Posted on 09/22/2011 3:33:56 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
This is a recurring annoyance for me. The RNC seems to have no idea that education is hugely important to most Americans, and should be a major campaign issue.
Frankly, big visions are NOT required. Details need NOT be mentioned. Just say that public schools are a mess, liberal ideas made them that way, and Republicans can turn things around. All true.
Problem is, we need people at the top with practical common sense and a desire to win. These people need to be aggressive. The weird wizards now in charge of public education will not notice anything less than a forceful attack on their position.
Well, I write a lot about education and I contact conservative organizations now and then...Bottom line, it's not encouraging.
Last week I stopped by a local congressman's office with an article published locally and this note:
".... I’m always looking for the aggressive person or organization that is actually trying to improve the schools. To tell you the truth, I find very little seriousness in this area. Education should be a huge issue for the Republican Party. Do you see that happening? Remarkably, we almost get the impression that the Republican Party approves of all the nonsense in the public schools. This is suicidal. My broader thesis is that if we don’t save the public schools, we won’t save very much else....
"Right now, we have a thoroughly confused and almost inert public. We have an intellectually lazy and corrupt media, such as our local paper. We have poor leadership even from the conservative side. Nothing looks very promising. However, if there were aggressive leaders or organizations, they could make some strides...."
-------------------
Realistically speaking, I think our best hope is to inform people, make them angry, and stir up debate. The grand strategy, as I see it, is all about discrediting the Education Establishment. They claim to be sincere and competent. I argue that they are neither.
This post is addressed to candidates, staffers, campaign workers, donors, political pundits, anybody who agrees that education might be a bigger issue.
The link is to a piece titled "The BIG Problem in Education," which clarifies the battlefield (namely, most of what we hear discussed is NOT what we should be discussing). It also has links to other articles that can provide ammunition for stirring up debate about education.
One of the diabolical things our Education Establishment has done over the last 75 years is to make the field of education an endless swamp of sophistries and confusion. Nobody knows what to think. I'm having a lot of fun trying to understand and explain it all. If I can provide more articles, links, analysis, etc., please contact me.
Bruce Deitrick Price
Improve-Education.org
Word-Wise Education
757-455-5020
http://fastpitchnetworking.com/pressrelease.cfm?PRID=69837
.
“So why aren’t they doing this?”
Again, my opinion- part of it is a lack of knowledge about education in general. A lot of Republicans, particularly ones in power are older people who assume that students today have experiences similar to their own, 40 or 50 years previously. The other part being a tendency for more libertarian-leaning Republicans to advocate measures discarding public schools altogether, which, whatever its merits, is a political nonstarter. The cynic in me suggests the Republican elites also have no great desire to improve education for the same reasons the Democrats would not- it interferes with their power.
1787 December 20. (to James Madison) “Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to ; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty.”- Thomas Jefferson
RE: “The cynic in me suggests the Republican elites also have no great desire to improve education for the same reasons the Democrats would not- it interferes with their power.”
Gosh, I hope you are not right about this. It would be very short-sighted. If citizens are ignorant, then a demagogue always wins.
Note that in debate last night, many candidates were demanding the abolition of DOE; and the rest want much less government involvement. This could be the start of a big shift.
“Note that in debate last night, many candidates were demanding the abolition of DOE; and the rest want much less government involvement. This could be the start of a big shift.”
It is a nice hope. Reagan promised it; it didn’t happen then. It would be a big shift though- there were a lot of Repubs who supported/still support NCLB because they thought it would hold schools accountable and sort of glossed over the fact that it increased the reach of the Federal government mightily.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.