[Gingerbread Latte]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best at debating especially at a topic I don't know as much as I'd like to about but I'll try my best to reply to the parts of your argument that I feel I can debate on.

The government is owned by corporations

Your government may be but I would argue that my government is not owned by corporations to the same extent as the US is...at least, not yet.

What makes you think our current education system isn't ran by corporations? What makes you think the government running the education system makes it "fair?" Equality can only occur in free market economics.

With government run facilities at least the general public have some ability to hold them accountable. We can choose who to vote or not to vote in elections, we can sign petitions and rally to get certain politicians removed from office (with varying success). With a free market the general public can't do this.

As far as measuring the quality of education, we already do that as consumers. The difference is in a free market, when a company goes under, the tax payers don't owe the government billions of dollars for saving a company. Rather, consumers choose who survives and who doesn't.

So any school that is failing we just let it go under leaving those students without a school? That means those students have to go through the hassle of moving to another school. What if there are no other schools for them close by? What if the other schools close by cost more and the parents can't afford it?

You also mistakenly assume that we have no way to measure the quality without government.

I'm not saying ONLY the government can measure quality, in fact I disagree with the way they only use standardised testing to measure how well at school is doing but I was merely looking for a suggestion of how this would change if schools were privatised. My experience (albeit little) with private schools is that they want their students to achieve the top grades possible and will do anything to make them get those grades.

Look at healthcare website. We hired the private sector to fix it.

I've experienced the NHS and think that's more than adequate healthcare for the general population so there's no privatisation of it required, despite what our government thinks.

Employers are beginning to value work experience over education.

As Dave said previously this is nothing new. How do you propose this would change if schools are privatised?

can I ask you, am I free to disagree with you?

Of course you are. I'm not especially inclined to carry on debating in order to change your opinion mostly because I think that I won't be able to.