working well. He is right. He is not right, however, about the cause and the cure.

American companies and agencies that require highly educated, very competent employees are finding a lack of qualified candidates among American graduates. These organizations have to increasingly turn to graduates from India, China and other countries to meet the high level needs. It is apparent that something is broken. The education system is failing for students and for us as citizens.

American education is the victim of central planning. Increasing centralized control over the workings of the system burdens schools and colleges with layers of regulation and removes control from the local level, where it is most effective. As Nobel Prize winner, F. A. Hayek, noted, the pretense of knowledge blinds planners to their own weakness and the damage they do. In his words, “To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm”.

Much harm has been done.

America also suffers from the equality delusion. The No Child Left Behind act (NCLB) is the current manifestation of that delusion in education. The NCLB assumes all students are equally intelligent, motivated, eager learners, and that if some students move ahead, others are left behind.

It is a delusion because all students are not equally capable and motivated, and each student has different interests, goals and ambitions. They will take different career paths, some requiring or capable of little formal schooling, others requiring extensive education. The net effect of the requirements of the program is to hold every student back while trying to put square pegs in round holes. Every child gets left behind.

India and China realize this. In those countries, high achieving students are put in a different track and given expectations to excel, to not be the same, to be unequal in their achievement, to leave other students behind. That treatment produces great students and desirable hiring candidates, the kind that high level organizations are craving.

Even though those nations produce some very high quality students, they are not the pictures of education systems in full bloom. China has lots of rhetoric and some high published test scores, but the reality is that a significant portion of it’s population, especially in rural regions, goes without much formal education at all. India’s government schools are a mess, as Gurcharan Das, the author of “India Unbound”, puts it. Two thirds of the students in three of India’s largest states now attend private schools.

Given American politicians’ penchant for manipulation and control, one important foreign policy initiative could help our students compete. Our politicians could work tirelessly to impose the burden of NCLB on India, China and other countries having the audacity to produce excellent students. If they could accomplish this, parents and citizens could sleep better at night, knowing that their education systems will be at least as uncompetitive as ours, and will be as effective as ours in holding the brightest students back.

On the other hand, given our heritage as a free country and a free market, and the impressive record of progress before the heavy hand of excessive government in education, we could decide to unbreak the system by removing the Federal Government from any role in control or funding of education. The diagnosis is Department-of-Education-itis. The prescription is a radical Department-Of-Education-ectomy. Central planning in education is just as disastrous and self defeating as it is in any other area of life.

Good education is essential for the continued progress of any nation. It is a grave mistake however, to believe that education is the long term engine for economic development. The long term engine for development is economic freedom and property rights. The demand for education arises from economic activity, and the supply of education would take place quite naturally, because of the demand for it. If there is a need, someone will be willing and able to fill it. The government education monopoly gives continual proof of how ineffective it is in fulfilling that need and making our students competitive. As the President says, “We need real reform”.

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