Is Public Education Necessary?

The New American ^ | 2009-10-15 | Sam Blumenfield

[rabscuttle385]

*Ping!*

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I would say that public education is a necessary evil, except that it isn’t necessary.

[bamahead]

It has become abundantly obvious that all of the totalitarian states of the modern world have used the instrument of public education...to keep their people enslaved.



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[FatherofFive]

I would say that public education is a necessary evil, except that it isn’t necessary.

Post of the day!

[dblshot]

Given the dismal results of public education over the last couple of decades, the question shouldn't be is it necessary but is it worth the trillions of dollars wasted on it. If you can't read by the 8th grade, four more years aren't going to do much for you anyway.

[ETL]

From Investor's Business Daily (IBD), August 27, 2008:

"Ayers, now a tenured distinguished professor of education at UIC, works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students.

One of Ayer's descriptions for a course called 'Improving Learning Environments' says prospective K-12 teachers need to 'be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and ... be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation.

The Annenberg papers are quite extensive — 132 boxes containing 947 file folders with 70 linear feet of material. They undoubtedly contain more surprises regarding Obama's relationship with Ayers, one of many relationships Obama has sought to hide.'..."

Article: Annenberg Papers: Putting On Ayers?
http://www.ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=304729375940845
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REVOLUTION: Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA [Maoist]
[Revolution] Interview with Bill Ayers, Revolution #63, October 1, 2006:
"On Progressive Education, Critical Thinking and the Cowardice of Some in Dangerous Times"
http://rwor.org/a/063/ayers-en.html
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The RCP calls for the armed overthrow of the U.S. government...

From the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party (revcom.us or rwor.org) :

"Create Public Opinion, Seize Power: We are preparing minds and organizing forces for the time when there is a major crack in the system, whenever it comes and wherever it comes from: an opening that makes it possible to bring the future Revolutionary Army of the Proletariat (R.A.P.) into the field and wage a revolutionary armed struggle that actually has a chance of winning.

And we have said that building our party itself is the most important part of organizing forces for revolution. This is true now, and it is true looking forward to the creation of that future R.A.P. and the waging of that armed struggle.":

http://revcom.us/a/v20/1000-1009/1000/barw.htm
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"This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English..."
--B.H. Obama

YouTube Video:
The O'Reilly Factor confronts Bill Ayers:
October 24, 2008:
(note the red communist star on his shirt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP3uvK9gTIY
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[Tenacious 1]

Most Americans, living in a capitalist society, still cannot understand such basic economic concepts as supply and demand, or the meaning of the word profit, or how government can cause inflation with the printing press and thereby destroy the value of our currency. Even the President of the United States, a graduate of Harvard Law School, seems unable to understand some fundamental economic principles that govern a free, capitalist society.

This is tragically the truth. I know some very intelligent people that are ignorant about how our economy works and why it works.

[RoadTest]

“It has failed the children, but in reality it has not failed the progressives.”

Yes indeed. I think it enabled the results of last November 4th’s election. The NEA deserves a lot of credit for a Kenyan Muslim Communist Chicago punk ignoramus nobody to be posing as President of the United States.

[Tenacious 1]

In my fantasy world, the Fed gives up all it’s control and funding of “public education” to the states. Then the states can best decide what to do with “public education”. The answer may well be to privatize education while maintaining standardized testing. The states would then compete with each other to produce the best and the brightest students.

Many people with children tend to look for areas to live with the best school systems. It might very well change the demographics of our national population.

But think of the money it would save while also improving the education of our youth. Schools would have to advertise and perform on real budgets.

[fightinJAG]

The quickest and most efficient and effective way to defund and disempower the Left TOMORROW is for every family that can homeschool or use private schools to do so.

Every child in public education is nothing but a cash cow, the vehicle for all kinds of federal funding, and a captive audience for the Left’s perversion.

[OldDeckHand]

There's nothing wrong with public education. It worked wonderfully well up until the 1960's. It was the introduction, expansion and ultimate ubiquity of the teacher's unions that ruined public education. Until their power is broken, there will be no fix for public schools.

This is why conservative candidates at every level need to continue to fight for school vouchers. Without vouchers, we condemn the least able, the most poor, and the perennially disenfranchised to criminally poor schools.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

I often wonder what percentage of freepers send their children to public school. Has there ever been a poll?

[Dick Bachert]

Gee, yet ANOTHER issue those crazy Birchers nailed spot on over 50 years ago.

Sadly, now that the hour is VERY LATE, most of those who laughed at is then have stopped laughing.

[RipSawyer]

“I know some very intelligent people that are ignorant about how our economy works and why it works.”
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Wrong! They may be pseudo intelligent or selectively intelligent but they are not “very” intelligent, very intelligent people understand the free market and the alternatives.

[Cacique]

btt

[ex-snook]

I imagine most FReepers had public education. Mine was pretty good. My vote for the mess is the entertainment industry.

[FatherofFive]

In my fantasy world, we voucherize the entire system. Whatever is spent by government on education is simply sent back to the parents as a voucher for education.

Introduce some competition.

[paulycy]

No school can ruin an otherwise good education.

[rabscuttle385]

This is why conservative candidates at every level need to continue to fight for school vouchers.

Eh. I'm not so enthusiastic about vouchers, since it still implies government control over where parents can send their children to school or what young Americans can study. In other words, vouchers are only Band-Aids on a gaping wound. I would rather that--

1. The Department of Education should be dismantled entirely.

2. Get rid of NCLB, as it federalizes what is the responsibility of individual parents and local communities.

3. "Sunset" the federal student loan program for college students. Any students who are still in the pipeline should be allowed to continue to borrow for up to seven years (depending on degree type), but no entering students should be allowed to borrow under the federal student loan program. The availability of cheap, government-backed credit has distorted the marketplace for higher education credentials (namely, undergraduate degrees) by essentially treating all degrees as equal when, in reality, different degrees and majors have different earning potentials. Federal loans have contributed largely to the persistent and dramatic increases in tuition and fees over the last three decades and have actually increased the percentage of graduating students who start their lives in debt.

4. At the local and state level, retain K-12 schools, merit-based post-secondary (vocational or "university") programs that are "high performing" (e.g., TJHSST in Northern Virginia). Establish a uniform set of standards (see the uniform set of test standards below) for these schools, and fund them in full.

5. Improve the quality and the security of public libraries, and explore widening access to major public research libraries through the use of digital technologies, using technologies that are open-source and based on open, public standards. Make course materials for undergraduate classes available for free over the Internet. Make available tutors (the equivalent of today's teachers) at local libraries, and allow tutors to set their hourly rates.

6. At the local and state level, establish a uniform set of tests that can be taken by individual students for a fixed per-test fee, and establish a uniform set of standards that constitute a "public education" (i.e., demonstrate competency on a number of tests, participate in an apprenticeship or hold a part-time job, etc.).

The purpose of public education is to provide citizens and other lawful residents with opportunities, regardless of their means, to improve themselves by gaining knowledge and skills and to become better people, i.e., people who will guard and defend the liberties and freedoms that have defined American society from its inception. That's the true goal of public education, and IMO, one that is consistent with the view of Mr. Jefferson.

Forget the traditional classroom with desks and a teacher. Make the information available for free in public libraries, organized of course, make tutors available on an hourly basis, and allow students to study on their own and pass certification tests. Lincoln studied by the fireside at night, in his spare time, and he became President.