Racism, Education and Monopolies

In an outstanding opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last week, Harvard economist Roland Fryer discusses his research, and his own preconceptions, about racism in America. To his credit, his research was objective as he started trying to prove his theory that racial discrimination was the source of many problems such as wages and educational achievement in the U.S. After doing rigorous statistical analysis, he revised his conclusion finding instead that differences in skills were the most likely explanation. 

That begs the question of why we see differences in skill levels, e.g., problem-solving. To begin to solve this problem we need to look to where problem-solving skills are learned, i.e., schools and, in particular, public schools which account for 90 percent of all students. We have recently seen the disappointing results of public schools that would not have surprised economist Milton Friedman. Forty years ago, he noted that the cost per student had increased as the quality plummeted. Friedman believed that this is the result of the public schools having been granted a virtual monopoly.

Recent reports have shown “historic declines in American students’ knowledge and skills and widening gaps between the highest- and lowest-scoring students.” In particular, black, Hispanic, and low-income students, already behind, fell further behind during the pandemic but not necessarily at private and parochial schools. As a result, black parents have begun to turn to homeschools, pods, and private schools. Hispanic parents are also looking for more school choice.

This was not supposed to happen. Thomas Jefferson argued that all citizens should be educated and that education would foster, “a meritocracy in which all citizens could compete.” More generally,

The Founding Fathers maintained that the success of the fragile American democracy would depend on the competency of its citizens. They believed strongly that preserving democracy would require an educated population that could understand political and social issues and would participate in civic life, vote wisely, protect their rights and freedoms, and demagogues.

Neither Jefferson nor any of the other Founding Fathers predicted the emergence of a public school system that is failing as miserably as we see today. Friedman described the issues associated with today’s schools:

 “Schools are now run by professional bureaucrats. Monopoly and uniformity have replaced competition and diversity. Consumers of schooling have little to say. Control by producers has replaced control by consumers.” 

Thinking of students as the products of monopoly production, the expectation is that quality and innovation will decline over time and prices will increase. In addition, more resources will be spent to protect the monopoly from competition. That is exactly what has been happening.

In addition to the decline in student test scores, critical thinking skills necessary for “problem-solving and understanding complex topics” are declining – precisely what Fryer identified as a source of wage differentials. 

But one thing monopolies are good at is holding on to their monopolies, as we see with the American Federal of Teachers. This is true of monopolies everywhere, including politics. In politics, monopolies are held by tyrants. There are nearly 60tyrants around the world and their goals for universal education are to “homogenize” the population to reduce the threat of democracy or ensure that the populace adopts the ruler's values. One could argue that these goals aren’t that far from what is happening in U.S. public schools. The Founders would be horrified. 

Fryer is not the only one to be worried about this. “This concern over a lack of critical thinking proficiency is echoed in industry; a recent survey reported that US employers do not believe that most graduates possess the critical thinking skills needed for workforce success, and only 39% were very well prepared.”

Perhaps, as Friedman suggested, “the only solution is to break the monopoly, introduce competition and give the customers alternatives.” Alternatives may be the only way to free great teachers and shortchanged children.