We Don't Need No Education...

We Don't Need No Thought Control...

All in All You're Just A Pawn in Paul Krugman's Wall

(Apologies to Pink Floyd)

Professor Krugman's analytical "death spiral"in general is tragic to watch, and his columns on health care are so lame that I have never bothered to dissect them. After all, he was once the best young economist of his age, and I alway felt ambivalent about challenging his absurd health policies - kind of like it was both above me and below me at the same time.

But now he's gone after the children.

In "A Socialist Plot" (New York Times, August 27, subscription only), he tries to drive a wedge between conservatives who advocate controlling the urge to expand SCHIP without end, and our apparently happy acceptance of government-run K-12 education. He test-drives a spoof conservative press release condemning the government for providing "free" (did I mention that Prof. Krugman was an economist? But he thinks government education is "free"!) education to kids whose parents could afford to send them to private school.

Remove "government mandates that force kids to get educated". (Actually, I don't recall a mandate that I "get educated" by the state. I remember a mandate that I sit in a chair for a dozen years in a state school, mostly bored out of my skull.) And don't let middle-class families send their kids to state schools: it crowds out private education. Etc.

For Prof. Krugman, this really is a hoot. Of course, "the great majority of Americans believe that everyone is entitled to a chance to make the most of his or her life". Which means, of course, that we support state schooling. The problem is that he's right.  And that's why it's so important to fight SCHIP expansion.

The notion that our ancestors loafed around illiterately until the government set up a public school system is erroneous. (The Institute of Economic Affairs has a nice volume on this topic.) However, because the state pretty much controls our lives from the age of four through sixteen, most of us simply accept the sub-standard state education as part of our "cultural wallpaper".

But it stinks. (That, I believe, is the theme of a forthcoming book by my colleague Lance Izumi and others, on why the middle class should support school choice). Nevertheless, a vast apparatus of state education bureaucrats and teachers' unions use the practically infinite resources at their disposal to stiffle dissent and promote their entitlement.

Which is also what the state health care bureaucrats and nurses' unions in Canada do, where they have succeeded in preserving government monopoly. Which is why organizations like the California Nurses Association agitate for government-monopoly health care here.

Which is why we have to stand up against SCHIP expansion, just like we stand up for charter schools and vouchers. Perhaps we should be grateful that Professor Krugman has reminded us of this.

But - Hey! Teacher! Leave those kids alone!