Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>> Frankly, I would take your system over the present one anyday. I just 
>> think
>> it can be even better if you don't have the restrictions, and let the
>> Invisible Hand do the work.
>
> But if your argument is the "invisible hand of the free market", shouldn't
> we then remove the requirement that public schools can't expel students
> either?

Yes, that's what I'm arguing.

> Shouldn't they be able to work by the same rules as the private
> schools?

Yes.

> That of course then leads to a (large) group of people who never
> attended any school.

I argue that would not be the case, and the number of expelled students is a 
tiny minority.

Remember that if you have a free market, a student expelled from one school 
can go to another school. This scenario is better than forcing the student 
to stay at one particular school. What if the school is the problem? Maybe 
he's being bullied, or the teachers are mean or indifferent?

This is very similar to the differences between capitalism or communism when 
it comes to employment. In a capitalist economy, companies are (mostly) free 
to "cherry pick" their employees, and to "expel" them for poor performance.

Soviet economists were boasting that "there is no unemployment in the USSR". 
State-run organizations could not refuse to accept an employee. Being 
unemployed was literally a crime punishable by law. The results were 
predictable: people were doing everything they could to work as little as 
possible, and demoralized those who actually tried to pull their share.

> I'm not sure you want to live in such a society. Gated
> communities for the educated haves (that means high-security complexes 
> with
> military-grade security, not just a "gate") that protect themselves 
> against
> and live in constant war with the uneducated have-nots is a natural
> consequence of something like this. I don't know whether any ideology is
> worth such a life.

You can't force anyone to get an education. It requires an open mind.

Those that don't want to learn, never will -- but I believe they represent a 
tiny minority of the population (less than 1%). It doesn't make sense to 
force them to stay in school, and let them disrupt the learning process for 
everyone else.

The voucher system will be fair to everyone: it's the same money that the 
government now spends on public schools, except now YOU can decide how to 
spend it.

That is really the only difference.

Vitaliy 

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