Utterly Meaningless

But consider this — health insurance “portability” is the new solution of public planner types, where the coverage belongs to you and isn’t tied to one institution; you take it with you as you move around.

Coupled with the rising acceptance of paying for health care through some kind of government mechanisms even though it will be “individually owned”, can you see these new constructs applying to “education coverage” and supplanting the old “school vouchers” frame in our zeitgeist?

I don’t know JJ, there is still a big difference between education and health insurance. We all feel the pain of the farked up health care system in this country. Most people still have a “Somebody Else’s Problem” reality distortion field set up around the education issue.

BTW , Scott Somerville was playing with a strange new tax idea last year (see Kay’s HSWatch list for the skeletal discussion) — that all PS schooling received should be taxable to the family that accepts it, with offsets for low-income families. The purpose was to make the costs (and benefits) more transparent to the public, so they could be dealt with more realistically and fairly in public policy. Now the same idea is is being seriously advanced in health system redesigns.

Also health care policy mandates — vaccinations and phsyicals, mental health screening and treatment, no-smoking, no snacks and trans fats, mandatory seat belts and helmet laws, etc. –are connecting at critical points with school policy . . .

So how we fund it all (universal health and universal school) might begin to converge as well?

Just to be CLEAR – I’m analyzing, not advocating!
😉