I have 3 adult daughters, 8 grand-kids, all of them 4 years old and younger. Everyone of the grand-babies, and future, will be homeschooling kids. We are ready for prison. You betcha, bring it on.
I remember back in the Jimmy Carter years, it seems like federal control was the “in thing”. I remember when I was in as late as 3rd grade, we started school after Labor day and then 4th grade, we started at the end of August and then four years later, we started Aug 20 ! This was in 1980 !
> America’s decline in public education began with the advent of the US Department of Education.
Actually it started before that, right after WW II, I was in high school when they started dropping Math and science requirements, that and school consolidation was the beginning of the end. We started tearing down neighborhood schools long before busing was ordered, by the supreme court.
Actually the decline began with the “Supreme Court” and Madelyn Murray O’Hair taking prayer out of the schools in the early 1960s.
“the record is clear, America’s decline in public education began with the advent of the US Department of Education. How can anyone deny it?”
I will give a TINY amount of credit to Obama for pissing off the teachers unions in more ways than one. He would get some major cred in this area if he endorsed (again) Michelle Rhee in DC.
Certainly, you can’t blame THIS problem on him, things have been going to hell for 40+ years. It’s just that now the foundations themselves are crumbling and the risks to the very future of the country are becoming obvious to everyone. The debate has been “are we falling behind, or is everyone catching up to us”. The answer is: yes.
It began well before that. It did accelerate it, however.
> America’s decline in public education began with the
> advent of the US Department of Education. How can anyone
> deny it?
I disagree. The decline started a long time before that. Look up Horace Mann, John Dewey, Carl Rogers, Margaret Sanger, and Alfred Kinsey. They are the principal contributors to what Government School eductation has become today.
The Department of Education is more a symptom than a cause.
The Department of Education budget as of 2006 was almost $70 billion, with a work force of more than 18,000 people. What all those people do with all that money is anybody’s guess.
It was established in 1977 by James Earl Carter (Communist) as a payback to the teachers’ unions.
It is long overdue for closing.
Please do not omit the role of unionization in destroying a once-great education system. Until the unions are no longer in control, education cannot improve.