Why Public Education?

A good question, and Jonah has an excellent column on the subject. Steyn agrees. But is there a contradiction in Steyn's argument? Brian Beutler:

Interestingly, in the middle of making the case against the whole public school system, he's pointed out the fact that state-run schools can be run successfully. They're run successfully in other countries, and, additionally, they're run successfully in plenty of municipalities around this country. What that means is that there are plenty of templates--and no shortage of data--that the government can use if it wants to actually fix (as opposed to grenade) the problems. That would, of course, be both simpler than privatizing everything and would allow us to avoid all the problems that would no doubt arise if we instituted the sort of voucher/magnet system which - similar data shows - is riddled with problems of its own.

One of the recent lowpoints of an Obama speech was his invocation of "crumbling" schools in DC. If Obama thinks the problem with public education in DC is insufficient funding, he really should visit more often.