>> hundreds of teachers showed up outside my office to shout, shame on me because i questioned union rules. why have tenure? now a school reform movement has spread to other countries and unions there don't like it either. yet outside theo protests, there is progress.t >> it taught me a lot. >> now ron paul has a new toolt for homeh schooling. i hear home schoolers don't have friends. >> i've actually made a ton of more friends. >> let me hear your voice! >> but the unions make it hard to innovate. it's not just the unions. th

school reformers call the resistance a blob. it's like this jabba the hut thing that can't be bothered. the blob including the janitor't unions, politicians, school bureaucrats. if you try make a change, the blob says -- >> we don't do that hear. we have to requisition downtown. the deputy director of the curriculum has to say this is okay. it's crazy. >> at least today some kids escape the education blob. do you guys like forward to going to school in the morning? >> yes. >> that's our show tonight. >> america's school children have been trapped in a government-run mondayfully employee. the blob, so-called publicha school system that stifles most all innovation. so schools don't improve. it's not for lack of money. we've tripled what we spend on

k-12 education. but test scores don't go up. the good news is that there are all kinds of alternatives nowsc that allow kids to escape the government monopoly. now here is one more that i think you will be interested in if you watch my show. it's because it was created by none other than libertarian congressman ron paul. four home schoolers, you're introducing the ron paul curriculum. which ism what? >> the curriculum is a freedom curriculum. it's based on the freedom philosophy and the things i've talked about now for 30 years, especially in the last five years. so if you're talking about economics, it's going to not be keynesian. everyone knows i'm not going to teach that. >> you're not going to go into every home.go how will it be? >> home school or the internet. if we study the constitution, we don't want to read it out of one of the textbooks that's so biased. they will have s a lecture you e

to do video lectures that the young people can watch at their own speed and it's going to be designed to get people to read. it's going to be g designed to t people to write. it will be designed to think about businesses and how to interreact. i'm very encouraged by this and hopefully we can participate ino this transition away from the disaster that's happening in our public school system. >> you're going to charge home schoolers about 250 bucks? >> a whole family. >> who needs to pay you? my charity, it's free and the teachers can get these free video, some of which you're on. >> in the book we mention about some of the free ones. but we have to sell our programs.ook. ours will be free from kindergarten up to fifth grade. it's a pretty good start.fift i went through public school system 12 years of it, but it's different today. and people are suffering. they don't know what to do, but

there is so much poor education. there is so muchth crime. drugs and problems in public schools, the parents arem look for something and there are a loft options. you have private school options, which some people can't afford. but home schooling is affordable. it isn't that bad. there are some free courses out there and some are inexpensive. the people are gravitating that way and they get a much better education. just think of how well the home schoolers have done when iter e comes to competing with the public schools. >> spelling bees. >> geography. they don't even teach geography anymore. that used to be my favorite subject. they tried to close down or prevent the home schoolers from developing in the 1980s, but a major case in texas -- >> they argued we have to have uniforms, parents won't do a good job.th >> and it turned out not to beth the case. if they close down home schooling and private schooling, which they are going tojo contie to try to do, because what i'm afraid of is they're going to

have a regulation, when we doo real well in home schooling, become law and say one of the qualifieses to get in college is that you have to have a degree from such and such school. no matter how smart they are because otherwise we'll take thc money from you. if push comes to shove, they might try something like that. but right now the momentum is on our side and the numbers of people who -- >> 3% of the school kids now are home schooled. it's gone up. >> what's the motivation to keep them? they get more money. >> if they're in the government -- >> the strongest group that wants to defend that public school system is of course the biggest union in the country. s that's the teachers union. >> i heare home schoolers, or s told they don't socialize. they're home. school is where you learn to mix with other kids.m >> i believe that for a long time. >> you didn't home school your kids?ed >> no, i didn't. things have gotten worse. >> you were talking aboutpu socializing. i believe at one time that they would be asocial and wouldn't be

good. when i learned the differences, home schoolers were strong supporters of mine in texas. they would come out and you would know them because it woulh be the middle of the week. the mother would be there with three of their kids and they were able to ask questions and were more dignified than anybody i ever saw in the public school system. there wasn't any real argument to be made that they're going to be antisocial. >> let's meet a couple home schoolers. kids, come out.uple this is veronica. she's 16. jeremiah is 12.r both are home schooled by different families here in new12 york city. you guys must have no friends ia you're home schooled. [ laughter ] >> some people have said that. >> some people have. >> do you have anyo friends? >> of course we have. i find it entirely not true that home schoolers have no friends. i've actually made a ton of mort friends with the home schooling program.fr

>> how, if you're home all the time? >> well, there isnd a group oft 7,000 parents and they do a little social activities.i >> your mother made a video of a dance where home schoolers get together. ♪ >> this isn't a church basement and this is the kind of thing -- >> yes, they hosted a little dance there for all the home schoolers in the community. they have soccer classes.t i went to the metropolitan museum of arts, made a bunch ofe new friends there. and they do like three to five plays a year. i was in one of them. i made a bunch of friends there and so i actually made a bunchme more friends with home school. >> ande veronica, you take ballt

classes, karate lessons. you meet kids outside the home?a >> yeah, exactly. >> and what do you like about -- i would think being home with your mom, you like this? >> yeah. i actually really do because it allows me to -- it allows me to morph my curriculum into my interests and direct what i'm learning to help me learn morei about what i want to do when i grow up. i've really developed an interest in being a writer. so i found that home school allows me to do extra stuff that helps me develop my mind so that i'm better prepared for that. >> but your brothers go tot regular school?. >> yeah. when we all got to high school, my parents gave us a choice. they said, you can go to highwe school or you can keep on going to home school.y my brothers said we want to go to high school.ol they felt like they could beo more motivated to do work and they thrived really well in the school environment.

>> you wrote a "wall streete journal" op ed about that. >> i did.o yes. >> that's how you came to ourt attention. jeremiah, you have regrets at, i all, things you miss in regulare school? >> no. [ laughter ] >> sound pretty certain. you weren't always home schooled. just the past four years. you tried private school, that was too expensive. public school. in public school you were bullied? >> yes, i was. i was bullied almost on a weekld basis because i was so small and i was in kindergarten, so i didn't really know how to fend for myself. >> one guy threatened to take your watch? >> yeah, yeah. i brought a little toy watch to? school my family if i didn't give him the watch. i was scared 'cause, i mean -- >> are you just being home schooled 'cause you're hiding from government school?: >> no, no. it also works for my acting. i'm a performer and i sing and

it's good 'cause i can have like a big audition one day and then i can do school the other day if i'm busy all day with a show. i usually do it on a weekend and sometimes holidays because that's when most of the schoolsa are shut down and there is not really any auditions.here >> it's not just your parents teaching you. you take live classes on the web? >> i attend on-line school and so there are scheduled classes during the week and i go on and i attend and so -- but i can doa that from home. >> dr. paul, how would your curriculum add to things like that? >> it would fit hasd and theadd extra activity is very important that you pointed out.ink but i think the important thing they're talking about, i noticet two things. one is self-directed. they pick and choose on what they want to do in their lifel and make their plans. that's what ay good program woud be like.h but the other thing is it should

be fun. it seems to me, like they'rew enjoying what they're doing and all you have to do is look at what's happening in public schools. there is a lot of boredom and n' fun. >> i'm going to stop you and i should have stopped myself. we shouldn't call it public school. government school. >> yeah. >> big difference. thank you, dr. paul. jeremiah. comingk up, something more radical than home schooling.omi unschooling. these kids like it.e >> so amazing to just come here every day and know that i can d whatever i want.

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>> stossel: i went to public school, or i mean government school. supposedly a good one. outside thie suburbs in chicago. routinely makes list of top high schools. i got to go there 'cause i live in a niceo neighborhood. of course, most americans arec assigned to school based on i l where we live. people accept that.eric but that's crazy.l what if you were assigned to your neighborhood grocery store? the store would have no incentive to improve.or just like today's governmentike schools. fortunately, some states now

offer vouchers that allow someo poorer people to try a schoolow outside their neighborhood. parents love it.e in louisiana, some 8,000 kidss o got voucher money this year and most use it to go to a private school. so parents love it, kids like it.c but eric holder, u.s. attorney general, doesn't. last month the department of justice went to court to stop louisiana from issuing some ofj those vouchers. why? there are claims it willo interfere with his desegregation efforts. he wouldn't come on the show to explain, so let's ask louisiana congressman steve scalise. what's going on? >> hey, john.gr how are you doing? louisiana, the state put in a program that allows 8,000 children at a low income to have real option if they're in a failing school. eric holder is saying that's students should be trapped in these failing schools and not have options if their parents choose to send them to a school

that can actually give them aveo better opportunity for a future in life. so it's one of these perplexing things you're seeing and it shows the warped priorities of the obama administration -- >> wait a second. >> stossel: they have a reason for this. they say that the vouchers impeded the desegregation process and last year, louisiana vouchers increased racial imbalances in 34 schools. >> i don't know where they're making those numbers up from because over 90% of the students we're talking about in louisiant are minority students. their parents are the ones who are saying, we want our child to be removed from this failing school so they aren't trapped in a place they can't get an education and go somewhere t elsewhere they have better opportunity in life. why should you deny them that opportunity? again, this is the parent saying i don't want my child to beeport trapped in a school that's rated to be failing. this only applies to schools d that are c, d or f schools by

the rating system. >> stossel: for the record, weg think of the government schools as this bighe melting pot. but they are more segregated now than private schools and one study found in lunchrooms, thate different races were more likel to sit together and not self-segregate than private schools. >> absolutely. you will help desegregation by allowing this program to go forward. it's been a very successful program and the parents love itr shouldn't this be about helping those parents and their children who are trapped in failing schools and eric holder sakes i don'tar care. you should be propped in a s failing school so we can engage in some social experiment in washington, d.c. >> stossel: congressman, let me toss an odd idea at you. in slate, there is an article, which argues that if you send your kid to private school,a you're a bad person because to preserve the public schools, she

writes, it would ruin one of the most essential institutions to get what's best for your kid. i that's not fors the common gooo >> anybody who is disgraceful enough to try to take cheap shots at somebody's children is because of a policy decision, i think it says a lot about their character. but if you look at kids across the country, whether it's white, black, rich, poor, if someone it sending their kid to a private school, they're still paying taxes that go to that publich school and now that's one fewer child the public school has to educate. so there is more dollars per capita. it actually takes moneyr away in essence from public schools if you shut down the private schooo system. i'm not sure what they're trying tot achieve.pub again, maybe they just want to dumb down the system.m. but the fact that you've gote public and private schools shows there is a need out there to. fill a void where parents feel, look, if i think there is a better option to educate my kid, why would you want to deny the parent and the child thedr opportunity for a betterny t education? >> stossel: why indeed. thank you, congressman.

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>> who are we?e >> usa. >> stossel: that was a teachers union protest outside my office. they were mad at me because of what i said on "20/20". >> shame on you! >> they channeled, stossel, shame on you! >> stossel: they're still mad at me because i criticized tenure and union rules that make i 'cae don't get paid more. but as bad as america's union rules are, there is a place where they're worse.e in mexico, union teachers havee been able to sell their teachinr jobs, or give them to other family members. and they, too, could never be

fired. now union teachers in mexico ar. rioting because the new government there changed the rules. here to explain this is the reporter who covers latin america for the "wall streetof journal"."the so what's going on? i consider this good news, except maybe the protesters first step. there is a long way to go inachr is the largest union in latint t america. presidents have been unwillingan to touch the privileges of the teachers union for almost 80 years. >> stossel: they could really fill their jobs? that's part of their union deal? >> oh, they had privileges that were even more incredible than that. for example, when you graduatede from the teaching school, youatd were guaranteed a job and oncee you started that job, you had tenure for the rest of your life. >> stossel: you got tenure immediately? >> yes.

>> stossel: i once asked an american teachers union bosso about tenure, one of the few wh> will still talk to me, joe dellgreato who heads newark's teachers union.h why have tenure? most professions don't have tenure in. >> when you went to organized crime, you got to be a made person. there was like aav ceremony. but nothingo is getting tenure, which is a nice thing. p >> stossel: you kind of like organized crime. you're in forever unless you die or are killed.e or >> well, there is that perspective of it. >> stossel: he's laughing and this is justct the way it is in most schools and why do we accept this? >> i think in mexico for a long time, because it's a poor country, people have thought that what they really want tonk get is access. it's onlyf recently, i think,hat that the awareness is growing in the country that if mexicans arn not educated, they're not going to be able to be part of the middle class. o >> and so the new president says, i want to change this.

these riots have gone off and os for more than a month. ch they went on before they voteds on the new rules. but the rules did pass. >> yeah. i think the rules passed because they're not satisfied with just growing a t backyard anymore. they want the more high-techsati jobs that are coming to mexico because of the north american free trade agreement. they want to be part of that game. so even though the specialan interests of the teachers union. remains very powerful and as you can see, very activist, a largen percentage of the mexican population backs the president on this one. v >> stossel: in america whenrcen teachers unions protest, they are noisy and disruptive. but in mexico, they take hostages. they shut the whole city down. >> yeah. i think that actually this backfired on them, particularly when they did it in mexico cityt and people couldn't get to the t airport and ahe lot of the bigg boulevards were closed because mexico city already has a bigevr traffic problem. >> stossel: why do they continue to protest?a they think they'll get it

changed back? >> they do. they think they can get it changed back and they also think they cany push back in the process of implementation. i think that's really one of the big questions that remains outth there. they change the law on the books, but is this going to beq really implemented? >> stossel: a few years ago, thh teachers union boss planned to give 59 brand-new hummers to top union officials until people heard about it, protested and that was stopped. >> well, this explains why thed teachers union has been so powerful. imagine they collect dues, that particular union has 1.4 million they collect dues from all thosr teachers and they go into a pot and there is no transparency. there is no law that says that the union has to show how the money is spent. and that particular union boss actual lea is in jail right now because the president had her arrested. but the other thing is that they could use the money to spread it around to the politicians and bribe people. we don't know. i'm making allegation that i'man

fairly certain are probably true, but it's all been one bigr black box.prob >> stossel: the protesters have taken hostages?ack >> yes. they said we're going to take these hostages and hold on to them until you guarantee teaching jobs for the graduates from the school.e >> stossel: what happened? >> oh, they eventually let themv go. but the problem remains. they have kindr of moved on looking for new hostages, i suppose. >> stossel: the teachers union exists in many countries becausu the world copies america. schools get government funding and have little real competition, often the result of schools even worse thant ours. soof what's a parent a do? a british researcher was surprised to discover that even in the poorest places, parents will pay to send their kids to private school. even in these places where parents earn a dollar a day, they will oftenc take their kid.

out of free government schools and instead, pay typically as dollar a week so their children can attend private schools likee this one. >> there are six private schools. can you imagine that? small village, six private schools. what we found in my study was that in poor areas like this,t the majority of school children are in private school. and these schools outperform the government schools at a fraction of the teacher cost. >> stossel: in latin america? >> i think anybody who has the money to send their child to a private school in latin america will do it because they knowd that that's their t ticket into the middle class and without it, they're going to have a very rough time. >> stossel: because in theou government schools, often the teachers just don't show up, just sit there, don't teach. >> precisely. they perform verydo badly.t mexican schools are at thecis

bottom of the oecd ranking, 34th out of 34 countries in terms of the achievement of the students. so they're doing a very poora ve job. >> stossel: thank you. so if you would like to keep this conversation going, go to twitter or facebook and use tha hash tag, the blob, to letse people know what you think. i'd like to see what you think,i too. coming up, some rare schools where kids actually like learning. >> reading iski work, but it's rocking awesome. >> stossel: and next, a school with no rules.a >> what did you do in school that's different from here?ould >> everything is different from public school.>> you get o have fun e all day with the spark miles card from capital one,

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>> stossel: home schooling was recently considered radical. politicians said, we must be in charge of education!said parents can't teach. if they do, their kids won'tc socialize. now we know it's not true. average home schooled kids do very well. even home schooling has structure. the parent iss the teacher. some of the dictate curriculum. today the most radical form oft schooling is something calledst unschooling. home schooling where the parent doesn't teach and there are noe tests. the kids do whatever they want. i waso surprised to learn there are also schools that practiceto that.t kennedy checked one out in d massachusetts. >> if i show up for school with my day, beats me? >> stossel: there are no class, no tests and no curriculum. students are only required tot show up for five hours a day. >> when you get here, you have

to check in. >> okay. >> when you leave, you have to check out. these are the only have toes on the day. >> it's just so amazing to justh come here every day and know that i can do whatever i want. >> stossel: sometimes what they want to do is play others play music for hours. >> why did i start sudbury school? >> we had children. getting to hild was be school aged and it was a horrible prospect to put them through regular school system.e they do their best to destroy the natural interest, curiousity and passions of children. ♪ >> stossel: here nothing is forced on kids. not even learning to read. >> i learned to read when i was probably 11. >> yeah. i taught myself how to read. >> really? >> yeah? >> how did you do that? >> i just tried and tried.

>> one of the coolest things> about coming here is i didn't know if ian wanted to go to college. because it's not like anybody telling you like yeah, you need to go to college.ike my past has led me to go to college. >> stossel: at first it seemed like there were no rules, but there are rules. it's just that the kids have an equal say in making the rules.n one vote per kid.u >> the community decides everything. by the community, i mean the collection of students and adults. no hierarchy here whatsoever. >> stossel: when they open the school, everyone was skeptical. >> the lead lawyer was pacing back and forth.lead four-year-olds, four-year-olds have the vote? my god! they'll vote candy for themselves! the school will never run. >> stossel: but that's not what happened. the kids run a court system. >> this is the meeting of the judicial committee.he >> yep. >> it's basically ea school courtroom. >> yeah. so instead of going up and telling a teacher, blah, blah did this, it's like a court. >> stossel: i'm so surprised

they don't vote themselves candy if they really have this control. >> it's interesting becauseris since they govern themselves, they're in charge of their own education, the kids are in charge of the school and they'rh much harder on themselves thannc any teachers or administrators would be. and you have kids ranging in age from 4 to 19. a bunch of 19-year-olds don'tge want four-year-olds bouncing of the walls high on sugar. >> stossel: we showed the kid playing video games. my son would have spent all day playing video games. >> yeah, that would be my worry i think most parents feel thatwo way. i was really surprised to seetha that many kids were gathered al different ages around computers with each other. they were collaborating. many of them were in the arteri studio. they were painting. they were playing music. >> stossel: painting, playing music. were any learning math and: difficult things? >> they say they do. it's a hard thing for an outsider to measure. we saw kids who were engaged on

computers. they weren't necessarily playino computer games. they might have been doing really intense academic research and many of them were sitting around reading by themselves.m >> stossel: and they must learnc something 'cause the parents choose this. it's a private school. they have to pay $8,000.e >> they do.c and there are parents who are obviously nontraditional for whom public school doesn't work. they don't like there model. it doesn't work for their kid. so they seek this school out as a way for their kids to really be in charges of themselves andt they trust -- the trust is the most important thing. they trust their kids will learn. >> stossel: and most do go tou college? >> 85% of them, we were told byh the founders, go on to college. >> stossel: i would be nervous about enrolling my kids in an unschool. parents said this school getst kids to like learning. >> what is it about the school that attracts you? >> well, he wants to come, which has not been the case in several other schools. he told me the other day, he's

like, mom, wake me up for sure. [ laughter ] who are you? what have you done with my teen-ager who sleeps 'til 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon? >> it like teaches you.at >> what did you do in public school that's different from here? >> everything is different from public school.l you get o have fun all day. >> go to a public school and you watch kids come fourth recess and they're like being let out of prison. our kids aren't like that. they're not in prison. they don't have to be like that. >> how would you describe your school?ven >> awesome. >> your friends at other schools, are they jealous?ou >> yes. >> yes. >> if you were going to build your perfect school what, would it be like? >> this.t >> this. >> yeah. >> definitely. >> stossel: the kids say it's perfect. but you want to go to college.te collegesl want a transcript, c grades. >> there are no grades o tr transcripts. there are no classes. there is nothing like that. they prepare themselves for thet sat. they teach themselves higher

math. they organize their own education. sometimes they kind of cram itth in in the last year, but they manage to get into college when they want to go.. >> stossel: there are now dozens of schools like this around then world. it's hard to measure successou when they don't take the standardized test. but the fact that this -- this is not new. this school is how old? >> been around since 1968. the hippies were the ones who gave them the hardest time. so they have survived andthe thrived regardless of people's political affiliations trying tf keep them down. >> stossel: you have kids. would you send them? >> i would thinkke about nontraditional methods and i was certainly intrigued by it.uld but like the founder says, there is a giant chasm to overcome in order to trust your kids to go there. i don't think i've overcome that chasm quiet, but it is th interesting. >> stossel: or in short, no. so kennedy, thank you. coming up, a way to escape the education blob by using your

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>> sending your classroom has never been easier. >> stossel: finally, technology is getting into schools, making

things easier for teachers, often more fun for students. there is a web site called stumble upon which helps peoplee find the best web pages for thee and the head is 24-year-old aaron jen. his latest project is finding new ways that technology can enhance education. you're going to do this through somethingin called a hackathon, which myed wife would say -- you must be a courtroom if he's doing a hackathon. >> yeah, yeah. hackathon is basically, we call it a marathon coding events. after i finish -- >> stossel: we old people misunderstand the use of the phrase, hack, right? it doesn't mean break in? >> in the '90s they had that committeation. but today it means creativity and you have a limited times of how do you create an outcome that you want with limitedcr resources? and hackathon, you usually have 24 hours to solve a problem. >> stossel: you're doing this in miami october 11 and, the winne1

gets $5,000 five if after coding for 24 hours straight -- >> they make a product that thee judges think, wow, that's amazing. so the goal is to -- with that amount of time, find something, a creative solution to a problem that's been around for years. >> stossel: what makes you so certain that technology haswhat solutions? >> it's already working rightc now. we see a lot of very successful education start-ups popping up. >> stossel: kahn academy. on-line, started by hedge fund analyst, who once tutored his young cousin to help with math. >> that worked out well.>> i started tutoring her and others. >> stossel: to save time, he posted his lectures ontube and was surprised to discover thousands of people, soon millions, had watched them. >> what he's done is amazing. >> stossel: now he's funded by bill gates.

and he offers web lectures on everything from history to economics to computer science. you just happened to be good at teaching? >> i'll take that as a compliment. >> stossel: bringing his still to government schools threatens the blob. >> there is a huge bureaucracy, most of which wants to say no th change the system. a blob, people call it.h >> it's the blob, and it is.lock i think what's fun from our point of view is that we are able to reach students outside of the blob. >> stossel: inside, too. at first, teachers felt threatened, but most came around when they saw how their kids got excited about learning. >> they're happy tot walk in ths door every morning. they're excited about math. it isn't, oh, math. it's like we have math, that's great. >> it's more fun to do math. >> stossel: finally after all these years of kids beingne borw in school and not learning math, that's over?ng >> i think it might be. t >> stossel: so what other new cool things will make a difference?

>> we have another start-up in new york called skill share, which is what i like to call the eyes for education, where you can go on there, search any topic from learning how to play volleyball, to learning coding and there is a teacher available, whether around you who you can do a one on one type session, or on-line. so consumers now can go and picn a topic and can learn from the best in their area without ever going -- >> stossel: they pay a fee? >> they pay a fee. it's all whatever the teacher wants to set. there is multiple teachers competing for the same group of students. >> stossel: there is also something called schoolology. what's that? >> you can have a single place to track the progress of youro child over the course of their life. >> stossel: a daily report card? >> uh-huh. where they can communicate about -- whether grades or report cards or participation in extracurricular activities. >> stossel: the parent no longer has to wait over a month for the first report card?onge >> the feedback is faster, which thus you can make changeses very

quickly. >> stossel: then there is remind 101. what's that? >> that was started by one of my friends and basically he always had trouble remembering what was due the next day, what he had t turn in.e ne so he developed this platform which basically allowed teachers to text message their students. >> stossel: and remind 101, asks michigan students and teachers how they use the app.k >> most of my teachers use remind 101 to remind us of upcoming quizzes or tests. >> they received reminders on mi blogs. many students tend not to look there. but they do look at their phone instantly. >> stossel: a harvard study found texas nothing increased classroom participation andti homework being turned in.k >> the response rates for text messages is usually over 80%.te think about how you use text messaging now. if someone sends it to you and the 1 is still threw and you haven't responded, you will automatically try to open and

click it. people my age, we're always on our phones, we're always texting. >> stossel: i hate all of you! thank you very much. i don't really. next, more good news.t r schools so much better that kids like school. >> they teach news a fun way. >> stossel: so you guys look forward to going to school in the morning?way >> yes. walking the grounds. in tuscany. [ man ] her parents didn't expect her dreams to be so ambitious. italy? oh, that's not good. [ man ] by exploring their options, they learned that instead of going to italy, they could use a home equity loan to renovate their yard and have a beautiful wedding right here while possibly increasing the value of their home. you and roger could get married in our backyard. it's robert, dad. [ female announcer ] come in to find the right credit options for your needs. because when people talk, great things happen. constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps.

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>> stossel: many americans say public schools, government schools are one of the bestools parts of america. they're a melting pot. we're all in it together. those schools built the country. and i believe that, until i started reporting on schools and now i say government schools ara one of the worst parts of boring. they're more segregated than private schools and much more expensive. the education blob claims schools are underfunded and kids would do better if only we'd give the schools a little more o money. this trap shows the absurdity of that claim. spending has gone through the roof. while test scores have barely budged. the scores are those flat lines at the bottom. the blob also demanded smaller classrooms and it got them, butr oops.sroo smaller class sizes did not increase performance. bill gates spent billions

building smaller high schools. that didn't help either. i give gates credit. he spentat his own money, took measurements and then when he found no improvement, he triedey other ideas, like sell con. in contrast, the government blob spends your money and when theis experiments fail, they continueo them anyway. no business can get away with that. it's why most every service in america has gotten better, faster, cheaper. but not education. monopolies don't improve. of course, american parents, especially those in the suburbs, think their kids' public schools are pretty good. but because there is no competition, they don't know thy truth. international tests show that even the good suburban schools are mediocre compared to schools in the rest of the world. but without no competition, parents don't know what theirwol kids might have had. fewth of us can imagine the possibility until we see the t

options. had phone service was aptio government blessed monopoly, all the phones were black. all calls were expensive.ll only when the monopoly was busted up did we get competitios and the cheap phone calls and cool phones we have now. competition makes theit difference. the postal service couldn't get it there overnight. none of the brilliant managers at that government monopoly could make it happen. but once fed-ex appeared -- >> with an absolutely positively has to be there overnight. >> stossel: then suddenly even the postal service could get it there overnight sometimes. so it'se not the government is staffed entirely by lazy people. it's just that we rarely think of better ways to do things until competition forces us to. if there were a free market in education, schools would get much better. they'd compete for good teachers. the best teachers might make $200,000 a year. government schools already spend

more than that per classroom. competition would create all sorts of innovation. i don't presume to know which innovation will be best. we showed a few tonight, but as it was put, competition is a discovery process. no one knows which innovation is best until they're tried. the good news is that the school choice movement has finally given the blob some competition and a few kids, thanks to thingt like vouchers, charter schools, tax credits now like going to school. i never did. but school is boring! >> no, it's not! >> they teach us in a fun way. >> stossel: so you guys look forward to going to school in the morning? >> yes! >> stossel: those kids were at a charter school in harlem. once more parents noticed, hey, johnny down the street likes going to school and he's learning. maybe they'll join the fight against the blob and eventually all of us will have much better

lives. that's our show. see you next week. >> arthel: welcome to a brand-new hour inside america's news headquarters. i'm arthel nevilleful topping the news this hour, senate majority leader harry reid now saying, quote, we are at square one as house lawmakers push ahead with a new bill funding the government through december and calling for a one-year delay of obamacare. and new reaction to a story conversation between president obama and the new president of iran. what it means for a possible deal over iran's nuclear program. plus an investigation into the deaths of 19 arizona firefighters revealing new de