In the case of the first, let’s say that a group of workers at Company A organize a union. They demand that Company A not hire anyone who doesn’t join said union. If Company A complies, then it is not the union that is making union membership a requirement, but rather the company. And I’m fine with a company mandating union membership as a requirement for employment. That is the right of the company owner(s). If an employee doesn’t like it, they can quit or not choose to work there.

Now, if Company A does not want to require union membership as a condition of employment, then I do not think there should be any means by which a union can force that decision. They can create great incentives for the company to have that policy, but they should not be aided by any legal force.

However, in the case of government employees, the situation seems somewhat different. After all, who “owns” the government? Is it not the taxpayer, we the people, etc.? But if we own the government, then do we not have the right and ability to decide what the laws should be regarding unionization of government employees? That is, if we as a people decide we do not want government employees to be able to join unions, then we can elect legislators who will pass laws to that effect.

Is there really anything more to the fundamental argument than this? The next step would be to ask whether unions are beneficial or not, but that is a matter of pragmatism rather than principle, and I’m interested here only in the principle of the matter.

In 2008, the last year for which data is available (somehow it takes them two years to compile data), spending per pupil in Utah was an average $5,765. Compare that to New York’s $17,173 per student, and it sounds like we’re ripping off teachers and students, if we assume that more money = better education.

Let’s forget about New York’s out of this world spending per student, and just think about Utah. Almost $6,000 per student. Now, assume you were going to home school your kindergarten-aged child. How would you spend $6,000 next year? Here’s some of the things I might like to do for my daughter:

• Piano lessons
• Gymnastics
• Dance
• Art class
• Museum membership
• Books
• DVDs
• Field trips

I don’t know what all of these would cost, but I think it might be challenging to spend $6,000. But what about the professional teacher? If my kindergartner were in school 6 hours a day with no break, and there were 20 students in the class, that means my student would get 18 minutes of undivided attention per day. The rest would be either individual study time (no teacher involved other than light supervision), group activities (again, online light supervision), and lecturing to the entire class, which is not all too different than what can be had by way of the Internet, and for free. So really, my child is getting 18 minutes per day plus some intangibles. And of course it’s the problem children who use up the most time, so unless my child is the problem child, she’ll probably be getting far less than 18 minutes a day, not to mention that most classes have more than 20 kids.

As for older students, they may be more expensive…or they may be cheaper. But we’ll leave those details for another day. Let’s move on to other thoughts.

After considering what I might do myself with that money, were I home schooling, I start thinking like an entrepreneur. 30 students x $6K = $180,000. If a teacher in Utah gets paid $60K per year, including benefits…where in the world is the other $120K going? Physical facilities? Ok, I used to have an office in a nice business building with high speed Internet, lights, heating and AC, freeway signage, etc., and I could have fit 40-50 students in there, and it cost me $60K per year. I could have gotten space that would do the job of teaching just as well without the frills for half the price. So there’s $30K per year. That still leaves $90K per year that’s going somewhere else. All I can think of is administration, but if 50% of all education costs are going to administration rather than teaching, then holy cow. Now, my numbers are probably off, but here’s where this gets me too–why can’t a teacher just rent a space, start her own school, choose her own curriculum, and start teaching kindergarten? Theoretically, she should be able to spend $40-50K per year on rent, supplies, etc., and she could take home $130-140K as pay. Talk about increasing teacher salaries, there you go!

Of course part of the answer is that education is public, and that the government doesn’t like competition. Oh, and individuals working on their own, for themselves, are hard to unionize, since there’s no reason to have a union when you own your own business. So unions wouldn’t like this either.

What would happen if the entire educational system were privatized and deregulated? The scenario I painted above probably wouldn’t be the common one. More parents might be inclined to home school, since that would save money. Some people might open schools within their homes and teach smaller numbers of kids, or they might teach one class multiple times a day in their home to different groups of kids. There would certainly be schools that resemble our public schools, except they would be private schools. More parents would take advantage of online education and technology, which in many cases has driven certain types of education to nearly zero cost.

Teachers would have more flexibility, could make more money, and would have more control over what they teach. Parents would have more control. Some parents who get education for free might have to pay for it, but costs would be driven downwards by competition, and private charities and scholarships from the private schools would make sure that the children of the poor would still be able to receive an education.

So what’s more unrealistic, that my Utopian vision of private education would unfold as described, or that we can continue to do what we’ve been doing for the past 40 years and expect different results than we’ve been getting? Why is education a public service, and why should it continue to be?