Stossel: Government-Run Schools Crush Innovation

[@vandertuber]

The teachers union kicked him out because he was too good at his job, and made the other teachers look incompetent. Exactly the opposite result of what we want.

[@romancandlefight1144]

unions...

[@vandertuber]

Sorry Lyn.

[@vandertuber]

Perhaps we need different Labor Laws. For instance, you can go on strike if you want, but I can fire you if I want. That would end a lot of the promotion of incompetence.

[@vandertuber]

Cy, technically unions do not guarantee employment. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA, Wagner Act) *29 U.S. Code Chapter 7* requires employers to reinstate striking workers at the end of the strike. Unions merely negotiate labor contracts with employers.

[@vandertuber]

Cy, certainly they do! They contract for seniority preferences that exclude young competent workers in favor of longer serving incompetent ones. But their *POWER* comes from the ability to strike without getting fired. See www.nlrb.gov/strikes.

[@InfiniteLight4]

I am a sixth grade teacher in a public school....and Stossel's report nails it.

[@misha49ish]

I hope Stossel lives forever and keeps making new videos...

[@ElGeecho]

Stossel's content on ReasonTV has been really good.

[@snowratak]

Reforming the school system isn't only about changing where the funds come from, but it's entire structure. Government regulation and standardized testing has stunted one of the most important elements of any great society.

[@SovereignStatesman]

No, goverment SOCIALIZATION did it. If government regulations simply required parents to provide minimal education for their kids, as a regular part of parental duties; then kids' education would have the same quality as everything else that parents CURRENTLY provide-- i.e. a fair product at a fair price. But government TOOK OVER education, not for quality but POWER.

[@takesnosides3814]

If the United States offered school choice, I would leave teaching at public schools and open a small scale education business. It would be a combination of paid online courses and small, in person, teaching. When I first got into the profession, I had a lot of misconceptions about teachers and teaching in general. For one, I thought that the profession was about talking all day and taking summers off. Nothing could be further from the truth. For every hour of teaching I do, there was about 6 hours of prep required to make the baseline lesson. Granted I can use that lesson over and over through the day, but, there is additional prep tied to making sure that the lesson is modified for the group I am working with. For instance, if I have a student in my group who is deaf, having a video clip with just audio is not going to cut it - I have to find a way to make sure that student knows exactly what is going on in that portion of the lesson. Even if I already have a lesson prepared, the process of going through student work and assessing it takes the most time. If you are doing your job right, you have to look at each student's work and question why they got the results they got - even if they got it right. Did they get it right because you connected with them? Is the course too easy and do you need to step up the challenge? The problem with that is that I, like most teachers have 100+ students between my various rosters. That's 100+ assessments every single day. Some are easy assessments to quickly get a reference of where a student is at. Others take days to go through effectively. The final and biggest problem for most teachers is student engagement, hence my first statement. I think the biggest problem is that we are expecting students to perform when they are put in a classroom without a choice of being there or the teacher having a choice over whether or not they wish to teach the student. Ultimately the teacher and parent should have that negotiation, and no one else - much like extra curricular activities. This isn't to say that I don't love teaching students who have difficult behavior. There is difficult behavior for a number of reasons that are not the fault of the parent or kid. However, there are circumstances in which the student is so vindictive and angry at being forced to be there that they take it out on the teacher and their classmates. That has to stop, or else we will always be lagging behind. Give those students alternatives, if necessary, let them or the teacher discover who the common denominator is. If a teacher is constantly losing students because the teacher can't teach well or has a short temper, maybe they need a different profession. If the student gets kicked out of school after school, they may need therapy more than school at that time - adults take sabbaticals, why not kids? These are all things we need to consider going forward.

[@kandysman86]

Baron VonPolity yeah, like not having the same teachers deaching deaf kids as all the others. We can't teach to the slowest and expect exellence.

[@CurtHowland]

Baron VonPolity there is choice. Compulsory attendance is a rare exception now. Parents are still robbed at gunpoint to pay for the"schools" they don't want, that's still better than the child abuse of imprisonment in the "school" itself.

[@takesnosides3814]

There is truth to that, yet at the same time there is a dangerous thought process behind that that needs to be acknowledged. Too diverse a population (in terms of ability) can, for sure, wreak havoc on the effectiveness of teachers. Their employers can tell them to "differentiate" all day, but if you put 10 special education students with 10 different extreme needs into a class with 15 other students performing around grade level - the 10 are going to eat up a lot of your instructional time, and the other 15 are not going to get as much of your focus. That is a fact for any teacher that differentiates, and to be honest, that is setting up that class for failure. However, schools often do that because they have a limited number of teachers and sometimes large populations of students. A parent with a special needs child in a small district might run into the problem of the school having no existing resources for their child. A parent from a large inner city district may run into the problem of their child being put in classes that are far too large to accommodate the needs of their kid. The problem can also be the reverse, which is assuming that a homogenous population of students is possible, or even helpful. For example, with that deaf student - which is definitely a special need, - they may not perform very well at a school targeted at their deafness. This is because, even if you account for that disability, that does not account for their academic willingness or ability. Some students with deafness need to be among their academic peers more than they need to be among their disability peers. Another good example of this are students with clinical behavior disorders. I don't mean kids who get upset, that's all kids. Some of those kids have chemical imbalances, some come from a life of serious trauma. In certain cases they may need just one on one or small group instruction with people just like them so they can learn while having someone who can focus on their needs if something goes wrong. In certain circumstances they benefit immensely from being put in a large class with high performers - because the competition and the serious academic environment keeps them focused.

[@takesnosides3814]

There isn't enough choice, and certainly not as much as there could be. There are literally thousands if not tens of thousands of certified teachers who can't get jobs in my field. If even half of them were able to open a small private education business with vouchers, you'd see many more instructors per pupil. The other problem is the intense licensing process. There are literally millions of Americans with the Math know how that exceeds the middle school level. They are not allowed to teach middle school math unless they have the proper license. Why? I don't see the reason why a person with a good handle of math and decent communication skills can't open a small "school" and teach 3 or 4 students for a little extra voucher money. The problem is that the money is tied up in complex restrictions and parents who are already paying for their education with taxes are not willing or able to pay people running small private companies. That should change.

[@CurtHowland]

I couldn't have said it better myself. At every turn, government prevents innovation, stifles competition, retards growth. No vouchers! That is just perpetuating the evil, and creating government control over private efforts. Abolish the taxation, and people wouldn't be so poor in the first place.

[@darthmoodydiah2796]

Lol, typical union: "you're working to hard, you're making us look bad."

[@mychevysparkevdidntcatchfi1489]

Escalante was great, but his feat wouldn't have been possible without equally great Principal, Henry Gradillas. He has a book out called "Standing and Delivering". I've personally known both, and I lament how great US education would be if more educators, teachers and administrators, are like them.

[@Tenebrousable]

They are paid to not be like them. Or rather, paid the same, with less than half the work. Central planning in full swing. Our parents are arseholes for getting duped by the socialists.

[@mychevysparkevdidntcatchfi1489]

They were more interested in doing good despite the meager pay and strong opposition. In fact, they seem to relish in the fact that they are making a difference and fighting the system. My point is not more educators fight the system like they did.

[@DanJen]

The free market gives us so much amazing stuff and innovates so many essential services yet we've all decided that cel phones, computers, Uber and KZbin benefit from the free market but education and health care, to name a few, can't. We rarely even try to apply free market principles to those but when we do, the results are spectacular. Yet, we dismiss those amazing achievements and go back to the status quo, usually after some industry group, governmental agency or union feels threatened. We trust so much of our lives to the free market but when it comes to some of the most important things, we trust government. Why is that? And by we, I don't mean everyone. Some of us know the score.

[@harmanjotsingh4230]

Totally agree, most people cherry pick the results though since they are too overwhelmed by the idea of privatised this and that and government interventionism is at all time time high. Why is it that so many people say they learned more from youtube than school? KZbin is pretty much a player in the market economy after all.

[@10tenman10]

I want Jaime Escalante to teach at my school. Hard work generally pays off.

[@RocketmanRockyMatrix]

10tenman10 RIP Jaime Escalante

[@CurtHowland]

The first and best thing any parent can do for their children is get them OUT of government"school".

[@aquaticplantsavage6625]

Now that I'm an adult, I wish school taught me 1: taxes and financial planning, 2: healthy living, 3: yoga and meditation, 4: Jobs and work ethics

[@zombiedude347]

The 3 episodes are pretty good. Of course, what fully needs to happen is to simply get rid of government funding and regulation of schools completely, instead of using the voucher systems that just redirect funding.

[@slimishshady]

The biggest problem in the US education system is that we are teaching to a test and not for practical use. Teachers in America are so pressured by the test and the time constraint to prepare for the test that they spend more time cramming knowledge down students throats to be regurgitated than teaching their students why, how, and where things will be use full. We need more real world application and less standerdized testing in schools. I passed my math exit level tests with flying colors but a year later when taking my entry level bench marks for college I had forgotten almost everything passed 8th grade pre algebra and ended up taking 2 remedial courses to get back on course. Just to paint the picture more clearly, I have an IQ of 146 which means I learn pretty quickly and easily but even I had trouble storing the information for long term use.

[@MyCatFooed]

*Fantastic reporting!!!*

[@BuyTheDip627]

I watched the 3 part series last week

[@gi169]

Thanks Mr. Stossel. I know I'm going to enjoy this series...

[@r.blakehole932]

Want to improve education in this country? Two things and only two things are needed. 1) Break and get rid of teachers unions. 2) Get the government out of education at all levels and, leave that money in the hands of parents. OMG, you say! How horrible! Some kids from poor drug addicted parents might not get a good education. Well, in my years in business I saw hundreds of graduates of high school from good parents that could not write a coherent sentence or add two plus two and consistently get four! In other words, how could it be worse! The only kids I saw come into work prepared to actually function were home schooled kids or kids from private schools. Modern public schooling is educational malpractice of the worst kind!

[@malcolmt7883]

Standing in line, hands behind your back, obeying commands... grade school is a lot like a prison for kids.

[@planbenterprise]

Stossel. Good catch Reason. Good catch.

[@mrow7598]

One teacher made the other teachers look bad so the UNION fired him... Could it be the biggest problem with our schools today is the UNIONS?

[@stevencaruso825]

Note: While education bills have tripled since 1960, population has almost doubled. Not exactly a one-to-one increase, but it's worth noting.

[@NeverDoubtMe23]

Seven teacher union employees do not like this video....

[@michaelcepero1572]

Couldn’t agree more!

[@EmberwildeProductions]

Education is not analogous to personal audio players. Education is not a business. It is a public good, like police, fire, courts, infrastructure, and healthcare. A survey of best practices in education worldwide reveal a few commonalities: 1) well trained, well paid, well respected teachers, 2) small class sizes with personalized attention, 3) teacher control over their own curriculum and responsive to student learning styles. And there are many technological, curricular, and cultural innovations in education. The fact that kids today know how to do and achieve things in school that their parents didn't even have in existence is an example of this. High school graduates today know much more about photography, video, web design, computer science, and many other relevant fields.

[@drew9114]

How are those things not a business? Someone needs a service and is willing to pay for it, someone else is able to offer that service in exchange for payment.

[@kyeraff]

Yes yes yes! This is my passion. This is my dream! cannot wait for the next video!

[@DoctorMandible]

TIL Google was unheard of 10 years ago.

[@Apocryphon1]

The US needs to create self sustaining schools. These are FREE private schools. This would be the most disruptive event in the system. There are hundreds of these schools in third world countries- we need these here.

[@JasonGuyphotography]

Link to part 2?

[@-dean_is_in_house-2370]

I know personally how bad our education system is . Math. failed Language arts . failed Science. did ok I can't spell worth a crap have bad grammar I never got division down, barely making it through Middle school It got too be to much that I dropped out when I turned 18 Not even switching to homeschool in 8th grade could help I have learned more though KZbin and researching topics I'm interested in then government schooling

[@THEcamobackpack]

I was originally skeptical when I saw the title but I can agree with some points in here.

[@LibertyDownUnder]

That's a pretty good offer. Teachers, do you want a raise? You can get up to $100,000,000 if you're good.

[@David-qi1ys]

They want the raise. They don't want to be told they have to earn it by being the very best.

[@mackcummy4976]

Glad I live in Canada.

[@DrKen3000]

I've actually thought that Virtual Reality would change schooling forever, instead of reading about American history, be in American history, be standing right there while it's happening in front of you. Try science experiments no matter how dangerous they can be, do math with your instructor on a virtual white board, do workouts and play active video games like beat saber for gym class, so so so much potential for a VR schooling program.

[@TickedOffPriest]

It is (likely) not that those teachers are paid more, but they also have to compete for that job.

[@eXcommunicate1979]

TickedOff Priest Competition for a job drives down wages.

[@skippylippy547]

WOW !!!!!!!

[@AflacMan13]

Laziness. The problem... is laziness... and greed.

[@SovereignStatesman]

Obviously it's because government gives schooling for "free," making private schools a luxury that few can afford. If government regulations simply required parents to provide minimal education for their kids, as a regular part of parental duties; then kids' education would have the same quality as everything else that parents CURRENTLY provide-- i.e. a fair product at a fair price. But government TOOK OVER education, not for quality but POWER.

[@AncientSecretz]

Wow now that is a teacher! I wish I had, had him!

[@fullerhunt1326]

I was one of those teachers like Jaime...The public school system did everything they could to destroy me and my students.

[@Knowitol]

Can't forget that schools serve two functions, education and babysitter. Unfortunately emphasis seems to be on babysitting.

[@scruffynerfherder4877]

Currently Schools serve only one function - indoctrination

[@shpooplers6324]

Yes

[@91Durktheturk]

Isn't the spending rise in the school sector explained by the Baumol's law, where a service sector such as schools or health care gets more expensive when labor productivity in other sectors rise? Lets say you see a rise in labor productivity in non service sectors, you will see that wages will rise in these sectors. Due to market effects, these wage rises trickle down to service sectors such as schools and health care as well, which makes them more expensive, without seeing additional innovation or labor productivity in these sectors.

[@chris0000924]

jemoeder Problem is most of the money goes to Administrators and teacher unions

[@ShaneStroud]

This is one of the biggest problems in America behind the breakdown of the nuclear family.

[@l.g.3124]

the public's education system in my city ruined a generation of students. they run schools like prisons here.

[@Kalenz1234]

I went to university because I wanted to become a teacher. But I gave up after I noticed how limiting the system was. Teachers have to rush through a pre given curriculum which minimal financing and cant slow down to help students which fall behind. The also is very little room for improvised and different teaching methods. And that's in Germany which doesn't even do that bad on a global scale.

[@kalebercanbrack8857]

Next video pls

[@mjallen1308]

No innovation in teaching? With video conferencing, chat and interactive screens, teachers can now provide one on one teaching or teach a group and the students can now interact more with their teachers. There may not have been a huge overhaul but there's a lot of small innovation in the teaching field.

[@joeyGalileoHotto]

The coronavirus allowed all that to happen overnight

[@diamondportal77]

In Canada I think public schools are too soft on the kids. (Not sure of private schools) I think their should be some redoing of some classes if they fail said classes.

[@darrinEH]

diamondportal77 I went to private school in Canada K- Grade 8. Public high school was a breeze. Math especially. They should let kids learn at their own pace and branch into subjects they're interested in.

[@anonony9081]

The state poisons everything it touches.

[@danielmills7801]

Why did he say 1997 was a decade ago? Was this made In 2007 or did someone forget to fact-check?

[@MyContext]

So, we need only change the system. It need not be private.

[@Misterlikeseverythin]

The only responsibility of the government should be the enforcement of the constitution, which should be the only book of law that everyone can read and know.

[@JGeekBox]

Finland...Iceland...

[@Grand1Admiral]

It happens all the time

[@EileenTheCr0w]

So basically more competition though less regulation would be the solution like in every other industry.

[@a.j.deutsch1792]

School in my State Pennslyvania just want is to pass the state test and feed us the information that are only on the test. They rely on getting paid by the state test or the school does. All they went is us to pass the dumb test but it is so dumb. My uncle knows this too but he is from new england. Also school is all around that state testing now and it is so dumb. Why even have the state test? We all ready tested on those subjects before.

[@森太翔]

When people talk about Schools, and Education and improving education and so on, first they have to properly and clearly define what do they want. What is the goal. They want kids to graduate schools knowing what? A particular part of history? Math? Geography? Biology? Chemistry? What do they think kids should know, and why. That's the question. If you want kids to memorize information so they can pass a test, good, then copy Korea. For the past 50 years, what exactly has came out of Korea? How many Nobel Laureates have they produced? How many revolutionary new discoveries and inventions have they produced? How many new successful businesses have they produced? The answer is non.The 3 companies of Samsung, Hyundai and LG make up more than 50% of their entire GDP, and all these 3 companies were made in the 40s and 50s, and the people who made them didn't even finish high school. If you want kids to learn ''critical thinking'', then you have to first define it, and then start teaching it, but if kids had critical thinking, they would fail all tests, and most would drop out of school by the age of 15. My opinion is that, the only purpose of this institution we call school is to teach kids how to read, write and maybe do very basic math. That's it. Everything else they want to now, they can find it themselves and learn it on their own pace, on their own way. Which is how i learned everything i know. If schooling was mandatory only for about 3 to 5 years, just enough so kids learn to write, read and do basic math, then there would be a lot private schools that specialize in particular subjects, so if a kid gets interested in knowing about geography, he can go to that school to learn more, if he decides he is no longer interested, he can go to another school and learn about motor engines and cars, then go learn about history, or dinosaurs etc.

[@森太翔]

''Improving'' as defined by children scoring high on exams? In countries like Korea and Japan, the school system is extremely centralized, and there is no freedom to change anything, you can't change curriculum, you can't change anything, there is a rigid centralized curriculum and program people are indoctrinated to obey and memorize, that leads them to scoring high on tests. If you want American kids to score high on tests, you should emulate Japan and Korea, if you allow more freedom to change curriculum and programs, the likely outcome would be that children will not score high on tests. So, you would have to define the outcome you want to see, and defend it against the critics.

[@jebbush8491]

Good critique, we need a complete overhaul as to how to educate. Especially with modern technology it should be easier then ever to custom make curriculum that both account for societal needs and for personal self-fulfillment. Khan Academy, Lynda shows a glimpse of that. I would like to see a return to apprenticeship for teens, I hate how the barrier to the working world gets bigger and bigger for youth.

[@robertojarrin3634]

I think the problem isn't government run schools, it's the teachers union.

[@doomshroom7682]

People who defend unions have never worked with unions.

[@thompson12345]

1997 to 2017 is not "a decade" it's two decades.. People knew what Google was 10 years ago.

[@thoughtlesskills]

Maybe if we quit de-funding them....

[@John-tx5or]

You mention sports stars, and likewise, if Joel Osteen can fill a stadium and televise his weekly sermons, than so can be education, filling stadiums and televised w/ charismatic and likeable 'stars'.

[@John-tx5or]

There's numerous youtube channels w/ educational lectures, like Crash Course... why do you need a teacher for every 20 kids when a video can be used for everybody? You'll need test graders, but even most of that can be done electronically. It's a huge savings to use these resources instead of paying so much in property taxes for education.

[@samking6851]

“How can I reach these keeds!”

[@corbanallard8419]

How anthem bad news is that selfish, resentful teachers destroyed opportunities for their students out of sheer jealously? That's reprehensible. That's why schools don't get better.

[@tmdrake]

Typical co-workers unionize against people who tryed making change.

[@CrankyOldNerd]

I Am uncertain that I buy the titles premise. if we stifled innovation so much, how did we get here to argue about it on the internet? Public schools ... now, if you were to say political infighting is starting to stifle, then absolutely. however that's a more recent development in the last ten years. /parent of four school attending kids from K to Junior in high school.

[@rafael17264]

i have already watched all 3 parts,and i love them.i immediately puted them in Favorites.and im very happy that john likes them too..i have some kind of feeling that all of us that love freedom and capitalism are fighting together and united for freer future

[@verfed]

To be continued? WTH?

[@Solrac1424]

Well charters are not something i would enroll my children in. I cant trust their education to hedge fund managers

[@svenmeier9706]

the government doesn t stand in the way of innovation. Sweden as you pointed out has tests running on alternative teaching and learning methods. Most importantly i guess is not tge school system but the parents and the teacher (as your example prooves) so i guess the governement should focus more on producing better teachers

[@svenmeier9706]

and yes the government should be in charge of schools and most importantly what is thaught in school

[@heymonkey65]

Sven Meier "The government doesn't stand in way of innovation." They, in this video, still fund school without giving a fore thought _how_ to improve it, and I'm pretty sure your Swedish government is similar in a way. ". . . Tests running on alternative teaching and learning methods." The fact that you believe that those methods can't be replicated without state intervention is just plain ignorant. In the free market, educators look for a way to increase the academic performance of their school thorough alternative methods of learning and teaching. Your government just fund it (subsidizing some methods), which is not innovative in its form. "So I guess the government should focus more on producing more teachers." They should stop intervening to subsidize teacher unions that make bad teachers equal in pay with their good counter part, and they shouldn't intervene in school affairs. P.S: Sweden is (mostly) a capitalistic free market, with business freedom up the eons. Source: www.heritage.org/index/country/sweden

[@svenmeier9706]

Actually i am from switzerland and as far as i know our teacher gather annually to discuss the future of our educational system and in which direction the school should move. Furthermore we have in my school experiments with alternative teaching materials (there was a class only working with IPads). The state has the authority to enforce new methods nation wide. It is a running, well organized system. It is really difficult to make fast changes. The students and the teachers have to reorientate themselfs which need time and effort. This is not an argument against innovations or changes but i want to stress that they dont come as quickly and easily as some libertarians think.(sorry for getting political). And no, educators in a free market are not really interested to find a way to increase the academic performance they care about making money with students and they do it not by necessarily be the best but to advertise the best and make parents believe to be the best. How do you want to measure the performance of a teacher? Which SAT the students score (i don't really understand how this works in the USA)? Because if thats the case than all of a sudden you will end up in an South Korean-ish school environment which is NOT healthy for the students. School shoudn't only exist to prepare the people for work. Students should also be formed as a person (philosophy, politics (very very objectively), social skills) the government wouldn't have to subsidize bad teacher if they educate the teacher better. Yes i know, Switzerland is too. I am not arguing against capitalism in general but against the naivity the libertarians. laissez faire and the idea of an invisible hand is not a general formula to apply on every issue (school and health care). Call me crazy but over here in Europe it s working rather well.

[@heymonkey65]

Sven Meier "And no, educators in a free market are not really interested to find a way to increase the academic performance: they care about making money with students, and they do it not by necessarily be the best but to advertise the best and make parents to be the best." I can't fathom on how you think that is an objective fact. It might happen in the free market, but that doesn't mean it's no longer considered a fraud because of lack of state intervention, they still be commiting a fraud regardless of the state's presence. If they not interested in increasing the academic performance, then they will lose their reputation as educators and no one will hired them on that basis. It's simple logic, man.

[@svenmeier9706]

please take a look at trump "university". The students lost a lot of time and money. was it fraud? Yes! Could it have been prevented? Yes! I want to insist on high standards and therefore you need a strong authority to enforce them. And how often do you want to change school until you found the one that fits you. Look you don't change schools like underwear so please act like that. I am in favor of public FREE schools but in case you want to visit a privat school you may do that as well. But they have to follow the same syllabus. There are a lot of christian privat school who put the bible in science class. I am sorry but i do not see how a privatisation would do any benefits. Financially only the rich who are able to afford to visit the good schools will profit. Yes there should be innovation yes there should be improvment and yes it should be as productive and effective as possible but please do not throw a running improvable system out of the window. PS: i guess this is common amongst libertarians to overestimate the flexibility and variability of arrangements. What do you do if there is not a talented teacher in your region. The cities will profit and the wast landscapes will suffer and no, to only visit classes in the internet won t do the job for children (as I pointed out earlier the social environment is really important). Living in a democracy it is necessary to have a well educated population. Recent elections show a lack of education and objective reasoning.

[@KurNorock]

Welp, time to go teach 2nd grade in Korea.

[@xedn]

Our nation has shit everything

[@eXcommunicate1979]

What if I told you that public education is intentionally being destroyed.

[@satyampatel491]

The answer is the teacher but how do you expect a teacher to work so hard if they get paid too little

[@kandysman86]

Satyam Patel missed the end of the video did ya?

[@BuyTheDip627]

Satyam Patel what about privatizing all schools?

[@reagrragrueighr4846]

Stefan Alexander sounds good to me

[@reagrragrueighr4846]

Satyam Patel this is false. Private school teachers get paid less then public school and they do much better work

[@satyampatel491]

reagr ragrueighr Private schools perform worse than public schools with the same level of funding especially for profit Private schools. Some Private schools do perform better than public schools because they are centered around gifted students only accepting gifted students into their school and/or they are strategically technologically based able to afford distributing student laptops and teach teachers how to use technology efficiently. The problem isn't public education as the top 5 nations in education: Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, Finland all have heavy emphasis on public education. Many Americans cannot afford Private schools and tuition and with Private schools the quality of education will vary even worse than it is now where poor people will be stuck with the worst schools and wealthy people will have the best schools.

[@hiltibosch5487]

Your title has nothing to do with anything

[@TheQsanity]

Competition based innovation is not what we want for childhood education. You're talking about creating systems that fail for many so few would succeed. Do we want to create systems that fail on so many of our kids?

[@heymonkey65]

TheQsanity Proof(s)? You asserted that competition-based education fails many students, and yet I don't see evidences supporting that assertion. Competition-based education gives way of teachers that are good a chance to prevail in that system, while the bad ones fail. They (the bad teachers) would have to alter their teaching method in order to build more human capital for competition.

[@Letrus100]

I would say that failure is what shows someone what is incorrect so they can correct it later. What do you think will happen if you don't let something fail by not making it improved? It would stay bad forever. Also in the long-term I highly doubt free market have "failed so many" in comparison to other systems.

[@donaldjgrav3yardguyy335]

Unions destroy teaching stop union maje teachers teach

[@ronaldarchibald2506]

Kid i know graduated from a private run charter school. He cannot read functionally. I am not impressed with private schools. Paid by graduation..

[@brandyb2931]

So instead of trying to improve your teaching you want to LOWER the bar. Sounds like the union to me.

[@LibertyLocalizer]

Mr. Cartmanez

[@EricEstesEleutherian]

I'd rather have mediocre government funded schools then allow for a single fundamentalist religious school.

[@drew9114]

Why? No one is forcing you to send your children there.

[@allenshepard7992]

I'd like to say "Duh" but "as a layman, I'm sure "I can not understand the education profession" Worse, I'm not sure kids know the value of a good education as "Everything they will need to know is on Google" and like spelling and grammar "There is an app for that" The old Science fiction books wrote of "comic book instructions". Sigh. Why did they have to be right.

[@kirmie44]

I like your videos but the fact that you always sound like your being sarcastic drives me nuts. It's like watching the sarcastaball south park episode every time I click on one of these vids

[@Donthaveacowbra]

I definitely think we can learn from other schools systems, especially foreign ones. I think seeking innovAtion like media players is you being asinine. Teaching methods will work for some but not all, and to an extent we are limited by the persons learning. Class sizes vary and larger sizes often times don't correlate well to improvement. Yea if you get people who WANT to learn and actively strive to take a class they will do well, but generally speaking we will always have those kids do well. Yes let's get them options to speed up and improve but it's those low hanging fruits we gotta be careful about as well.

[@Approx_99]

We all want to see our school system improve, but comparing innovation in technology to innovation in schools is like comparing apples to asphalt. All the software engineers of Facebook and Google made (and continuously improved) one giant algorithm, while teachers essentially have to write a specific code for each one of their students, but without stable learning environments (at home and school), good parenting and self motivation, there's no guarantee that "code" won't get overwritten. Making the statement "for generations, there hasn't been a single innovation in teaching that has transformed classrooms and improved student achievement WORLDWIDE. Why not?" (1:35) really makes a straw-man out of this argument. Has there ever been any innovation in education that would check all those boxes? Probably not. We all want to see our schools improve, but pulling one example of a crushed innovator (especially in California) doesn't set a convincing precedent for every school all around the country. Especially in something complicated as education, you can't cherry pick an issue and say that its the one universal root problem bringing down our school system. I'm interested to see what his solution is, but knowing this is a libertarian forum, I doubt its "de-fund sports and pay teachers" or "raise taxes so good teachers get rewarded".

[@t00thman]

Teachers' unions

[@Lustle]

Isn't it somehow against Reasons capitalist libertarian ways to piggyback off a PBS show. I mean, in their world they have made it clear they would eliminate any and all kinds of grants. Including the kind that keep PBS around. I have nothing against the program itself. Or PBS. Or ReasonTV. Just find it funny they have no qualms about working off of the work of a publicly funded broadcaster, when they would eliminate the funds for that broadcaster if they could.

[@jebbush8491]

Truth is truth, no matter where it comes from.

[@Lustle]

Never said it wasn't truth. Just saying there is some level of hypocrisy to use the work of a publicly funded program to help make your argument for privately funded programs. Don't you think?

[@Muonium1]

Soooo basically just a commercial for a pbs show? You can shuffle the 'deck chairs' on the Titanic of the American educational system ad infinitum, it won't matter. The only thing that matters is how much a society values education and intelligence vs sports and leisure. Korea is the mirror image of the us in that regard and it will likely never change. All of the charter schools in the universe won't change it, school choice won't change it, the occasional highly effective and innovative teacher won't change it. It has to come from the bottom up, with parents, with the intrinsic basic values of society itself.

[@Tenebrousable]

Who teaches the parents to have better intrinsic basic values? I agree it has to come from bottom up. But the central planning controll has to go away first. It'll go bankrupt a'la USSR and Venezueal eventually and then it will go away. I'd just rather get there without a 50% drop in GDP in few years first. Buy bitcoin.

[@Muonium1]

Tenebrousable no one has to teach the parents of the basic intrinsic value of education. In societies which value it, it is simply self evident.

[@Tenebrousable]

Meh? So how do we get from here to there?

[@Muonium1]

Tenebrousable We probably don't. Not until most of the genes controlling intelligence are identified and commonly modified before birth anyway.

[@DanJen]

Not buying that. America doesn't value education? I guess that's why we spend so much money on it. Many/most Americans value education. Unfortunately, we're being lied to by politicians, unions and bureaucrats about the solutions. They choose solutions that keep them rolling in money and power and present them as the only way forward. Charter schools, school choice, etc. have made differences when they are allowed to operate. You see those as flukes. I see them as examples of what unchaining the education system from government and unions could achieve.

[@donaldjgrav3yardguyy335]

Make

[@EARLandPEARL-c3i]

how about common core...isn't that a breakthrough?

[@Tenebrousable]

sarcasm I hope?

[@sponge2010]

You have to be kidding me, common core... a breakthrough? ............

[@RocketmanRockyMatrix]

silkhead44 Common core makes learning more confusing.

[@Allocated_Brain]

ok

[@AdviceandAdventures]

If you are going to criticize, Mr. Stossel, my first question is WHERE IS YOUR SCHOOL?!?! Where is YOUR innovation? Do you go to school board meetings?

[@chaoticoli09]

His job is to REPORT on these issues.

[@Unkn0wnGuy]

AR7271 so one must have their own school in order to point out issues with government run schools? Seems legit.

[@artiefischel2579]

Absolutely right. I'm sure the educational system will improve all on its own, without any critique. Historical performance as a metric is overrated anyway.

[@vaibhav2k13]

Why does these crappy arguments get likes?

[@user47362]

If your argument is true, then nobody can have any political views at all since not a lot of people can say that they ran a country before...

[@Royaleah]

Stossel has no sense.