20 sats \ 8 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 24 Jul \ parent \ on: Punishment is a Public Good econ
If unschooling is learning from unstructured experiences, what could be a better counterfactual for assessing the value added by government schools?
It's not like I'm asserting that government school isn't better than being locked in a basement.
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If your ambitious enough you'll build up either way. There's plenty of evidence to this effect.
Government schools give you a foundation of education to build your life on.
Just because you say this doesn't make it true. Most students retain essentially nothing from their years in government school. If you mean that it makes that foundation available, then I agree, but most students don't actually take advantage of it.
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I'm not aware of any evidence that they gain hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of habits.
I also don't know why you would think they do make those gains when the gains on the actual learning objectives are so meager.
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That doesn't demonstrate anything. You have to know what would have happened without a government school. It's not like they would just lay down in a gutter.
This is why I keep bringing up evidence. Returns to schooling is one of the most studied things in the world. For the most part, people's future outcomes are determined by the characteristics of their parents, rather than the characteristics of their schooling.
There's a very small group of very successful people who do seem to benefit heavily from schooling, while the return is insignificant for almost everyone else.
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Its not just about the one outlier that becomes successful without education.
"A population that is better educated has less unemployment, reduced dependence on public assistance programs, and greater tax revenue. Education also plays a key role in the reduction of crime, improved public health, and greater political and civic engagement."
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I'm not talking about outliers. I'm talking about our best estimates of average effects.