Why Privatizing Public Services Is A Bad Idea
I know I said I didn’t want to get into why nationalized healthcare is a better idea, but I just think privatizing healthcare and education are just stupid ideas. Corporations exist for only one true purpose — to maximize shareholders values. Any first year business school student can tell you that in his sleep. And why is the Republican party so adamant in placing the two most important public facilities in the hands of private entities whose highest priority is to bring their shareholders most money possible? Sure, some companies do have a good conscience and are responsible to the greater good of the society, but guess what, those decisions are made only after sharesholder’s values are secured, never the other way around (because I think that could be borderline illegal and is against the very purpose of a corporation’s existance. Look it up. I guarantee you that if a company’s CEO purposely chooses to do good for the society but in the process lose a lot of money when he knows the other way around can make the company great profit, he will go to jail).
Many people insist that private schools consistently perform better than public schools. Yeah, NO SHIT. That’s because private schools get to choose who they want to accept into their exclusive club. Public schools have no choice because the law mandates they accept and educate anyone and everyone who wants to learn (even ones who don’t even want to be there). So you see how unfair the scores can look for the public schools in most cases. On the flip side, there are plenty of excellent public schools all over the United States that do far better than any of the private schools you can find. How does one explain that? And how does one explain all those public schools elsewhere in the world that crank out great students who can do just as well as students from private schools? In countries like Taiwan and Japan, private schools are for losers for can’t make it in the public schools (outcasts, drop outs, trouble makers). What does that say?
Placing children’s education in the hands of profit generating machines en mass can be a pretty bad idea. Let’s just for a moment imagine if all schools in the United States are privatized. What does each pupil look to the schools? Think about it…. Dollar signs. The United States has one of the highest per-pupil expenditures in the world. Private companies schools will only be too interested in getting that child for the Federal and State money s/he is attached to, not necessarily the well-being of the child. I am sure sophisticated laws, checks-n-balances, and all sorts of things can be implemented to make sure the child is doing well, but how does that differ from a well-run public school/school district where all those checks-n-balances are already in place mandated by the law? And what about the working conditions of the teachers and staff in private schools? From what I have researched, some are worse off than the public school teachers. Remember, those teachers are employees of corporations. And corporations want to maximize each employee’s time and resources to maximize the value for… you guessed it, the investors and shareholders.
I can go on forever on the topic of education, thanks to my previous job in the education sector. But I digress.
A similar arguement goes to the public healthcare system and the welfare system. Why is it that someone has to pay so much money each month into the private healthcare industry when that money could just as well go into a public healthcare fund and have a national healthcare system, much like Taiwan, Malaysia and almost all other industrialized countries? The latest Medicare fiasco under the Bush Administration is proof that privatized public healthcare just plain sucks. Who’s going to be looking out for the well beings of the senior citizens? They are often expensive to take care of when they get sick. And if we learned anything about the private companies, that is… you got it, they want to maximize value for their investors, not the senior citizens. So they’ll do as much as they can to cut corners, deny benefits and give them the run arounds to minimize expenditure (hence increasing company value).
Sure, sometimes government can be inefficient. And often social programs are huge budget holes. But some programs are worth losing that money for… Or, a better term should be, “worth the investment for.” When citizens can’t count on their most basic needs being met (the right to be educated and the right to receive quality low cost healthcare), how can the government count on them to be productive? In the case of the United States, if its government can stop spending those billions in Iraq, Afghanistan and all those efforts trying to bully other countries into their submission, maybe a lot more scholarships can be properly funded? Maybe a lot more schools woulnd’t be failing? Maybe senior citizens won’t have to decide between food and medicine? Maybe it ought to take care of its own citizens before it is out there telling others how to run their own damn government? And just maybe the United States will be respected again?
Dreams can be so cruel.
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March 10th, 2006 at 12:18 am
Each student is a dollar sign to the public schools as well. When I came back from Germany in high school, I needed two more credits to graduate. My high school made me take 4 classes so I would be counted as a full student and they would get the $$ for me. (The principal told me this.) I went to community college in the afternoon.
Checks and balances? They are there for sure. The checks get written & cashed and the bank account balances go up. Yay capitalism.
March 12th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
I don’t think your arguement is fair given the circumstances.
A school, is just like a family, needs money to operate and survive. When government consistently spends more on wars than on its school systems, school systems have to fight to stay afloat, just like a family in financial crisis. When a school is in so much financial debt that it has to turn to cheap tricks like that to get money just to educate its students, someone has to think twice about what’s going on up in the chain of commands.
Education is among the most fundamental needs of a society, without it, nothing will flourish (where will they find the skilled people with the knowledge to make all those advanced weapons to wage wars on foreign countries?! There are certain things Bush just can’t outsource to India). It’s disturbing to see the U.S. Senate and Congress passing emergency budgets to pour billions and billions of dollar supporting other countries (who don’t even want America to be there) within weeks, but when it came to increasing budget for education and social programs for its very own people, the two law-making bodies scrutinized on every single detail and still threaten to cut budgets out of certain programs. Is the quality of life of American citizens worth less than its foreign policies on the Middle East?
It’s also unfair that the government keeps adding unrealistic expecataions and ever-increasing burdens on the public school systems when the school systems don’t get the appropriate funding to keep those programs going. And guess what happens? They find ways to “get” students like you to get money to stabalize its finances and cut programs like music and arts. “No Child Left Behind” is a joke among school teachers and administrators. While its goals are noble, the Bush Administration (once again) falls short on providing adaquate funding to support its objectives. While most other countries are teaching advanced reading and math at lower grades (subject to another debate), the U.S. administration passed a law to get basic reading, writing and arithematics without giving it logistical support. How will U.S. ever sustain its growth and leadership in the world like this? Rely on highly educated people to immigrate from overseas? Com’on.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:41 pm
yep…pretty much agree with most of that!