The True Cost of Public Education - CATO

Do you know the cost of a public school education? Might surprise you!

Public Schools and The Monopolist's Rent

The link below is a video is from a January, 11, 2011 Cato Institute forum entitled:  Fiscal Undertow: How Public Schools Are Drowning State and Local Budgets, and What to Do about It. (1)

Cato bills the video as follows:

"Health care is the budget buster at the federal level, but K-12 education is what's poised to bankrupt state and local governments. Spending on public education eats up around half of the general budget in most states, and it's by far the priciest single item. For every dollar raised by state and local governments for Medicaid, three dollars go to K-12 schooling. As a result, combined state budget gaps in the high tens of billions of dollars are predicted through at least 2012.



That's the immediate problem. Just over the horizon, things look worse. State public-employee pension systems are facing a trillion-dollar shortfall in their commitments, driven in large part by the massive costs of public-school employee benefits.


So exactly how bad is the education spending crisis? Is there anything we can do to avoid huge state and local tax increases or a serious decline in the breadth and quality of educational services?


Join us for a discussion of the most important state and local spending issue of 2011 ... and many years to come".

Cato bills the form participants as:

"Featuring Patrick Byrne, CEO, Overstock.com, and Chairman, The Foundation for Educational Choice; Kil Huh, Director of Research, Pew Center on the States; and Adam Schaeffer, Policy Analyst, Cato Center for Educational Freedom; moderated by Robert Enlow, President, Foundation for Educational Choice; with introductions by Neal McCluskey, Associate Director, Cato Center for Educational Freedom". (2)

The video runs approximately 85 minutes and is extremely informative. You will find a grand discussion on true cost, unsustainable costs,  distorted output and the monopolistic features of the current public school system. Further, a clear path is discussed on how to solve the cost/output problem of the current monopoly situation.

(1) (2) http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=7636

Social Security Insolvency

Social Security's huge unfunded future entitlements leading to a bankrupt plan has grabbed many headlines in the past several years. However, it can be difficult to put your arms around such a monster of an issue.

Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute has put together an eight minute video that makes the issues much more understandable. You will be surprised how many countries around the world have already adopted plans to solve their particular unfunded retirement plans. The most interesting example is Australia which solved their retirement funding plan some twenty five years ago. Link to the video appears below.

Saving Social Security with Personal Retirement Accounts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRh5zKleh0I&feature=player_embedded#!