Tim May wrote:
(I understand that there are compelling issues of taxation and "public facilities" at work here. A parent who has been forced to pay taxes for N years to support public schools is justified in wanting his kid in the public school system. This is first and foremost an example of why schools should be privatized. The argument that schools are a "necessity" is not persuasive. Food is also a necessity, and yet grocery stores and supermarkets are all private in the U.S. (not counting military base commissaries and the like). This is a separate issue, for another article.)
that is a later-day justification. the original intent for a public school system, when it was first created in prussia, was that the military leadership realized that educated men can handle the increasingly high-tech weapons of the era better. I guess the same goes today. you need people to be able to read if you don't want your ad billions wasted. and of course you need a large pool of workforce with basic education nowadays.