The "Single payer and Multiple providers" is a health care policy where there the government pays for everything while the public has access to treatment given by any doctor or hospital in the country. This is the same principle that presidential hopeful Donald Trump wants to happen in the United States' education system. How will he do it and what improvements will it bring?

In his book, "The America We Deserve", Trump complained that the public school system has become a monopoly and competition has become a thing of the past. Because of this, he argued, public schools have become apathetic and stopped providing quality education. The only cure for this, he further reasoned, is to bring in competition by empowering parents to send their children to a school of their choice. By encouraging competition, parents and children have now access to "multiple providers" by using vouchers.

It works pretty simply: A student receives a voucher from the government containing the average cost for schooling. Any qualified school can take that voucher and take in as many students who want to enroll in that school.

This kind of system can be likened to how the Swedish education system works where a student receives public funding in any private school that offers primary and secondary education of their choice. This was what Bernie Sanders had proposed considering how he saw it worked in Sweden. The same system might be good for the US public school system as well.

Despite the promise it brings, there is still the persisting question whether the "single payer, multiple providers" principle bring the much-needed improvement into the system?

Basically, competition compels schools to innovate and experiment on what strategy works. These experimentations will allow them to discover the best way to teach students. These may also mean a lot of mistakes but that is how the road to progress looks like.

Moreover, a number of studies have been made regarding school choice and there is indeed a positive effect in public school performance. On the other hand, no empirical data shows that school choice has a negative effect on students in public schools. In fact, one of these studies showed that the greater the competition is, the bigger improvements the students have.

Another benefit this principle brings is a no-brainer because parents can choose the right school for their children's needs. Each child has their own unique personality, characteristic, preference, and need. If these needs and preferences are met, children will have more opportunities to grow because they have the freedom to find and grow in the right environment.

Compared to Clinton who has a clear-cut plan on her educational policy, Trump still has a lot to answer regarding the clarity of his stance including a sound plan how he would bring about those changes. However, his "single payer, multiple providers" principle holds a lot of promise. And whether he will win the elections or not, the public school system is in need of a radical fix in order to ensure that the "future" of the United States get the quality education they deserve.

Tags Donald trump