Bill Gates on why the brilliant Khan Academy is a force of social change

Re:Bill Gates on why the brilliant Khan Academy is a force o... by fourspace on Thursday March 03, 2011 @01:45AM (#2283124)

Just because you "don't have a problem paying" doesn't mean I should be forced to. Public school is not a choice; it's force. And, as we're all too familiar, it's quite often not a very good education, especially in lower income areas.

I have a child and there's no way I'm sending him to government school. I want him to learn everything he can get his hands on, not just what some bureaucrat decides he should learn. I don't want his education focused on passing tests that somehow measure a school's effectiveness; I want him focused on learning.

Vouchers are an admission that public school is broken and that competition is needed. The system is funded by force, not by the market. Instead, I propose that we stop trying to fix a broken system and instead replace it with one that works and isn't governed by politicians.

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Re:Bill Gates on why the brilliant Khan Academy is a force o... by SilentMobius on Thursday March 03, 2011 @06:30AM (#2283615)

Unless you describe the entirety of your obligation to society as "force" (All taxes, the requirement to abide by laws, facing ostracisation for failing to be polite/deferent where society deems appropriate) I think your use of the term is disingenuous. I could equally say that "I do not wish to replace a system dedicated to the public good with a system motivated purely by greed" if I wanted to be equally disingenuous.

Personally I believe that the current US educational "reform" movement is presenting a false dichotomy and that education can be reformed and made better without falling back on "Free market makes it better" because demonstrably in many cases is does _not_.

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