Public Monopolies Are a Good Thing

Private monopolies are rightly criticized for being inefficient and unaccountable. But public monopolies are a different story — we should loudly and proudly say that democratically controlled public monopolies are a positive good.

(Flickr)


Elizabeth Warren’s newly released education plan takes aim at the main source of federal funding for charter schools. It proposes abolishing for-profit charters.

Bernie Sanders got there first, of course, but that’s no great surprise. You’d expect a socialist like Sanders to support pouring money into public schools instead of diverting funds to privately run charters. The “education reform” crowd presumably takes it for granted that Bernie is their enemy. But they experienced Warren’s embrace of his position as a betrayal.

As vocal as Warren has been against monopolies, I'd have thought she would be against having one organization with 100% market share in an industry vital to the prosperity of Americans: K-12 education. I'd be wrong.

 — John Arnold (@JohnArnoldFndtn) October 21, 2019

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