Conundrum

Not as relaxed as this one.

Here's an article for reading. Well, all articles are for reading I suppose, but this one leaves me rather mixed in thoughts.

Agreements with article:

Yes. Money does not solve everything. Throwing a ton of cash at education does not necessarily make things fine and dandy - and even if it does, it won't happen overnight. Cutting costs can be good too. Things are changing rapidly in education - we drop strategies and pick up new ones every 2-3 years, it seems like. It'll be ok to do the same for financials too. It's kind of like why keep paying for Netflix when there are no good movies to watch.

Yes. Government intervention does sometimes persist something that is ready to slow down. Look at the corn industry. We have corn in nearly every single processed food item known to mankind, in part because of government subsidies to make corn cheap. I have a lot of faith in the natural process of supply and demand, and sometimes I think we mess up that natural process a little too much.

Disagreements with article:

Um. Why are you comparing percent change of something to absolute cost of something else? Wouldn't it be more informative to compare like with like? Of course absolute cost (adjusted for inflation) is going to go up - when has it ever NOT gone up? I would like to know more about the percent change in cost of education too. Are we spending more, or are we spending more than last year?

If the US economy needs fewer public school jobs, can you offer an alternative for people who are trained to teach? Because, you know, the US needs fewer people in the unemployment lines too. Ok, sure. There are charter schools and private schools, but I don't think they can absorb every single unemployed public school teacher out there. Same goes for tutoring, after-school programs, and overseas teaching. There's probably more alternatives I'm not seeing - what else, what else? Any suggestions?