Education in Disorder<p> Americans are almost unanimous: Public schools are awful

opinionjournal.com | May 2, 2003 | DANIEL HENNINGER

[EdReform]

BTTT for later...

[Jason Kauppinen]

"Tell me again why we're supposed to think charter schools and school choice are bad ideas."

Because they're "risky schemes". :P

[ctlpdad]

I think the first step would be to "patco" the teachers unions.

[Blzbba]

A surge in cases of teenage oral gonorrhea and pathetic, decaying public schools led by Democratic teacher's unions are THE enduring legacies of the failed Clintax Administration.

Why liberal Dems continue to deny these known stats is beyond my understanding...but then, so is liberal democracy itself.

[Protagoras]

I think the first step would be to "patco" the teachers unions.

It's just treating the symptoms. To cure the patient you need to defeat the illness. Cancer needs to be excized.

Abolish government schools. No more problem.

[Sinner6]

Also they are racist.

Not sure how but since democrats never lie it must be true.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Agreed. Remember when Reagan busted the air traffic controller union? He issued an executive order, and fired every single union member in one fell swoop. As I recall it no planes fell from the sky, no huge fireballs erupted from the airfields of America.

It is time for GWB to issue an executive order busting the teachers unions, and then he should fire every single member of those unions. Fire them on the last day of school this season, and use the summer break to hire a raft of new teachers. The hiring criteria I would use for the new teachers would be to carefully screen all applicants, and anyone who went to college is automatically disqualified for reasons of overexposure to Communism and Collectivism.

I would suggest that the single highest criteria for hiring someone to be a teacher would be to look at their resume. Did this person do real work in the real world, meeting schedules and deadlines and budgets and making a customer happy? Or did they spend their career moving papers from one desk to another while employed by the government? Hire people who have been productive, and fire those who have never worked in the real world. That is the simple solution to fixing our schools.

[RazzPutin]

I am opposed to education

but

I support our students.

[Xthe17th]

Just out of curiosity, I perused my local phone directory and our "Quad-State Business Journal Book of Lists" and found 32 private/independent schools (parochial & military) serving K-12th grades. This is in the eastern WV/northern VA area (I-81 corridor - includes Hagerstown, MD & Chambersburg, PA). Annual fees range from free (a veterans children school) to $21,000 (exclusive academy), but most of the Christian schools are in the $2,000 - $3,000 annual tuition range (i.e., ~$250/month).

IMHO, a couple hundred bucks a month for a private Christian education is well worth working a part-time night job for my kids (that is if I had any and my financial situation was such that I had to).

Survey results from other parts of the country welcome:

[Carry_Okie]

Education Policy Components

1. Enforce the U.S. Supreme Court decision re Communications Workers v. Beck (487 US 735, 1988). That cuts off a large fraciton of union contributions.
2. Assist formation of corporate service associations. Offer State funding for local school districts to divest into smaller, more personalized institutions.
3. Use the private and home education market to develop and test learning tools and services. Private validation services could assess product performance against product claims. School boards would be free to select guaranteed products for use in public schools.
4. Insurance on the guarantee would cover the cost of remedial education if the product fails to meet warranted performance.
5. Veto any bill requiring home and private educators to conform to State teacher certification standards.
6. Veto any bill requiring State supervision of home schools.
7. Analyze any Federal program for insufficient funds and unintended consequences suspecting unfunded mandates. Cite New York v. United States (505 US 144, 1992).

[EternalVigilance]

BUMP for freedom from the government school thought police!

[ladylib]

If you look at the Baltimore telephone book, there are a lot of private/parochial schools.

Private schools are popping up all over the place. I believe St. Georges County, Maryland, has had a large increase in private/parochial schools over the past four years.

Parents have had it with poorly performing public schools. My niece lives in the Baltimore area and is attending a private school next year (she also attended a parochial school for the past four years). Out of the 56 graduates of her parochial school, only 7 will attend public schools.

[LiteKeeper]

education reform bump

[Calpernia]

Yes, my kids go to private catholic schools. One important item that is enforced there is conduct!!!

[Bogolyubski]

For some inexplicable reason, the elctorate simply refuse to believe that the teachers' unions and the many layers of self-serving educrats running the public schools in this country are a major part fo the problem. In election after election, reform candidates for school board are defeated and the NEA/Educrat candidates voted in. (Some parts of the country are better - marginally - than others in this regard.)

Where's the disconnect?

[cruiserman]

Abolish government schools. No more problem.

Agreed. So many problems would disappear if gov't schools were privatized coupled with elimination of education conscription.

Property taxes could be abolished, so you would actually own your property (rather than the state owning it). Parents would be forced to actually put some investment into their kids' education. Those without kids would no longer be extorted to pay for others' education.

The list goes on . . .

[cruiserman]

Survey results from other parts of the country welcome

I read that Idaho taxpayers pay $5800 for each student that attends public school. A co-worker pays $2200 per child for private school.

[Paulus Invictus]

It's all related to the old idea that teachers are like saints--they are beyond criticism since they are "teaching our litle ones about life." Trouble is, most teachers are far from being saints and they toe the union line which is a leftist line none dare go over. The have invaded the schools with 60's drop out teachers, diversity, sex ed with unlimited condoms, religion-bashing, ADD remedies and PC/RAT-infested texts. It's a complete disaster!

[The Old Hoosier]

It is time for GWB to issue an executive order busting the teachers unions,

Just what we need, the feds running the education system.

What you need is some governors with balls. I suppose it could happen in Colo. or Ark.