Is Our Children Learning?

[Gulliver]

When a relatively minor official in your government vowed to increase the standard of education in Taijitu Founder, the press came knocking on your door to ask how this might actually be done.

1. "It's all a question of money," says veteran teacher Stephanie Clinton, "If we really care about education, we'll make it our number one priority. Double the education budget, halve the teacher-student ratio, and make sure every teacher has a master's degree in education. After all, the children are our future."

2. "As much as I'd like to have more money, it's really a question of most of the faculty belonging to one of the most powerful unions in the whole of Taijitu Founder that stops this school from being great," says Headmaster Emily Dodinas, "I can't discover which teachers are good and reward them for their excellent work, nor fire the useless ones. Destroying teachers' unions is perhaps the most important thing we could do. "

3. "I think specialization is the way to go," says your defense minister, standing arm in arm with a bishop of a major religion and Taijitu Founder's top CEO, "Specialization lets each focus on what they're truly good at, and I'm sure that religious institutions, the military, and private companies would fork out a bit to train up the next generation, so we could save on taxes too."

4. "As we've proven in the past, the free market can manage this far better than the public sector," says market-analyst Jessica Chicago, "Now, I'm not saying that the state shouldn't help people go to school - far from it. Still, schools need greater freedom to maximize learnedness: to set their own tuition, salaries, curricula, etc. Give private schools a small government subsidy, and let the free market take its course. So what if a few poor kids drop out earlier? You can't make omelets without breaking a few eggs."

[Gulliver]

We already have a very sizable education budget, and an intelligence rating that's slightly above the world average. If we do wish to adopt an option here I'm leaning a bit towards specialization, unless there are possibly negative consequences.