For many years, my household has operated on a computer technology “hand-me-down” policy. My wife buys the latest and greatest. When something better comes along, I get a hand-me-down. Sometimes this happens more rapidly than other times.

So, it was with great pleasure that I recently received a first generation iPad. While not as sleek and powerful as the second generation, I find it to be a wonderful tool and toy.

One of the things I like to do before I go to sleep at night is lie in bed and read. Marvel of marvels, there is now a free App for Bloomberg Businessweek, one of my favorite magazines that I have subscribed to for many years. I tried it out a few evenings ago, and read the following article:

Leonard, Devin (May 30–June 5, 2001). The end of mail. Bloomberg Businessweek. The subtitle is, “The U.S. Postal Service is as old as the country, delivers 40 percent of the world’s mail, and is on the verge of collapse.

My wife and I certainly contribute to the USPS’s woes. We do a huge amount of online communication. We purchase lots of stuff online. Most of what cannot be delivered online is delivered by for-profit competitors of the USPS.

Interestingly, as a consequence of us purchasing lots of stuff online, we receive a continual stream of hardcopy mail-order catalogues. According to Leonard’s article, this part of the postal service is subsidized by the Federal Government. So, my wife and I receive a whole lot of what we (and others) call “junk mail,” and the cost of this is subsidized by taxpayers. That certainly is a strange way to run a business.

The article goes on to describe how a number of other countries have moved toward privatization of their postal services. Instead of losing money, quite a variety of profit-making (and tax paying) mail and package delivery systems have been developed through privatization.

As I thought about this, I did some mental compare and contrast with our educational system. I have long been a strong supporter of our pubic education system at both the precollege and higher education levels. I am proud of the University of Oregon where I did my undergraduate work and taught for about 40 years. I am proud of the local public schools that I and my children attended.

Now, here is an interesting tidbit of information. In the current year, only about 7 or 8 percent of the money needed to run the University of Oregon was provided through the State Legislature. And, it will be in the 5 to 6 percent range this next year. Situations similar to this are occurring at a number of the pubic colleges and universities in the United States. In essence, a number of the public institutions of higher education are being run nearly like private companies.

Our precollege public education system is beginning to face a variety of challenges that are made possible by steady progress in computer-based distance learning and computer-assisted learning. Some futurists see the demise of much that we hold near and dear in both precollege and higher education over the next few decades. It is not that education will go away. Rather, there will be major changes in the "business model" of education.

I find it quite interesting to see how this will play out. Our USPS is having trouble making needed changes because of a range of political considerations and a very long history of doing things somewhat in the way they are currently being done. Those same words describe our public educational system.

I am interested in hearing reader’s ideas on ways in which we might be able to decrease the cost of public education and simultaneously improve the overall quality of the important services it provides.