Three Externalities Of Public Education Essay
First of all I need to give an explanation of the term “externality”. Basically it’s an advantage or a benefit, or (on the contrary) the disadvantage that is not reflected in the prices of services or goods, Externalities are like additional benefits or harm to society.
Education is the public service sector that is served both by the government and by private institutions. The aim of government is to arrange the social support for the young people by providing elementary and secondary public education. Some researchers came to conclusion that K-12 education is almost entirely a private good with little or no significant external benefits. (King, 2007) First of all, it needs to be specifically mentioned that public sector is not capable to outperform the private sector in the educational context.
- Positive externality of public education: the ability to build the social society
As a first positive externality of public education I would like to claim its role in building our society. The basic free education first of all develops people ability to interact with other people. The educated people have the common knowledge and values; they use the same language and numbering system that consequently lead to the overall social benefits and social progress.
- Positive externality of public education: gaining the basic skills that will be useful for society
It is known that elementary and secondary education provide pupils with some skills that which gives them the ability to create external benefits that are not entirely compensated through market earnings. (King, 2007). Also there is a certain positive effect for the whole society when its members are mostly active and well informed – it leads to the higher rates of well being of the whole nation and the democratization of the political system.
- Positive externality of public education: increased productivity of the society and the competitive ability of the nation on the global scale
Coulombe (2009) indicates that public investment in education will consequently result in aggregate productivity of the society. The educated society has much better capabilities to compete in the globalized word, when the highest profits are not always made in the traditional sectors such as natural resources trade, but rather in the innovative technologies sector. The education has a certain positive effect of the competitive ability of the nation. But author also mentions that there is a need in additional evidences that confirm the positive effect of education on the aggregate productivity. He indicates that these gains will depend on how rapidly the marginal benefits of education decrease with the level of education, and on how close an economy is from the technology frontier. (Coulombe, 2009)
2. Craft a short 1-2 paragraph argument in support of or against the existence of public K-12 school systems versus a purely private K-12 schooling system based on your analysis.
In my opinion, despite that many contra arguments, the public K-12 school system is necessary in order to provide the opportunity for equal development for the all members of our society. In the ideal situation there is no doubt that family has to be able to choose the school, they have to be able to define where and how the education process of their children will take place. But we’re living in the situation that is characterized by inequality of access to the economic benefits. Therefore some children just are not able to enter the private education system because their families are not in a good financial state and are not able to pay for their educations. It’s one of the function of the state to care about all its citizens through the distribution of the state budget between the elements of the social system, which includes public schools as well. But I think that in any case parents (if a child has parents) should participate in the education process and help their children in the way they are able to. (Burke, 1990)
The state has to bear these expenses for public education, but these expenses are really needed; we can’t allow our nation to become less educated, especially because with live in time of Information Revolution. Whose knowledge is deeper, whose ideas are more useful – that society will achieve the better social, economic and political results. As it was discussed in the first part of this paper, the system of public education provides a number of positive externalities that help to build the educated and social society.
Do you like this essay?
Our writers can write a paper like this for you!
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...