Economic Freedom

Nobel laureate Milton Friedman once compared our nation’s education system to “an island of socialism in a free-market sea.” Similarly, nearly 30 years ago, the then-president of the American Federation for Teachers Albert Shanker wrote, “It’s time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody’s role is spelled out in advance, and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It’s no surprise that our school system doesn’t improve: It more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy.”