I’ve been enjoying listening to this while I surf, so I thought I’d share. It is lengthy (over an hour), but well worth it if you are weird like me.
My favorite line so far is his summary of the research that came out awhile back which suggested that public schools compare reasonably well to private schools when you account for the difference in income and culture of the students. Supposing this is true, he summarizes the research thus:
If somebody told you that you had two alternatives one of which was almost as good as the other, but cost twice as much…that’s the kind of argument that you’re now getting from the unions.
And the obligatory statement on homeschooling, just in case you haven’t already heard it:
QUESTION: Dr. Friedman, my question has to do with home schooling. Is that large enough yet to qualify as competition for the public school system and do we learn anything from that?ANSWER: We do learn from that. We learn from home schooling that there is a serious problem with our public schools. Do you know any other major advanced product that people make at home? …
Hat Tip: Edpol
Related Tags: Milton Friedman, education, homeschooling
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
Do you know any other major advanced product that people make at home?
Well, we make our own beer, bread and yogurt too here at my house! and people (like us) grow their own vegetables too.. so perhaps with the notion of wanting a purer product (something without additives, pesticides etc.) you can put education (homeschooling) into that same category.
Great post Dana! It set me off to wonder what other things people are doing at home to be able to control and produce a better product.. it really has become a Do It Yourself world in many instances.. Just look at how many DIY books sell.
I don’t mean to change the subject or anything.. but I have to tell you that your little peanut is beautiful!!
Angela, you can talk about my beautiful little Peanut on any post you want. I actually was just going to post a picture of her to begin with, anyway, but changed my mind.
Judy, after I posted this, I started thinking about exactly what he said more. I feel a follow-up post coming on…
btw…I wish I were educated enough to be able to spot typos in my titles before publishing. That is so annoying…especially since the url changes if I fix it.
I loved seeing the pics of Milt and Rose Friedman on the back of his books. . .
I ran into one of his books in the strangest of places…in the waiting room of an automotive repair center. I started reading it and decided to add it to my list of books to purchase.
Unfortunately, the list grows faster than I can read, but I’ll eventually get there!