Posted on 04/26/2010 6:58:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
One of the most reflexive responses of the left to any social problem is to blame under-funded education. What the left means by this, of course, is not really education but indoctrination, which is the primary purpose of public education and college education in America today. The vast transfer of wealth from parents and taxpayers to the public schools and universities is one of the most regressive sorts of social tariff in our society.
Public education from grades K through 12 gobbles up 38% of all state government spending. State and local spending on public education is more than $15,000 per pupil. Federal spending on public education was almost nonexistent a few decades ago, but now it is growing fast. America, in fact, spends more per capita on public education than almost any nation in the world. Are we getting much for that investment? Not according to test scores.
Higher education means both public universities and private universities. Taxpayers spend a lot of money to support public universities. Taxpayers, as parents footing the bill for tuition, pay a second part of the high cost of college. The cost per credit hour in the average university is about $300, or about $9,000 per college year. This expense has increased 1,000% over the last decade. Americans are "investing" an enormous amount of money in the education of our children. Is this wise policy? The conventional answer has been "yes," but in several different ways, that answer should be rethought:
(1) The cost to taxpayers and to parents seems to have no rational limit when the mantra "investing in our children" is recited. As a consequence, in many states -- California is a perfect example -- education is consuming almost everything in sight. It is not simply the first priority, but almost the only priority. Government expenditures for roads, parks, libraries, water and sanitation services, police and prisons, and fire protection serve the general welfare. Public schools and colleges, however, serve only a fraction of the population, yet all of the public is compelled to support education. When services for the general welfare suffer, should not services for special groups be scrutinized? This is even truer when not all children go to public schools, much less to college. Is it fair, to the broad-minded leftist, to take money from poor families so that richer families can send their children to college? Why should the taxes of waitresses be used to subsidize the education of middle-level corporate executives?
(2) Education is increasingly ideological indoctrination. That has long been true in college, but political correctness has now crept into high school, middle school, and even elementary school. The inculcation of beliefs alien to America and to its Judeo-Christian moral system diminishes the value to the rest of us of liberal arts graduates. Our viewpoint toward college education has become so wholly consumed by a false vision that otherwise sane and principled people like Sean Hannity raise money to go to the scholarship funds of children of warriors who fall in action. There is no doubt that helping these children is noble and good, but why help them by sending them...to a reeducation camp? With precious few exceptions likes Hillsdale and Grove City Colleges, left-wing indoctrination is the way of the contemporary campus. How about raising money so that these kids can start a small business, buy a home, or get private tutoring in some valuable field? We reflexively consider that a college education "broadens" us, even though the evidence shows that it constricts and chokes free thinking and serious questioning. We give a college education value simply because so many institutions of our society have been nudged, or ordered, to give it value.
(3) Formal public education, even in the optimum state, has passed its moment of social utility. Children do need to learn basic skills like reading and mathematics, but while learning is priceless and information is power and wealth, formal education is a broken-down model for encouraging the lifelong acquisition of knowledge and skills which are vital to a population which is growing older all the time but staying -- if active and useful -- healthier than ever before. What government ought to provide is an automat of options for all Americans to learn throughout their lives. People learn in radically different ways. Public schools promise only a very limited number of ways to learn, usually constructed around that anachronism, the classroom. Why not provide through the public and the private sector a rich stew of learning systems and allow everyone a government voucher to learn through one of these systems? Is there much doubt that people who choose the most interesting way for themselves to learn will learn more easily and more joyfully? These people might well acquire that priceless gift of a lifelong lust for learning. And how would we "know" if people are learning? Allow a competency test for everyone who seeks the equivalent of a high school diploma or a college degree at any level, and require that any such person pass this test. Make learning, however the individual achieves it, the goal, and make a standardized test the rough determinant of whether he who tries to learn has accomplished that goal.
What we need is an accountable, diverse, market-driven system available to children and to adults of all ages so that we are motivated to learn and to keep learning all our lives. What is the best hope for Social Security entitlement stability? Create a system in which those near retirement can learn to do a job that they love, which allows them to contribute rather than consume, and which keeps them active and healthy. The best hope for our kids is to allow them to fall in love with learning. If we rethink and truly reform education, many social problems will melt away, and the future of all Americans will be much brighter.
-- Bruce Walker is the author of two books: Sinisterism: Secular Religion of the Lie, and his recently published book, The Swastika against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity.
The contestant was a seventh grade teacher. She couldn't do the fifth grade work. At the end of the show, she had to face the camera and say "My name is Sally Smith and I may teach seventh grade, but I am not smarter than a fifth grader."
Right there, people all across the country should have been getting out of their chairs shouting, "We've got a problem!"
The teacher unions need to be broken.
A good portion of the money collected from taxes does not go directly to the students education. A huge chunk goes to administrative jobs. Like the secretary to the assistant vice principal. When I was a kid there wasn’t even an assistant vice principal let alone one with a secretary.
And teachers unions don’t really care about you childs education either. The head of the teachers union in N.J. is paid a half million dollars a year. He doesn’t even teach.
N.J. residents pay more for education than any other State except N.Y. and the test scores are only a fraction above the State that pays the least.
Education has become an insatiable greedy monster.
We need to pay our teachers more so they'll have incentive to work harder as teachers and so they won't HAVE to embarass themselves on tv for money. /sarc
“Why not provide through the public and the private sector a rich stew of learning systems and allow everyone a government voucher to learn through one of these systems? Is there much doubt that people who choose the most interesting way for themselves to learn will learn more easily and more joyfully? These people might well acquire that priceless gift of a lifelong lust for learning.”
Yet another author who can point to problems with education by govenment , but then reverts to more “hair of the dog” to solve them - vouchers and “accountability” (and “accountability” to whom one might ask?)
The private sector already provides the “rich stew” he is looking for. All that is needed is the complete defunding and dismantlement of the state sector.
When you say huge chunk of the money that goes into the education system does not go directly to the students’ education what is the percentage? 66%, 75%, 90%?
Any one have an answer?
So -- how well has that worked?
Why not try a school system with non-union teachers who are really passionate about teaching? Oh wait -- those are charter schools.
Spot on in California a teacher can earn 35.00 to$45.00 an hour for teaching K1 to 12 grades not bad work if you can get it.
GCC Ping!
That’s a really good question. One that the unions wouldn’t want to be made common knowledge, I’ll bet.
In N.J. it’s even more convoluted because of what’s called Abbott Districts. 31 school districts get tax money from the rest of the state.
Years ago it would have been simple to figure.
1. teachers salary
2. materials, supplies, books.
3. building cost and maintenance
4. Administrative costs.
Now, you would have to add unused showers in the gym, swimming pools, ski trips, etc. teachers lounges, teachers weekends in resorts,
new sod for the football field, etc.etc.
Next will be money for the girls wrestling team.
The teacher unions need to be broken.
In my NE Blue State - education budgets have risen by 7-8% per year for many years, while enrolled students have declined steadily by 1-2% per year. Where does that money go?
My own child’s school has administrators for everything. Paid lunch monitors, 1 person to simply take attendance, multiple library staff. They have become an army, all automatically enrolled in the union they day they start.
What we need is an accountable, diverse, market-driven system available to children and to adults of all ages so that we are motivated to learn and to keep learning all our lives. What is the best hope for Social Security entitlement stability? Create a system in which those near retirement can learn to do a job that they love, which allows them to contribute rather than consume, and which keeps them active and healthy.
This sounds like nothing but a lot of market-driven lipstick-on-a-pig double-talk.
How about we try creating a system where those of us near retirement age can actually RETIRE without some market driven libertarian pinhead trying to turn us into "contributors" instead of "consumers".
Darn "market-driven" pseudo-conservatives are no different than the marxist 'rats.
Hand a child one of these with K-12 software preloaded. You'll pay much less than $1,000, and the Great NEA Scam is all over. High-overhead, Prussian-style classroom instruction using existing, state prison-style infrastructure is as dead as buggy-whip manufacturing, it's just still kicking hard enough to hit contribution-hungry politicians in the butt now and again. :)
It is terrible, in my state a 74 yr old man has been running the teachers union since I was a child (a long time ago), he’s also a prominant democrat. I heard on the radio this morning that he has such a stranglehold on the state that he actually sits in on legislature sessions and gives thumbs up or thumbs down on laws that impact all of the citizens of our state. It is disgusting.
Right. Many years ago, unions were a good thing. Now they are so corrupt that they are tearing this country apart.
Disgusting indeed.
The primary function of “public education”
now is the rejection of the Christian value system.
I have a relative that has attempted to talk us out of homeschooling with the argument of
“they won’t be exposed to the diversity of ideas that they would be in public school”
to which I reply
“that’s the whole point of homeschooling”
Government? Government? What is this man suggesting? That we expand the government school socialist entitlement to **all** people.
Wow! Talk about making a serious government created problem even worse!
We already have a system of vouchers on the college level. ( Pell Grants, and student loans) So?...What happens every time Pell Grants and student loans are increased? Yep! The colleges and universities raise their tuitions!
We will see the same phenomenon if we have universal government vouchers for private K-12 education, or, as this author suggests, lifetime adult education.
And you are right about the testing. Who will be in charge of making people accountable? My bet is it will be the Marxists who will stand at the gates that control the lives and careers of the people.
I remember a report was released in the LA Times back in the 90’s about an audit of the Los Angeles School district that showed 90% of every dollar spent went to non classroom expenses.
I doubt it has gotten any better today.
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