From: dave@hpdstma.ptp.hp.com (Dave Waller)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections,alt.politics.libertarian,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: The New Education President
Date: 12 Jan 1993 23:31:56 GMT
Organization: Hewlett Packard
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: hpdstma.ptp.hp.com

In article <1993Jan12.030024.15132@nmsu.edu>, dsteinbe@nmsu.edu (David Steinberg) writes:
|> In article <1isfpjINNb2@hpscit.sc.hp.com> dave@hpdstma.ptp.hp.com (Dave Waller) writes:
|> >In article <1993Jan10.152555.6734@nmsu.edu>, dsteinbe@nmsu.edu (David Steinberg) writes:
|> >
|> >|>    I don't think this will be a real problem.  I mean if you live in
|> >|> Demming, New Mexico (population 10,000 nearest other town 60 miles)
|> >|> your education won't be improved.
|> >
|> >Why not?
|> >
|> >-- 
|> >Dave Waller
|> 
|>    My reasoning was that we are dealing with a small town that is
|> surrounded by desert.  How many good teachers can possibly live there?
|> Are there really going to be enough to support 5 or 6 (or even 3 or 4)
|> schools.  If not, then what good is school choice going to do for
|> them?

I can see how you might arrive at this conclusion. However, simply because
there isn't the population to support 5 or 6 schools doesn't necessarily
mean that competition won't arise to attract the educational $$ of the
students in the area.

As it stands now, there is no incentive for an entrpreneur to set up shop
and compete with the public school(s) for their students in a place like
Deming. It is also likely that there is not enough private money in the
hands of the residents to provide an attractive economic environment for
the parents of kids in the area to be interested in private schools.

But what *does* happen in limited markets like you are referring to when
there *is* enough money to support a private alternative? As you would
guess, despite the fact that the population is not big enough to support
a large proliferation of suppliers, competition WILL show up if the
suppliers are doing a very lousy job supplying their product or service.

If each student in the Deming area had $5000 to use for their education as
they and their parents see fit, I have no doubt that there are plenty of
people in this country that would be quite willing to seize that market
and compete with the public schools to provide a superior education for
the same $$. If the public schools didn't shape up and improve in response
to this threat, they would simply close.

Then you would be left with 5 or 6 new schools better than the 5 or 6 that
were there to begin with.

Don't underestimate the creativity and resolve to be found in a pool of
250 million people. Note that a single classroom of 25 students at $5k
a head equals $120,000 dollars. I expect that the children of Deming would
occupy dozens of such classrooms.

That kind of money is quite sufficient to cause some quality businesspeople
and educators to step in and provide a better, competitive service than
what is currently being provided.

-- 
Dave Waller
Hewlett-Packard Co.
Workstation Systems Division
Sunnyvale Channel Partner Consulting
Xref: sparky alt.politics.clinton:20000 alt.politics.elections:24828 alt.politics.libertarian:3311 talk.politics.misc:66969