Problems with public systems.

Over at Ars Technica, they report that some “Parents are up arms over Australian student database.” Over 1,200 public schools are being forced to participate (whether the parents like it or not) in a new program called OneSchool.  The database would house “photos [of students], career aspirations, off-campus activities, contact information, behavior records, attendance, and performance records.”

I’m going to ignore for a moment the idea that this data eventually will be hacked or used in an unintended manner. To me, this is another example of why publicly run systems don’t work. If you were a parent at a private school, would you want the teachers and principle to be able to track behavior, performance, career activities and a photo of who the child was? Of course, how can you assure progress without feedback and checks and encouragement?

However, say something went wrong. You disagreed with how the school categorized your child’s behavior. Maybe they were more of a loner and you, as a parent, thought that was okay, but the school thought your child needed to be more sociable. Well, in this scenario, you’re lucky. Your child goes to a private school. You drop the child from that school and put them in a different school.

Change the scenario. The school is state-run. Of course, government has the monopoly on force. You have no choice. It is necessary to meet to these disagreeable standards or else. Government standards for performance (defined by what?), attendance (defined by what?) and behavior (defined by what?) are mandated. Its not an individual’s decision to teach their kids in the best way they see fit. Its based on what the government thinks and at the very least, that probably means popular opinion. if 99% of people want want 1% of kids to be taught a certain way. Then that’s the last laugh.

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