This document discusses economic freedom and rankings of various entities such as schools, economies, and places to live. It defines economic freedom as the ability to make personal choices that shape one's life through voluntary exchange and competition in markets. Methods of measuring economic freedom like the Index of Economic Freedom are presented. The document considers whether ranking systems are negative, zero, or positive sum games and suggests including more discussion of economic freedom in courses by utilizing available resources.

1. Economic Freedom Education Stephen J. Haessler ASET Conference Mesa Community College 2 April 2011

2. Rankings Where’s the best place to live? Where are the best schools? What’s the best savings vehicle? Who’s the best prospective spouse? Where’s the closest gas station? Who’s the best judge on American Idol? What’s the best professional football team?

3. Why Rank Things? Helps us get a handle on Emotional Factors, and to get beyond narrow impressions Helps us think about appropriate and inappropriate Objective Measures Assists us in coming to grips with desirable Quantifiable Outcomes that match goals

4. What Makes a School Good? Effective Teachers Supportive Parents Adequate Resources Great Curriculum Mission, Leadership, Etc.

5. US News’ America’s Best High Schools The 2010 U.S.News & World Report Americas Best High Schools methodology, developed by School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor's, is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all its students well, not just those who are collegebound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.

6. Is Ranking Schools a Negative, Zero, or Positive Sum Game?

7. Negative Sum Game Wins and Losses sum to less than zero….pie is shrinking Example: budget cuts’ impact on departments within organization

8. Zero Sum Game Wins and Losses Add up to zero, pie stays same size Example: Coin Toss outcomes, poker

9. Positive Sum Game Wins and Losses Sum to More than zero, pie is increasing Example: benchmarking; trade; growth

10. What Makes an Economy Good? Efficiency of Human Resources Efficiency of Nat’l & Capital Resources Others; rule of law, justice, happiness Economic Freedom

11. Is Ranking Economies a Negative, Zero, or Positive Sum Game?

12. Economic Freedom Defined Ability to make personal choices that shape one’s life (in contrast to collective choices) Ability to voluntarily exchange property rights in markets Ability to enter and to compete in markets and to bear the costs and reap the benefits Ability to function in a system that protects persons and their property from aggression

13. Economic Freedom Measured http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html http://heritage.org/index/ http://www.prosperity.com/

14. Less Economic Freedom? Mankiw’s 6th Edition (2012) index, p. 843 ‘economic’ … fluctuations; growth; mobility; models; profit; report of the president; variables; welfare … Krugman’s 2006 Edition index, p. I-5 ‘economic’ … aggregates; growth; profit; report of the president … McConnell’s 15th (2002) Edition index, p. I-5 ‘economic’ … collapse; costs; decline; development; efficiency; environment; goals; growth; methodology; perspective; policy; problem; profit; recovery tax act; rent; report of the president …

15. Or More Economic Freedom? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH5VDZY2H28

16. How Can We Include More Economic Freedom in Our Courses? One way is to make use of the resources available including those at www.teacheconomicfreedom.org