Private Sector Involvement in Public Education - Example

Running header: Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: Education sector would be better if privatized There are various reasons why the government involves itself with the control of various sectors of the economy. One such reason is so as to ensure equitable distribution of resources. This is because some regions may be so hard to venture in such that the invisible hand of free enterprise may be unwilling to venture. Other investments may require such a huge capital outlay that the invisible hand of free enterprise may not be having, the free enterprises may also not be willing to risk more than is necessary given that the motive of the free enterprise is always profits. The government may also venture in some sectors of the economy so as to protect the poor from being overexploited by the invisible hand of free enterprise. However, past experience has shown that some sectors would perform better if left to the invisible hand of free enterprise than they are currently doing. One such sector is the education sector. With proper legislations to enhance control and access, the education sector would perform far much better than it is currently doing. This can clearly be affirmed by the current scenario in education. Currently, private schools offer far much better quality of education compared to the government run institutions. This is despite the fact that some of the schools are not as expensive as some people would want to depict them (Neweconomist.blogs.com). President Barrack Obama recently proposed extension of the school calendar. Arguments have arisen whether this will help revive the education sector. Some people have argued that the move is insufficient to help the US be at par with the rest of the world while others have argued the opposite. after his election to the white house, former president George bush attempted to reform the public education sector through the so called no child be left behind policy. These are examples of government’s efforts in reviving the sector. However, the problems that characterize the sector are not likely to be solved by such policies (Daun 300). For example, the no child be left behind policy implementation has seen the government pump billions of dollars to the education sector without much success being achieved. Extending school hours can not solve the problem either. The problem in the public education sector is not money or time. The problem is the sector is wholly run by the state. This can be explained by the fact that when government reacts, the private sector also reacts with the introduction of more private schools specializing in various areas. This is because government provided education is always unable to provide citizens with the kind of specialization that should characterize education (Samantha). Parents are forced to pay for education twice. Fist, there is the taxation to finance education and secondly the fees paid in the schools they choose to take their children. Public schools however are not even likely to give quality education to the children. This does not justify the high taxes paid. Good performance is achieved through the desire to achieve. However, people must continue paying hefty taxes and high fees since they assume that education must be provided by the government and can not be left to the invisible hand of free enterprise. However, the opposite is true. The desire to make profits would motivate the private developers to provide their customers with the highest quality of education. Teachers in such schools would get higher pay based on performance. Introduction of scholarships and help from charitable organizations would help the poor finance their education. This would remove the heavy burden from the government shoulders in addition to improving education standards (Joseph, 56). Our public education sector is characterized by several problems since historical times that have no signs of fading away. Many public schools are in financial crises which hinders the provision of quality education services. The fragile labor relations, old buildings and inferior facilities inadequate to provide educational needs and a variety of social problems faced by public schools personnel are the issues that characterize public schools. Public concern for the quality of education offered in public sector schools is also increasing. The qualities of learning in public schools continue to deteriorate. Public schools have been unable to provide for the children’s intellectual needs adequately. However, the situation is different in private schools. Most private schools are characterized by high quality infrastructure and modern learning equipment (Jonnason 173). This in turn raises the quality of education offered by the private schools. This is despite the fact that some private schools have fewer sources of funding than the public schools. The desire to attract more customers and hence improve profitability compels private schools to emphasize on the quality of education they offer. In fact, this state of affairs has made public schools to become the last resort for the poor in various societies since they are unable to afford private education. However, people with means do their best to avoid public education. This implies that if all people are financially empowered, private education remains the better option in comparison with public sector education (Caldwell 432). As stated above, the standards in the public education sector have deteriorated so much such that it has become the last resort for the poor masses. The question that arises is whether the government should continue clinging to the provision of private education simply because it is affordable to all. It is true that government schools are generally cheaper than private schools. However, “cheap can also be expensive”. When a child gets low quality education from the public sector, his ability to compete in the job market is put at risk. The most prudent thing for the government to do is to come up with ways and means of enabling the poor of the society to afford private education (Levin 65). In so doing, the government would not only have ensured that everyone gets education but it would also have assured everyone of quality education. The Government’s work should only be that of regulating education. Some of the ways in which the government can ensure that the poor can afford private education is through the provision of bursaries and scholarships for the needy cases. This will ensure that the poor of the society are able to educate their children in private schools. Another way of helping the poor access private education is by use of education vouchers. In fact, the proposal of using government funded vouchers in funding education is not new. Adam smith in 1776 called on the government to issue vouchers to parents to aid them purchase education. This is where the government will be financing education without direct involvement. This will ensure that everyone rips the numerous benefits that are inherent in the private education sector (Devereaux 98). The government is the sole finance provider for public sector education. Some times the level of funding per school does not cover all its financial needs. Furthermore, in various times the level of funding has been affected by the economic conditions prevailing in the country. Some schools are known to have closed before time simply because the funding they received from the government was inadequate to finance the schools for a whole learning term. A good example is the reduction in funding due to the economic crisis. When this happens, the schools are not able to finance the various activities they are expected to finance. On the other hand, private schools are able to attract funding from a variety of sources. This translates to better quality facilities in private schools than in public schools. Some private schools are said to have better facilities than many colleges and universities (Morrow 72). Private schools are therefore able to equip their libraries with better reading and research materials. Their laboratories are also better equipped. This implies that privatization of education will help schools access funding from a wide range of sources. This will afford the children better research which results to better quality of education. This will translate to better results and hence a complete metamorphosis of the education sector. Furthermore, to eliminate the inadequacies found in the public education sector, it would be better to privatize the entire education sector (Donovan 69). A research carried out by Gallup indicated that little or no learning goes on in public schools. The research involved 80 schools half of which were private. The result indicated that in 60 percent of the public schools no much learning activity was going on. The state of affairs was even poorer in the schools where head teachers were absent. The opposite was observed in private school where all stakeholders were observed to be seriously engaged in the learning process. The government has been blamed on emphasizing on adherence to rules while neglecting the quality of education offered by the public schools. A lot of seminars and workshops take place in the public education sector. The seminars and workshops are generally aimed at raising education standards. However, the government does not follow up to see that the recommendations of the seminars are implemented. This does not justify the big amount of monies spent in the seminars. Unlike the public sector schools, Private learning institutions are almost perfect at implementing recommendations. Therefore, they will continue performing better than public schools (Williamson 85). Furthermore, the government has been blamed for failing to motivate teachers and hence enhance competition. This is to a large extent blamed to lack of funds. Lack of motivation and competition prevents teachers from being aggressive in implementing their duties. On the other hand, if the schools were privatized, the entrepreneurs would come up with measures to motivate their teachers and hence enhance competition aimed at securing maximum number of students. The competition would result in better education standards. Furthermore, it is only in a private setting that performance contracting can be effectively implemented. The implementation of performance contracts will compel teachers to work hard in order to meet their contracts requirements. This will in turn translate to better results (Hannah 115). The greatest benefit of leaving education to the invisible hand of free enterprise is the elimination of bureaucracy that characterizes public schools. This means that teachers would have the ability to make some decisions that they are unable to make in the current scenario. Teachers would have greater freedom in making decisions that relate to their schools. This would eliminate the delays caused by the teachers having to wait for a higher authority to make decisions for them (Robertson and Xavier 475). The government should design contracts that will enable private developers to run former public schools. This would free the administration of the need to consult at all levels of decision making. This will eventually lead to enhanced and smoother running of the schools management. Privatizing education will ensure efficiency at all levels. This will in turn ensure that the same education that the government provides to all is provided at lower costs. The government will therefore save on some of money for other projects (Watson 139). The greatest pride that Americans can have is on the ability of their government to provide education for all. In fact, many prominent people have gone through the public sector education. This is the only means that the poor are given the opportunity to get educated (Winkler 16). However, the price of schooling is not the only aspect that one should consider in assessing the public education sector’s success. In fact, cost is less important when compared to the quality. It is the quality of education offered that determines the employability of the beneficiaries of an education system. Quality also determines the level of competence and professionalism that will be exhibited by the beneficiaries. Such measures as increasing the amount of spending on education have not been fruitful in enhancing the quality of education offered by the government. Altering the education calendar will not help either. The secret lies in letting the invisible hand of free enterprise venture into the sector in full force. In this regard, the government should come up with the necessary legislations aimed at freeing the sector to the free enterprise while ensuring enough checks and balances. The government ought to develop strategies of ensuring that the poor are given access to the private education. In so doing the government will ensure that no child is left out in accessing ‘quality education’. Work cited: Caldwell B. The self managing school. London: The Falmer press, 2007. Daun H. Learning reformation in the framework of globalization and public policy. Newyork: Routledge falmer, 2009. Devereaux J. Privatization, competition and schools and colleges. AEU: Melbourne, 2008. Donovan H. Private sector involvement in public education. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 2005 Hannah K. Education sector should not be privatized: The uncertainty principle. 23 Oct. 2009. 23 Apr. 2010. http://media.www.reflector-online.com/media/storage/paper938/news/2009/10/23/Opinion/Education.System.Should.Not.Be.Privatized-3811207.shtml Jonnason J. “Does the state expand schooling? A study based on five Nordic countries.” Comparative education review 47.2 (2003):160-183. Joseph, K. America: Independent enquiry on national education policy. Oxford: Oxford publishing house. 2005. Levin H. Privatizing education. Boulder: west view press, 2006. Morrow R. The state, globalization and education policy. In: globalization and education: critical perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2005. Neweconomist.blogs.com. should public schools be privatized? 2 Dec. 2007. 23 Apr. 2010. http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2007/12/norton-leigh.html Robertson S. and Xavier, B. “GATS and the education service industry: the politics of scale and Global Reterritorialization.” Comparative education review 42.4(2008):472-496. Samantha M. Privatizing education. 17 Nov. 2009. 23 Apr. 2010. http://www.ccsindia.org/ccsindia/people_sm_pvt_education.htm Watson, K. “Dependency vs. partnership: the paradox of educational aid and development in an age of globalization.” World studies in education 1.2 (2000): 123-143. Williamson J. Creating a learned American nation for 2010. Chicago: Thames publishers, 2006. Winkler D. Decentralization in education: an economic perspective. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2007 Read More