A National Disgrace

What the New York Times calls the school system in the District of Columbia:

Washington has long been infamous for having the worst performing big-city system in the country. But The Washington Post exposed the scope of the problem earlier this summer in an eye-opening series. According to The Post, the city ranks first in terms of the budget share devoted to administration and last in spending on teachers and instruction. The imbalance is particularly disturbing, given that the District’s children fare worse at school than children in other big cities.

See the Washington Post's investigation on fixing D.C.'s schools and read Ronald Bailey's thoughts.

What about privatization as a partial solution? Competition seems like it could work wonders towards increasing school performance and incentivizing administrators and teachers in a positive direction.

See my previous posts on public vs. private schools and on the special report 'Stupid in America'. Here is the video of the report:



(HT Glenn Reynolds)