Lawrence Summers defends convincingly voucher programs in health and education

Sir, in “The US state will expand no matter the election result”, August 20, Lawrence Summers writes: 

“Increases in the price of what the federal government buys relative to what the private sector buys will inevitably increase the cost of state involvement in the economy. Since the early 1980s the price of hospital care and higher education has risen fivefold relative to the price of cars and clothing and more than 100-fold relative to the price of televisions.” 

Even when netting out of the technological advance’s impact on costs, it would seem that the above constitutes an extremely spirited defense of vouchers programs.

The education of your neighbor’s kids is part of your own kid’s education

Sir, Mr Manuel Riesco when arguing “Chile’s experience belies claims of those who believe in superiority of private schools”, February 24 is rightly concerned with “the poorest remaining in the public schools which have deteriorated” but somehow he seems to imply this would be the fault of the private schools, which obviously it is not. As I have always believed that the education of your own children might turn out to be dangerously useless if your neighbor’s children are left behind, I have always been a supporter of public education. Nonetheless, public education can be given through private mechanisms such as the vouchers and so Mr Riesco’s concern should perhaps be why the poorest of Chile have not received a sufficient large voucher to be able to access a private school. And of course this does neither imply that the public schools cannot or should not be good too.