Years ago, when John Chubb of the Brookings Institution tried to uncover how many bureaucrats were employed in New York City’s public school system, it took six telephone calls to reach someone who knew the answer – and that person was not allowed to disclose the information. It took another half dozen calls to find someone who both knew the answer and could reveal it. The answer? Six thousand.
Chubb then called the Archdiocese of New York to find out how many bureaucrats were employed in the administration of the city’s Catholic schools, which educated one-sixth as many students. When the first person he called didn’t know the answer, he figured he was in for it again. But that person went on to say, "Wait, let me count." It was twenty-six.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
NYC Public School System Bureaucrats versus the Archdiocese of New York
Lew Rockwell writes:
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I used this example in an argument with my boss on the inefficiency and waste of government schools. I also argued that private schools (especially if they weren't regulated by government) were far more accountable, because they rely on private, voluntary tuition.
ReplyDeleteBecause I'm Catholic, I think she misconstrued my argument as merely an apology for Catholic education. Of course, I was arguing in favor of all private, voluntary education.
It's ironic, because as a working woman, she had once expressed a desire to homeschool her children. Yet she regurgitates the same economic fallacies and state worship (mixed with insincere comments on the danger of "jack-boot" government thugs) that we all received in American schools.
She is a perfect example of the ubiquitous American double-think.