Comments by "Louis Giokas" (@louisgiokas2206) on "‘The Five’: Blow up the whole system" video.

  1. I live in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. We have facilities that are WORLD CLASS. We spend, per pupil 2/3 of what Chicago does. This is typical of the suburbs. We have attainments that are stellar compared to Chicago (although not as good as where I went to school in the third quarter of the last century of the last millennium, where 100% graduated and went to university). Just a little aside. The school district I am in has one of the best music programs in the country. In fact, of the three high schools we have, it is often not unusual to have all three at the top of the national rankings. And we are at the top in the STEM fields as well. In fact, our jazz program at one school had an all-day clinic with the faculty of the NIU jazz department (one of the best in the country). There were a couple of professional jazz musicians with them. At one point in the program, between numbers, they mentioned that our auditorium was nicer than Carnage Hall, in NYC. These guys had played at Carnage Hall more than once. Heck, the acoustic screen on the stage cost $500K. The sound board (digital, of course) cost $70K. We even had a black box performance space behind the auditorium which cost $500K. And yet, our cost per pupil is much lower that Chicago. And don't get me going on the sports, home economics and vocational facilities we have. There is no Constitutional requirement for a public education system. In fact, public safety (fire, police, etc.) could all be provided privately. Either have people pay the private companies directly or collect the money centrally and contract out the services. A great example was a city I lived in in the Philadelphia suburbs. Trash collection was not contracted for by the city. Trash collectors could get certified by the city, and then each household would decide among the certified companies. At the time I was there, there were five. This, of course fostered competition. This can be done for any service, even police. What is a police officer? You have heard the term "sworn personnel". Well, these are just individuals that have been sworn in to have the ability to use force, perhaps deadly, to enforce the law. Who cares who they work for? That is irrelevant. The designation is for the individual. Not every employee of a police department is a "sworn" officer. The fact is that we can easily reimagine every aspect of our public sector. The only exception is the military. This is the only organ of government that MUST be part of the government.
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