2008 Woodie Awards
20/20 host speaks on education issues.
Stossel advocates increased school privatization
Charlie Eichacker
Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: News
On April 22 Emmy award-winner and host of ABC's news program 20/20 John Stossel delivered a lecture in Ostrove Auditorium. In the lecture, which was sponsored by the Colby Republicans in conjunction with the Economics and Education departments, Stossel discussed education in the United States. Notably, he criticized the government's monopoly on education and strongly advocated a privatization of the United States' mismanaged K-12 public education system.
Stossel opened his talk with a brief discussion of his own life and libertarian beliefs after an introduction by Ralph Kettel '09 of the Colby Republicans. Stossel, who graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts said, "I thought I had a good understanding of how the world worked, which was that capitalism is okay, it brings us some stuff, but that it's by and large cruel and unfair and we need government to protect us from the capitalists, from their greed." But after obtaining a little bit of experience in the real world, Stossel said, "By contrast, the more I watched the greedy businessmen compete, the more I saw that they protect consumers just because of competition." Recognizing the social and economic efficiency of the free market, Stossel said, he wondered how to apply its advantages to the national education system. "Competition makes everyone serve consumers better," he said. "It's given us better homes, cars, food, clothing, everything. So why don't we harness it to teach the kids?"
This question regarding the benefits of privatizing the U.S. education system was a recurring theme throughout Stossel's talk. The primary reason Americans hesitate to accept such a shift in an educational system, Stossel said, is the fear of change. Furthermore, most parents believe their children go to an above average high school. However, based on a test by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, "not only are half of your schools below average, but American schools don't do as well as schools in other countries," Stossel said. After discussing his 20/20 program "Stupid in America," which compares the education received in American public schools with the education received in schools abroad, he discussed what makes schools in a country like Belgium more effective than those in the U.S. There are two main differences: those schools have both autonomy (i.e. the freedom to experiment) and choice (i.e. the ability of students to go the schools they want according to their interests). Without autonomy or choice, "the poor people are generally stuck," Stossel said.
Stossel opened his talk with a brief discussion of his own life and libertarian beliefs after an introduction by Ralph Kettel '09 of the Colby Republicans. Stossel, who graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts said, "I thought I had a good understanding of how the world worked, which was that capitalism is okay, it brings us some stuff, but that it's by and large cruel and unfair and we need government to protect us from the capitalists, from their greed." But after obtaining a little bit of experience in the real world, Stossel said, "By contrast, the more I watched the greedy businessmen compete, the more I saw that they protect consumers just because of competition." Recognizing the social and economic efficiency of the free market, Stossel said, he wondered how to apply its advantages to the national education system. "Competition makes everyone serve consumers better," he said. "It's given us better homes, cars, food, clothing, everything. So why don't we harness it to teach the kids?"
This question regarding the benefits of privatizing the U.S. education system was a recurring theme throughout Stossel's talk. The primary reason Americans hesitate to accept such a shift in an educational system, Stossel said, is the fear of change. Furthermore, most parents believe their children go to an above average high school. However, based on a test by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, "not only are half of your schools below average, but American schools don't do as well as schools in other countries," Stossel said. After discussing his 20/20 program "Stupid in America," which compares the education received in American public schools with the education received in schools abroad, he discussed what makes schools in a country like Belgium more effective than those in the U.S. There are two main differences: those schools have both autonomy (i.e. the freedom to experiment) and choice (i.e. the ability of students to go the schools they want according to their interests). Without autonomy or choice, "the poor people are generally stuck," Stossel said.
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