[ZeeBee]

Am I the only person who found this article very, very disapointing.

While I agree with much of the sentiment of the article, Alan presents no actual evidence to support his opinions.

While the statements from the educators implying that "cometition is bad" made me wince - I would like to see evidence as to whether their policies work or not before condemning them. Although stifling competition seems bad at face value, there are many cases where what works and what doesn't in education (as with many other areas) is counterintuitive (e.g. there is significant evidence to show that many incentive schemes which look good on paper actually have a negative effect). I am surprised that 2+2 - the home of "fighting fuzzy thinking" - promote such a weak analysis.

And as to the assertion that "Because of anti-competitive attitudes, our economy and living standards are at risk. In a few decades America has gone from being the world's largest creditor to the world's largest debtor...", forgive my stupidty, but isn't your national debt rather more to do with budgetary policy than 'anti-competitive attitudes'.

Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely in favour of competition - but in my view we should be applauding articles because of the quality of their analysis, not just because we happen to agree with the points beign put forward. This article may have a good point to make, but the analysis and evidence used to support it is shoddy.

ZB