In connection with the Montana legislation covered by Syd, one of the wealthiest and most influential men in America comes down on the side of public schools – Warren Buffet’s annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway:
America has, for example, decided that those citizens in their productive years should help both the old and the young. Such forms of aid – sometimes enshrined as “entitlements” – are generally thought of as applying to the aged. But don’t forget that four million American babies are born each year with an entitlement to a public education. That societal commitment, largely financed at the local level, costs about $150,000 per baby. The annual cost totals more than $600 billion, which is about 3 1⁄2% of GDP. …
This economic creation will deliver increasing wealth to our progeny far into the future. Yes, the build-up of wealth will be interrupted for short periods from time to time. It will not, however, be stopped. I’ll repeat what I’ve both said in the past and expect to say in future years: Babies born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.
Yes, some might argue that these two paragraphs aren’t really connected, but I argue that they are because that investment in the education of our children is how we, and they, assure their future. Two of the smartest (including his partner Charlie Munger) – and most honest, from what I’m reading in the letter – guys around happen to think public education is important. If you read further, you find they’re four-square behind the current economic system, etc etc. I think that endangering public education by permitting the private schools to eschew the requirements placed on public schools is really just a way to make the education of the students into a dice game, because education goes on for years. When a school collapses, such as we’ve seen here in Minnesota, students get hurt. They lose dollars, they lose time, and they lose their trust in the free enterprise system – because it was applied to a sector where it doesn’t belong. And I think Warren and Charlie might agree.
