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The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves?
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>Of course, poverty helps with ignorance.
Too true. But poverty itself isn't the cause of ignorance, or at least doesn't require permanent, intergenerational ignorance, and religion does. Take a look at <em>The Beautiful Tree</em>. I don't agree with all of the books conclusions, but poor people striving to educate themselves and their children has to strike fear in every theist.
James Tooley has written extensively about his research on the educational systems in the poorest communities in the world. http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Tree-Personal-Educating-Themselves/dp/1933995920/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0
Yes, corporations (i.e. businesses that employ people) are functions of a market. The fact that they can bribe and coerce politicians into doing things isn't. A constitutionally limited government would, in theory, not have this problem because the politician's hands would be so tied down that there wouldn't be any return on lobbying efforts.
I completely agree with you that a legislative system in and of itself isn't the problem ... but show me a non-corrupt / non-manipulated government. It doesn't exist. I understand that a public education system is the status quo and that accepting or imagining a world without one seems absurd. I'm just asking you to consider that there might be alternatives that would better serve everyone in our country from the richest to the poorest.
> my book and professor both say that the "free riders" would create a negative effect on who is pay and who is benefiting from "public goods" such as fire and police.
Free riders is often a benefit. Many businesses are willing to pay for security for entire neighborhoods, even beyond their own building because a safer community is better for business - more likely to draw higher-income community members who may be willing to spend more, and more likely to attract better employees who will likely live in that community.
> His (my professors) argument for the schools is that the school costs more to run than what we can afford/are willing to pay.
You should look into some of the work of James Tooley (perhaps especially this one which humorously has clips of the standard academic who claims that because the poor could not afford to pay much, the free market simply won't seek out these people ... then turns around and shows that, to the contrary, that's exactly what's happening) - and his main book on the subject. He's done some on-site research and analyzed what is the prominence of private education, is it affordable, does it produce good results, and can/does it do any/all of this in a market with a "free" public education alternative?
But the poorest faired worse under public education, and they continue to fair worse all around the world. Even in poor countries there are for-profit schools that provide cheap education that is substantially better than public schools.
A good book on the subject, written by people who actually visited poor countries all around the world and tested students:
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