Econtalk response: Education

Alax Tabarrok suggested that our teachers should be paid more. I Suggest that they should be able to earn more. I submit that this can be accomplished by rewarding students for achievement.
The state board's decides which curriculum they will subsidize by awarding educational grants to be awarded only to the student for achievement. No overhead can be withdrawn.The district's decides which achievements they want to pay for and the effeciencies of the process. Teacher's decides what course(s) and how many students they want to teach. The student's decide how well they want to perform. All of the money funded will be allocated to students for their relative achievements.

The parents at first, then the student's get to choose the  school, course and which teacher they want or are qualified for. It must be a curiculum and performance based award system. 
Those students who accomplish the set goals and achieve the highest grades are awarded the most credits realitively.

The teachers earn their wages and operational funds through which and how many students select them as a teacher.Teachers are allowed to bid for the school they want to teach at. The schools are funded by the state at a general level for space and operations. Administration, Curriculum and facilities are afforded by the district through the teacher's bids. No outside or supplemental funds are allowed. The challenge will be to determine whether or not the states, counties, and districts will work togather to equalize the environments, enforce the accountability, publish, and punish  violations.

The standards are high, the accountability measurable, and the educational funds zero sum.The student's ability to qualify is not relative to their out-of-school wealth. All educational funds are
localized.

This would not preclude or prevent extracurrucular preperation by student, parent, district, county, or state. We want achievement and performance. We want accomplishment and advancement.  We want success and honor.

The motto must be: The Highest Achievement at The Highest Integrity.

The advantage of a bottom up funding system is that overhead is minimized and corruption at the administrative level is reduced because performance rather than position is valued. Accountability rather than suitability is determined, and mostly  because service rather than power is rewarded.

The operational philosophy is that nothing is fair and the choices I make have consequences. If I choose not to perform at my highest level possible: If I choose not to participate in the best activity
available; If I choose not to be in the best places affordable then only I am responsible. The objectives are to facilitate the cream rising to the top, the milk to be filtered too the highest quality, and the milking process to be equitible and consistent. What the product is and what happens to the rejected product is the measure of the society that produces it.

We should not sacrifice quality for medocrity because of the cry for fairness rather we should seek excellence by measuring the  magnitude of the ineqity in the student's agreement to split the pie.