"Is online charter school network cashing in on failure?"

I've heard a story (I can't remember if it was here or somewhere else) that kids get brought to these "schools" and find out when they try to get into college that the university won't accept their transcripts and are SOL.

 

As a survivor of the great energy crisis of 2002/2003 in California, I just love the punting of public responsibility to those trying to turn a profit.

That said, even at least one county in California (I've read of one because i have family in that county) is closing jails for budget reasons. The seeds are being planted for deregulation round 2 in CA.

 

Isn't it an amazing coincidence how all these free-marketers manage to find a mark writing government checks?

 

I'd agree this a prime reason why our representatives should stop getting in bed with businesses that want to quasi-privatize schools with vouchers and charters, etc.

 

Why not just add a touch more regulation? I hear that works wonders!

 

Certain sectors need more regulation, certain sectors need less. There is no magic "all regulation is good" or "all regulation is bad" answer, as much as some of you would like to think.

 

Why not? This is a company taking advantage of a loophole to fly under the radar with some shady stuff. Close the loophole and force these schools to adhere to the same standards as public schools in terms of testing and accreditation. When it comes to education, you need some regulation.

 

I was being sarcastic. Cranberry et al. want to make this into a parable about the pitfalls of the free market? There's more than one way to play that game here.

 

I didn't read it as sarcastic, so I'll give you that. I am not prepared to go full socialist on this site (I'll save it) so I'll say that there's large parts of the free market that is good (with a few laws in place to make sure we don't kill each other). There are some parts where I like a tighter leash on the free market. Education is one of them. Capitalism isn't all bad. It's obviously worked well for our country (by and large. Again, I don't want to go full socialist here). This isn't a perfect parable against the free market, but it's a good example of where we need to draw a line.