US Consul General and former Silicon Valley entrepreneur Gregory Slayton is betting that the solution to America?s and Bermuda?s educational problems rests in the incorporation of the best elements of the free market into the educational system.

In an address to the Institute of Directors yesterday, Mr. Slayton noted that those destined for success in business and entrepreneurship are those who have the opportunity to benefit from a firm foundation in school.

While he marvelled at the fact that many Bermudian parents recognise the importance of education and have accepted the great financial burden of enrolling their children in private school, he noted: ?What about the kids that aren?t blessed with a Mom and Dad who will sacrifice and send them to the best public or private school they can find? Both in the US and Bermuda that is a real and growing problem.?

Young people should not be short-changed by substandard education opportunities just because they were born in the wrong area, he said.

He thinks the problem with the public school system in the US lies in the fact that it is a fundamentally a socialist system where there is no consumer choice and there is no opportunity for a Dad ? without the finances to afford private school ? to say ?this school stinks, I?m taking my kid and putting him down the road?.

?The public school system in the US and perhaps in Bermuda has some marks of the socialist system,? Mr. Slayton said. ?Whether you are a great teacher or lousy teacher you get paid the same amount, you get the same raise.?

He continued: ?You get a lot of the attributes of a failed economic policy. It has failed all over the world and that is the lack of choice.?

Mr. Slayton pointed to the free enterprise system where businesses are forced by the power of market forces to improve or face the prospect of losing their customers and their business.

As a result of competition, the world has seen amazing advances in products and services coupled with declining costs for the very best products or services.

?The real question is how do we inject the beauties of the free enterprise system [into the education system and that is choice, competition, innovation all focused on the customer,? he said.