The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Education, Immigration, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 7th, 2011
I heard a new point made the other day from someone who was arguing with someone else about whether immigrants should be allowed in America. I first heard the argument that immigrants pay less in taxes than they use in social programs and therefore are a net drain on the US. I won’t address that [...]
Posted in Education, Flotsam and Jetsam on Nov 20th, 2011
Now the kids are Occupying Wall Street! Is that child labor? Here’s my favorite part: “I’m for the arts,” Moogan told HuffPost. “I’m a singer and I’m an actress. In my school, we’ve been hit by the economy. Our parents have to pay out of their own pockets for dance, music and theater. That’s not [...]
Posted in Education on Nov 17th, 2011
In education news: Given the pervasiveness and enormity of these environmental problems, it is inexcusable that schools rarely teach students to evaluate their risks and reduce their exposure to toxicants in our environment,” say the book’s co-authors. “Examining our relationships with our environment is central not only to our health, but also to the health [...]
It is serially infuriating reading what amounts to “journalism” anymore. In an AP article on the decision of the Supreme Court to hear the ObamaCare cases, the author claims, “in America, a nation disdainful of big government and historically unable to guarantee affordable basic coverage to all its citizens.” People like me are disdainful of [...]
Posted in Education, Employment, Institutions on Nov 7th, 2011
Both from the proprietors at Marginal Revolution: 1. Here is Alex Tabarrok: “What astounds me is not that someone could amass $35,000 in student loans pursuing a dream of puppetry, everyone has their dreams and I do not fault Joe for his. What astounds me is that Richard Kim, the executive editor of The Nation [...]
Posted in Education, Environment, Institutions, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 2nd, 2011
I’ll keep this short, since merely raising eyebrows about such things has consequences beyond having oneself removed from polite company. As you all no doubt know, universities across the nation are enraptured with “sustainamania” – which is my term for campuses playing “keeping up with the Jones’” when it comes down to efforts to appear [...]
Posted in Education on Oct 24th, 2011
HT to my friend John B., whom I worked with when I lived in Pittsfield, MA.
Posted in Education on Sep 30th, 2011
Crackdown on “criminal” mothers who desperately try to enroll their kids in better schools: An African-American mother of two, Ms. Williams-Bolar last year used her father’s address to enroll her two daughters in a better public school outside of their neighborhood. After spending nine days behind bars charged with grand theft, the single mother was [...]
Posted in Education, Entrepreneurs on Sep 19th, 2011
Marcus Winters contributes to the growing literature demonstrating that K12 teacher effectiveness has nothing to do with their credentials: Modern research on teacher quality makes clear that the factors used to determine a teacher’s compensation tell us little to nothing about how well the teacher will perform in the classroom. That consistent finding has (or [...]
Some of you might be aware of the less “noble” origins of public schooling in America. Here is an illustration of early British attitudes toward it, from Bill Bryson’s At Home: Yet the idea of educating them (the masses) was treated almost universally with abhorrence. The fear was that educating the poor woudl fill them [...]
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