PRIMARY EDCATION NEXT:

The class of 2006: Why American universities will lead the world (Adrian Wooldridge, The Economist)

[H]ere is a gold-plated prediction for 2006: in one vital area of educational achievement—higher education—America will continue to leave the rest of the world in the dust. [...]

The American higher-educational system—if system isn’t too neat a word—is based on three principles. First, the federal government plays a limited but vital part. Limited because there are lots of different sorts of funding—from private philanthropists to corporations and student fees—and because there is no central master-plan. But vital because the government helps to fund basic research and student loans. Second, there is the principle of competition. Universities compete for everything from students to star professors to research money. Third, the power of the teachers (who tend to be locked in their own little worlds) needs to be counter-balanced by the power of the academic administration (which can pursue the overall interests of the institution). At best, this allows universities to seize opportunities and snap up talent; at the very least, it puts a brake on the natural tendency of academics to engage in endless verbose prevarication.

The fatal flaw in the European model is granting too much power to the state.

But the state can make us all equal....

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 23, 2005 4:10 PM