Honesty Is Always The Best Policy, Pt. 3
Why is it so difficult for Americans to be honest with themselves? The current culture of Political Correct-ness has crippled our ability to speak clearly about the issues and be honest with ourselves, with our fellow citizens, with our allies abroad, and with our enemies.
To this point we have discussed certain Americans’ inability to be honest in the stem cell research conversation and in the smoking & tobacco issue.
Today we will discuss the inability of much of America, or at least those in positions of power, to recognize that the public school system is an abject failure. Sure, there are exceptions, but nobody every uses a nano-minority to throw out analysis of the whole.
In recent years our students have gone from leading the world in math, science, and most other measured subjects to now just leading most third-world countries. Europe and Asia are kicking our students in the crotch because they certainly can’t kick them in the rear from the front. Test scores have dropped and a whole segment of American youth is being left unprepared to do much useful in life.
This decline in our public education coincided with efforts to make students feel good by not grading down poor performance and grading up to build self-esteem. Telling little Billy that 2+2=7 because we don’t want him to get a bad grade and feel bad about himself is bad enough (and this has been done many times over), but when any percentage of American high school students greater than zero fails to identify Colorado on a map (and this percentage is greater than zero by a long-shot), there are serious flaws in the system.
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What’s the solution? Allow parents to choose where their child is educated. Let’s face it, for parents who cannot afford to pay the taxes that go to the public school system AND a private school tuition, they are left with only one choice. No sports team ever improved without competition, and no public education system will either. Until public schools have to show real results (children not just passing tests but passing them by passing them by clear margins and preparing themselves for life) in order to get funding they will never achieve those results. A school voucher system, where a parent could determine the school to which their public-education tax dollars go would allow for such competition and promote schools to educate students at the highest level.
Is there any debate that a dollar goes farther at a private school than a public school? Is there any debate that graduates of private schools, as a whole, are better prepared for college and life than graduates of public schools. . .especially in the inner city? Why should this opportunity be limited to the wealthy? The middle class and the poor’s children should have access to a quality education. But not a the private sector’s expense. These middle class and poor are already paying excessive taxes for their child’s education. . . why not direct that money to a school that will achieve results?
The dirty little secret is this: there is a large group of people who do not want parents to choose their child’s education. Who, you ask? The teachers’ unions. It is in the NEA, et. al.’s best interest to create a system that it funded rain or shine, in good times and bad, through booming economies and recessions. The current system is just so. There is a pipeline of money going to the public schools that WILL ALWAYS BE THERE whether kids are being educated or not.
Here’s the really dirty little secret: it’s not about educating the children!
That’s right, the truth is a shocker, isn’t it? It’s about guaranteeing jobs, and the current public school system guarantees jobs. A school voucher system (choice, competition, the American way, etc.) will make teachers perform for their wages and those who don’t perform. . .may be out of a job.
But what are we afraid of? Competition always makes us better. Sure, the bad teachers will be weeded out, but the good teachers will rise to the top and finally be recognized for their good work, rather than being lumped together with the losers in the unions. And so what if every parent takes their child out of a particular public school. If the public school was doing such a good job, what would be the problem? (And don’t say, “They just need more money!” Give XEKE.com a break.)
The current public education system needs an overhaul. Sacrificing the minute minority of good public schools in order to scrap the current public school system is less like throwing the baby out with the bath water and more like allowing a good microwave oven to be destroyed when a bulldozer levels a condemned house. When we really wake up and get honest with ourselves, it’s about educating our youth, isn’t it?
Isn’t it?
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