ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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When I was in school, there were good teachers and bad teachers, and everyone knew which were which. Perhaps part of the problem is that so few students are in a position to be able to choose their teachers. I would have paid extra for teacher X, but the option was not available.
Education is more of a rent seeking activity in the US than an entrepreneurial one.
While I surely felt in high school that I knew who the good teachers were, I don't think I'd be comfortable giving the power to choose teachers to high school students. I even feel wary giving it to college students, who may tend to choose "easier graders" over "better teachers." (And high school grades matter a lot, because they are how you get into college.)
Another thought:
I remember in the past year some high school kid offered up 2% of his future earnings if you paid for his college. His write-up was so filled with grammatical errors that it wasn't really a surprise that no one took him up on it. (I cannot find the link to the story; maybe someone else can.)
But it got me to thinking: what if a super-star teacher offered to manage your kid's education in exchange for, say, 1% of all his future earnings?
There are issues with making sure that the student follows through, as well as the high variability among students future salaries making this high risk. (Don't want to sacrifice a year of salary to help someone become a poet.) But assuming those issues can be addressed, would something like this make sense for a super-star teacher?
I had similar thoughts about teachers when I was thinking of providing my children with exceptional tutors from various disciplines in addition to their regular curriculum. Aristocrats would frequently engage proven scholars to teach their children. Good private schools today attempt to do the work of locating good teachers for you. There are plenty of extracurricular tutoring opportunities. How in the world, though, would one be able to locate and employ extraordinary teachers on an individual basis? Are there agencies that specialize in such activity?