School monopoly stifles innovation

Officials who run Denver's government schools want to get $30 million deeper into the back pockets of taxpayers. It's the latest example of the "pay now, reform later" strategy that educrats are tying all over the country. There is one problem: Taxpayers aren't buying. And for good reason.

There is o more backward institution in the country than our vast network of government schools. The organization of government schools and the teaching methods they use are, with few exceptions, based on the mass production models of the Industrial Age. Innovation lags. They are slow to employ labor-saving and quality-improvement technologies, such as telecommunications. Result: Government schools are the only major sector of our society where labor productivity has been declining.

At the same time government schools are overrun by administrators -- psychologists, counselors, "facilitators" and bureaucrats, bureaucrats' assistants, bureaucrats' relatives and a custodian here and there. Nationally, the percentage of school employees actually teaching has declined dramatically. In 1960, nearly two out of three school employees were teaching. Today, in a government school, barely one in two actually teaches.

Bloated staffs, non-performance and failure to innovate are all signs of a protected monopoly. And the term "monopoly" is a fair description of the nation's system of government schools.

But monopolies don't work. They are driven by the needs of those who run the system, not its customers. In the early days of the automobile industry, Henry Ford said his Model-T customers could have it in any color they wanted -- as long as it was black. Then came General Motors and the Chevrolet. AT&T had pretty much the same attitude toward telephones. Then came MCI, a court degree, the Baby Bells, McCaw and now the Internet.

In both cases, the consumer benefited because of choices in the marketplace. And in both cases, the providers became more efficient and more innovative, giving their customers more choices, higher quality and lower prices. Result: The Ford Taurus is now the nation's No. 1 selling automobile and AT&T is a leader in the emerging global telecomputing industry.

At some point the taxpaying public will say "no" to the government monopoly on public education. It, too, will be broken. It's inevitable. Then society's obligation to educate its youth will be carried out by a voucher that parents can take to a school of their choice -- government-run, private or parochial. Most of the nation's leaders have already taken their kids out of government schools, beginning with President Clinton. Many governors, members of Congress and state legislators who still urge taxpayers to support government schools send their own kids to private or parochial schools. People who can't afford a private school migrate to the suburbs where they feel they have a little more control over the schools their children attend.

Eventually, the government school monopoly will collapse because all monopolies sooner or later collapse. In the meantime, the victims of government schools are poor people and minorities, who can