Wildavsky reviews Charles Murray

My friend Ben Wildavsky has a must-read review in today's WSJ of Charles Murray's latest book, Real Education. I could not agree more with Ben's basic argument:

One can accept the idea that inherent academic abilities are unevenly distributed while also believing that many low-achieving kids -- and high-achieving kids, too, for that matter -- could learn a lot more than they are learning now. International tests show that students in many other nations bypass American kids in reading and math. Could such comparative results really be a function of higher raw intelligence overseas -- or are they more likely to reflect superior educational practices? It is telling that hard-headed education reformers like Eric Hanushek, Chester E. Finn and Jay Greene believe that we can do much more to boost the academic achievement of children upon whom Mr. Murray would essentially give up.

Murray has a lot of great ideas about certification, and anyone with experience in public schools will agree with much of his assessment. The government (monopoly) run school system is broken in all the ways that socialized markets fail, despite the heroic efforts of most teachers. Pushing unqualified kids into college is bad public policy. High achievers are bored.

But I believe that all American kids are not being challenged enough by the public school system, especially in math and science.  It's disappointing for high-achievers, sure, but the failure of early public education is a lifelong tragedy for poor kids who have been told by the government that they are allowed no other option.

Comments

[a student of economics]

Certainly we can and should do much better in education. Real accountability for teachers combined with more competitive salaries and longer hours (and school years) would surely make a difference. You see all those in other nations.

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Tim: As I wrote on my blog, Truth on the Market, I think Tyler is pretty far off base with this one. See http://www.truthonthemarket.com/2009/04/28/what-does-tyler-know-about-law-and-economics-anyway/

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