Florida State Fair and Education System

We ended up going to the Florida State Fair today. We planned to go next weekend, but the Fair ends on Monday. Our sole purpose for going was to see Florida agriculture and livestock as opposed to riding any rides or scarfing down overpriced fried goods. The weather shaped up pretty well, it was expected to rain early afternoon around 2pm but didn't start raining until after nightfall.

One of the highlights of the trip was a young [assistant?] principal of a local magnet school trying to sell us on the benefits of a public Florida education. It was cute, she seemed to really care, but was a bit surprised when we told her we were going to be pursuing home schooling. Luckily it was a family day or I would have laid into her with some Libertarian ideals about the freedom to choose and the dream of a free market education system that thrives on private, not government funds. Again, it was family day and there was no time for that.

To get on my rant about Florida education, we have billboards all over town for the Florida Lottery and their 900+ billion dollars to education. Pretty big number, huh? Now with a number like that, you wouldn't expect teacher's salaries being cut or at best staying the same (no cost of living increases). Couple that with the educational hindrance that is the "No Child Left Behind" act, public education is at it's worst. Even though so many people are anti-free market policies right now because of the current face of the economy, they are still policies that work, if willing to let themselves out. Unfortunately, big government America isn't big on riding out the waxing and waning markets, no one should ever suffer or have it bad (sic).

Not just education, but everything can benefit from healthy competition. Look at private schools, the best ones charge the most money, and have the longest waiting lists. Why? Because they are the best and people know it. The government intervention contributes to a form of "trickle-up poverty" when they try leveling the playing field so that the best stuff is available to the worst candidates. Quality decreases because there is no reason to do better than the next guy. Take universal health care in England or Canada. Google the horror stories, there are plenty of them to read.

Kinda went on a tangent there, back on topic: no public education for my child, not until conditions improve (if they ever do).