Posted on 05/18/2003 8:26:04 AM PDT by YoungKentuckyConservative
Edited on 04/23/2004 12:05:34 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
It has been 20 years since "A Nation at Risk," the 1983 report on education in America, concluded that the "intellectual, moral and spiritual strength of our people" were threatened by a failing education system.
The report recommended better-educated and -qualified teachers, regularly assessing teacher and student performance, and performance pay for better teachers. It also proposed a much stronger curriculum, particularly in math and English.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
The obvious solution has been to throw money at it in the hope through a miracle something good happens. That's a losing game, but you wouldn't know it by listening to teachers unions or politicians. They have a stake in keeping this same system alive, gobbling money.
The answer is privatization and choice for parents. But, you also have to get the ubiquitous governenment regualtors out of the game. Let the bad schools fail, close their doors and let the lousy teachers lose their jobs and find jobs flipping hamburgers. With choice, the market will take over, not the parasites.
The quick answer is, "vouchers"!
But, don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen.
Well, in a sense you have to hand it to them. It does stifle their creativity. With phonics, they must stay within the boundaries of the language instead of making it up on the fly or memorizing whole words which they end up forgetting. Whole language closes all the other doors of learning.
Ignorant children turn into ignorant adults. Ignorant adults are easily led by slogans and demogoguery.
There is a reason for these methods. As these children become adults, they are intellectually crippled and can seldom upgrade their learning or strengthen their abstract knowledge. They are permanently locked in at a low and dependent level, even if they have great native intelligence. They in effect become intellectual and economic slaves, dependent upon the largess of the same benefactors who made them the way they are and now promise to take care of them as they are nearly incapable of taking care of themselves in the long run.
The thing about vouchers is that once a school accepts voucher money they will, short of a miracle from on high, be beholden to the federal government to make decisions about what curriculum they use and who they will be required to hire.
The best solution is the one that the public schools will never do and that is to take a good, hard look at the way they have settled for mediocrity and make the neccesary changes to improve everything. They sure as heck know what doesn't work. It would be nice if they would do what has been proven to work.
Getting rid of the Department of Education and the teacher unions would be the best start. But, we have a better chance of seeing snowballs in hell and the Clinton's in prison.
As you say, fat chance!
I agree with you that with government money comes government control. The Feds need to get completely out of the education business, as they once were. One could make a sound case one big reason we are in this mess is because they got involved in the first place.
This all needs to take place on the local level, with minimal State interference. The union shop also needs to go, nay, has to go!
The job can be done. After all, it once was!
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