Regarding Liv Finne’s Oct. 22 Viewpoints commentary, “More money isn’t the answer for schools”: The Washington Policy Center is an independent, nonpartisan think tank promoting sound public policy based on free-market solutions, so sayeth their slogan. Liv Finne is the Director for the Center of Education for this outfit, although her bio shows no education or experience in education.
WPC, like many Chamber of Commerce think tanks, has as its mission the vilification of all public institutions and the demonizing of its workers. The verbal caning of unions and union members is especially satisfying to them. This breed of think tank “thinkers” likens union members to the imaginary “welfare queens” of yesteryear, seeded by neo-cons and flowered in the mind of The Great Communicator.
It is a simple matter to find fault with almost anything receiving public funds, including public education. Criticism gets easier these days given the broadening teacher responsibilities in the classroom. Finne and her kind have a simple-minded universal solution to the entire universe of problems; give them the money and let the free market work its magic. In this opinion piece, K-12 education funding and poor teaching become a simplistic problem solved by privatization.
A peak into this magical future of K-12 privatization can be clearly seen in the present day state of affairs of the private online universities. For this revelation, simply do a web search of fraud, scam, worthless degrees, lawsuits, accreditation, profit, financing, and taxpayer rip-off associated with University of Phoenix, Kaplan, Capella, Walden or any of the dozens “universities” like them. The largest of them, University of Phoenix, has a whopping 2 percent graduation rate in some areas while raking in billions in federal student loans. These scandalous for-profit online degree mills are fueling a taxpayer-backed financial bubble that will soon be greater than the housing bubble. Recently, NBC news reported that federal student loan debt was greater than consumer credit card debt nationwide.
Yes, Ms. Finne, your free market solution for K-12 education should adequately prepare our children for a free market online university. Thanks a lot.
Nelson Linnabary
Everett
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