By Erin Mae Shiffler
Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman would have turned 100 years old on July 31. This will be an opportunity to remember his accomplishments and to celebrate his legacy. Dr. Friedman was thoroughly invested in the cause of educating children by fixing our current school system. He once said, “The only solution is the same solution as we found everywhere else―which is competition. The essence of an effective television industry, an effective telephone industry, an effective computer industry, or an effective mail delivery industry―you name it―is competition. That’s what we need to get in schools.”
Friedman promoted competition among teachers themselves, as well as among schools. By allowing competition, successful and innovative teachers would earn more for their efforts. Schools would obtain more students, and therefore additional revenue, to educate those students, if they were good schools. Poorly performing schools would lose students until they found ways to improve.
Unfortunately, we have not seen this kind of system in Oregon because teachers unions and lobbyists protect teachers at the expense of what is good for students. As parents who want a better education for our kids, we need to promote Dr. Friedman’s ideas in order to push against the current stagnant system. To learn how teachers unions stand in the way of real education reform, and to see if your local representatives are holding back or trying to improve your choices and your child’s education, visit www.statusquolobby.com.
Erin Mae Shiffler is a research associate at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy think tank.
