I share something with all four Koch brothers: prostate
cancer. They have survived for over 20 years. I hope
to as well.
Charles Koch is interested in free market education. He
has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into free market organizational
oases located on Keynesian/Democrat university campuses. These campuses remain
Keynesian/Democrat.
What if he could teach a million high school students
Austrian economics every year . . . permanently? Or two million? All over the
world?
Meanwhile, over the last dozen years, Salman Khan has
created the most successful educational program in history. He did it with no
money initially. Using free YouTube videos, he created a K-12 math program. The
curriculum is free.
Charles Koch is going to donate $400 million to politics between now and November.
This money will not change the direction of politics. The
outcome will be determined by the state of the economy. If there is a recession
between now and November, the Democrats will take the Senate and maybe the
House. If there is a recession in 2020, the Democrats will take both houses of
Congress and the White House, and will keep them for a decade or more. Koch's
money not will change this.
He is 81 years old. His personal clock is ticking.
If he would allocate two to three million dollars for
hiring libertarian teachers who have the ability to teach K-12 students, he
could establish a launching pad to replace Khan Academy with a systematically
libertarian online program.
It might cost $500,000 to edit and post 10,000
video-based lessons. It cost the Ron Paul Curriculum nothing. The instructors
did their own video productions with under $500 worth of equipment per
instructor. You can see the results here.
If he would then spend $100 million in marketing, he
could match Khan. Maybe. Khan supposedly has 100
million students.
Online resources cover preschool through
early college education, including math, biology, chemistry, physics,
economics, finance, history and grammar. Khan Academy offers free personalized
SAT test prep in partnership with the test developer, the College Board. Khan
Academy has been translated into dozens of languages, and 100 million people
use the platform worldwide every year.
Does the Khan Academy reaslly have that many students?
That seems too high. But I know this: it has more than any other school in
history.
Bill Gates' foundation gave him a few million dollars
after it was up and running. So did other rich men. But this is chump change
for the super-rich.
Charles Koch's thinking was shaped by Robert Lefevre, who
ran the tiny Freedom School in Colorado 60 years ago. He has experienced
first-hand what a dedicated, charismatic teacher can achieve in a
non-accredited program that operates outside of academia.
I put together the Ron Paul Curriculum with under $5,000
upfront money. The RPC offered royalties instead of cash payments. It has about
10,000 lessons, just as the Khan Academy does. That was my target number. It
took four years, 2013-17. Koch could duplicate it in 12 months with $2 million.
The faculty is in his home town: the Wichita Collegiate School. It was founded by
my friend Bob Love in 1963. He was on the board of the Foundation for Economic
Education. It is a first-rate school. Koch could hire them on a one-time basis
for $200 per lesson for 10,000 lessons. They could reproduce their classroom
lectures on weekends and over the summer. That would cost $2 million. If he had
to pay $300 or $400 per lesson, so what?
Would I like to see him do this? Yes. I want to see
students leave the public schools. As far as I'm concerned, free market
competition is positive. Even if Koch's program would reduce the number of
RPC's students, I would favor it. But I don't think it would hurt the RPC at
all. It would help it by legitimizing online education.
I think he is missing the boat. He would get enormous
bang for the buck by funding an online curriculum.
If he won't do it, brother David has at least $50
billion.
If David won't do it, brother William could. He is worth
at least $1.7 billion. But I don't know what his
economic views are.
Khan attended MIT. So did Charles Koch, David Koch, and
David's twin brother William. So did their father. Why should the brothers
forfeit the world's K-12 online educational contest to a late-arrival MIT grad?
This seems like a slam dunk.
