What if we outsource school administration to India?
Like the Kansas reductio administrato ad absurdum idea this focuses on reducing investment in
children. There are a few consequences to consider:
1. administrative costs are NOT a major component of school budgets
2. what did you want to do with the unemployed administrators?
3. if things don't work out well, what do you do?
4. who says India runs schools well?
According to the 2001 census 61% of Indians are literate. That breaks down as male 73.4%
and female 47.8%. We utterly despise binary values (literate or not) but it is more complicated than
that. India has 20 official languages and we are not so sure even if there were four continuous scores
(let's say tests give 0-100 each for reading, writing, speaking and listening) how to evaluate that
someone is fluent in Telugu if he or she lives,works or learns in an environment that only supports
Urdu.
By all means, try out-sourcing. Courtesy RAA (see the consolidation comments) we would suggest
out-sourcing teachers as well. That should provide superb savings. Just make sure you test all
students. By the way, 61% literacy bodes poorly for a stellar high school graduation rate. On the
bright side, we imagine the courageous citizens of Mobile County in Alabama would appreciate
someone else taking the heat for a high dropout rate. Maybe Mobile County will succeed and maybe
they won't. They have a tough problem - in fact, several. But at least they are standing tall on their
own two feet.
As noted elsewhere, we are partial to in-sourcing. That means instead of sending money and talent
out of the district, county, state and country, bringing in light in all its many forms. After all is said
and done, matter is just light trapped by gravity. Mystical physics aside, outsourcing legislators
to London, Paris and Madrid over the centuries has not proved popular in the Americas.