I was on Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox News Channel Thursday night to discuss my op/ed in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal.
I would give highlights but the interview lasts only 4 minutes.
We hit the main themes of my WSJ op/ed.
One point I was hoping we would get to is my point that I made in the WSJ piece about why public schools are so dominant. Let’s say you find a relatively inexpensive school for your kid where the tuition is $8,000 annually. For it to be worth it to you, it can’t be just that you value the education at more than $8,000. The hurdle is much higher. For it to be worth it, you must value the private school education at at least $8,000 more than you value the public school education.
Here’s the transcript:
Joining me now is David Henderson, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. David, could unions actually be putting themselves out of business permanently with these charades? [DRH note: I’m actually not a senior fellow, but a research fellow. I’ve found, though, that when I correct the host, especially as the first thing I say, it can destroy momentum.]
DAVID HENDERSON, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTION: I think so and the reason is that what will happen I think is a lot of parents, potentially millions of parents will figure out where they’re going to do these learning pods, various things where they get a few kids together. I think they’re going to figure out how mediocre the public school system is on average.
INGRAHAM: Well, when you see that teachers through the union reps are now trying to dictate the terms of even their online teaching, I thought that was — I literally thought that was something from the onion (ph) or something, a total joke. They’re not going to go to class because they’re worried about the virus. OK, even if you disagree with that, OK. But now, they don’t want to actually teach online either.
So, what’s the point of having these public schools in these circumstances? And look, I come from a family of teachers and I really appreciate great teachers. I went to public schools. I had fabulous teachers in Connecticut, loved my teachers. But this now is just pulling the curtain back on all of this.
HENDERSON: Yes, it is. So, I wrote a piece in The Wall Street Journal today and saying there could be a renaissance in K-12 education because when this ends, whenever it ends or whether — when it seems to end, a lot of parents I think will not want to go back to those mediocre schools. And I mean pre- pandemic mediocre schools and they might want to continue homeschooling. There’s polling data that says 40.8% of parents are inclined to home-school when this ends. I think that’s overstated, but even if a third of them do, the number of home-school kids would almost quadruple.
And then there are also charter schools. Those things are thousands of dollars cheaper per student per year. And so, I think a lot of parents will start pushing for those. People who have been kind of passive about this might start pushing to have charter schools.
INGRAHAM: Yes, Catholic schools as well. A lot of them are–
HENDERSON: Yes.
INGRAHAM: — bucking this no in-person teaching and understand the importance–
HENDERSON: Right.
INGRAHAM: — of parent involvement, but teacher to student interaction, it’s so essential if you’re going to go that route.
HENDERSON: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Listen to what Biden said when he was addressing the National Education Association earlier this month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: There’s a bottom line here. We win this election, we’re going to get the support you need and the respect you deserve. You don’t just have a partner in the White House; you’ll have an NEA member in the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDERSON: Oh, wow!
(LAUGHTER)
INGRAHAM: David, that is a shocking admission in any election, but particularly now that the unions are striking really against the kids — they’re striking against kids at this point.
HENDERSON: Yes. And so of course, the problem is the standard problem with unions. That it’s very hard to fire someone who doesn’t perform. You put union and government together, and you’ve got those two problems multiplying each other, and that is very hard. That’s why charter schools – – that’s one reason charter schools are very good. It’s much easier to get rid of non-performing teachers, and it tends to attract teachers who really want to teach.
INGRAHAM: Well, if you’re an essential employee, which they are essential employees, unless they have a severe co-morbidity, they shouldn’t — or extremely vulnerable, I don’t understand how they get away with any of this. But this is the governors and the mayors and Larry Hogan in Maryland and Ralph Northam in Virginia, both of them are complete outrageous.
I’m getting parents calling me morning, noon and night also in D.C., of course. And this is where parents of all backgrounds, races, ethnicities, all have to work together to say, “No, we don’t accept this,” or go a different direction altogether. David, your piece was fantastic. I’ll make sure to tweet it out. Thanks so much.
READER COMMENTS
Alan Goldhammer
Aug 1 2020 at 11:14am
Pick me up off the floor. Certainly in our area these do not exist. Perhaps some Catholic schools are in this price point but in looking at the Milwaukee WI voucher experiment, Parrish schools were only kept afloat through this system as most of the Parishes were going bankrupt.
Our synagogue has a nursery school that is supported by tuition. In order to provide a COVID-19 safe environment tuition was raised from $10K to $17K for the upcoming year and this is only for a 1/2 day school! The French International School is also nearby in our neighborhood. They just successfully petitioned the county to add NINE portable classrooms and a generator so that they can bring students back for alternating weeks of instruction. The school director said they hope these are a very short-term solution because of the high cost. One large charter school in Washington DC has already spent $300K getting things ready for opening (if they do in fact open).
This cost problem has to be addressed by both private and public schools. Costs are going to have to be off loaded on either the taxpayer or the parents who send students to private schools.
I would point out the cautionary story of the Indiana school that opened this past week and is already facing quarantines of student and staff because of COVID-19 infection. There is also the story of the large summer camp outbreak where everyone was initially free of COVID-19. Do you really think opening of schools will be much different irrespective of their source of funding?
I have been resolute in favoring opening of schools but with a need for proper guidance as outlined in the National Academy report. Unless the costs and risks are addressed it is a fool’s errand.
Goophee
Aug 1 2020 at 10:39pm
AG:
“off-loaded on taxpayers”. More socialism. Or do we exclude taxpayers whose children attend exclusionary/religious indoctrination/$$ schools? Taxpayers without children? All society benefits from well-educated members, so robust/successful public education is of paramount importance. Only way to finance this would appear to be socialism, like our military, transportation, NFL, etc.,. So I see the necessity/benefit. Simply label it HONESTLY, so as to take the “boogeyman” aspect out of a much utilized and much maligned term: SOCIALISM!
Craig
Aug 2 2020 at 11:21am
“Pick me up off the floor. Certainly in our area these do not exist.”
But there is a reason why they don’t exist. If we all paid taxes and the government supplied a Ford Focus every 5 years at no cost, would you ever buy a Chevy Cruze? Sure, you might sell a handful. At the end of the day whoever is buying the services of private schools must continue to pay the taxation to support the public schools and that has a fundamental impact on the offerings in the market.
Alan Goldhammer
Aug 1 2020 at 2:31pm
Maybe I am be targeted by some form of Econolib cancel culture but the post I made has since disappeared. I’ll post it again minus any hyperlinks. If this one disappears, I’ll take it that the deletion was deliberate and won’t post any longer here.
ORIGINAL POST:
Pick me up off the floor. Certainly in our area these do not exist. Perhaps some Catholic schools are in this price point but in looking at the Milwaukee WI voucher experiment, Parrish schools were only kept afloat through this system as most of the Parishes were going bankrupt.
Our synagogue has a nursery school that is supported by tuition. In order to provide a COVID-19 safe environment tuition was raised from $10K to $17K for the upcoming year and this is only for a 1/2 day school! The French International School is also nearby in our neighborhood. They just successfully petitioned the county to add NINE portable classrooms and a generator so that they can bring students back for alternating weeks of instruction. The school director said they hope these are a very short-term solution because of the high cost. One large charter school in Washington DC has already spent $300K getting things ready for opening (if they do in fact open).
This cost problem has to be addressed by both private and public schools. Costs are going to have to be off loaded on either the taxpayer or the parents who send students to private schools.
I would point out the cautionary story of the Indiana school that opened this past week and is already facing quarantines of student and staff because of COVID-19 infection. There is also the story of the Georgia summer camp where everyone was initially free of COVID-19. One counselor was sent home ill and then, bingo, over half the camp got infected and was closed. Both stories are in today’s New York Times. Do you really think opening of schools will be much different irrespective of their source of funding?
I have been resolute in favoring opening of schools but with a need for proper guidance as outlined in the recent report from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Unless the costs and risks are addressed it is a fool’s errand.
KevinDC
Aug 2 2020 at 9:56am
Your original post is still there. With the hyperlinks.
BC
Aug 1 2020 at 3:22pm
Why do we even have public school teachers unions or government employee unions generally? We are told that government institutes labor policies to protect (both government and non-government) workers and, more generally, institutes policies beneficial to society in the face of externalities, power imbalances, etc. So, if government acts in society’s best interests and government employees’ unions negotiate against their government employers, then don’t government employees’ unions act against society’s best interests? If so, then why would we as a society allow government employee unions? For example, why do we need teachers unions to ensure that opening schools is safe for teachers when government public health experts are already tasked with ensuring that all government policies, including school policies, protect public health? Private employers might disregard government recommendations but government policies, by definition, do not. On the other hand, if we think that government policies might not always be socially optimal so that government employee unions can push things towards a more socially optimal state, then why would we think that government acts in society’s best interests elsewhere, for example in regulating the private sector? Should we defer to government policies in dealing with this virus (and in other labor matters), including school policies, or should we instead allow workers and their employers to privately negotiate these matters?
Dale Courtney
Aug 1 2020 at 6:39pm
Tuition in North Idaho’s premiere private classical Christian school is $5,000/yr. That is the full, non-subsidized price.
https://logosschool.com/admissions/application/
Daniel Klein
Aug 2 2020 at 11:40am
Excellent appearance, David, inspiring!
Exponents of CL needed now more than ever.
Thank you David, may more follow your lead.
David Henderson
Aug 2 2020 at 11:56am
Wow! Thanks, Dan.
George G Felder
Aug 2 2020 at 4:11pm
I attended Catholic schools from grades 7 – 12 and I loved them; they were considered , back then, to be the Premier institutions of learning and the competition of public schools. But , a price tag of $8000 is way too expensive and schools charging these high prices would not last.
Also, teaching positions , with decent pay, could be looked upon as being competitive, meaning , for the proper compensation , excellent teachers could be obtained. There is no law barring the re-establishment of Catholic or private schools.
But , we have a larger issue now: COVID-19. I myself take course but I am now attending classes , this semester, out of fear of catching the virus; teachers have this same fear. Bad teachers can be replaced , but teachers who refuse to teach , out of fear of the virus, are totally justified especially safeguards aren’t put in place for them as well as the students. Laura, neither you or your guest discussed this issue in any detail; this is a major , if not TBE largest issue that needs to be addressed.
Phil
Aug 3 2020 at 6:55pm
It must be difficult to respond intelligently to such incoherent questions.
Paul Wightman
Aug 4 2020 at 9:38am
I’m a recently retired PhD scientist having spent 38 years in private industry. I’m also an adjunct professor at a local private Catholic university. I’m deeply concerned about the fact that my grandchildren are not in school. I don’t believe that I’m entirely alone in these sentiments, but I would gladly volunteer to teach children in any setting using a curriculum chosen by any group of concerned parents, without pay. There are workable alternatives to a union/state controlled indoctrination centers.
Michael
Aug 15 2020 at 11:00am
Public schools have two big problems.
1. it’s hard to fire incompetent teachers
2. it’s hard to suspend or expel problem students
Comments are closed.