I was watching CNN the other night. Paula Zahn and her guests were discussing education. They had some interesting statistics about Wasington, D.C. It turns out that 94% of adults who live there cannot do 6th grade math, and 1 in 3 are illiterate. I think that is a shocking set of circumstances, and if you are like me you are probably asking how this can be. We keep hearing about problems with education, but I don't think you have any idea how serious the situation has become in America.
According to a 2006 Department of Education report, American students ranked 21st out of 28 industrialized countries in math. In science, our children are 16th. Want to know more? Between 1992 and 2005, the percentage of 12th graders who read at only a basic level has increased from 20% to 27%. Only 23% of high school seniors are performing at or above math proficiency levels. Last year, in California, the State University System had to administer remedial courses to nearly 1/3 of the incoming freshman class. They claim that less than half of the new students were proficient in math and English. What is going on here?
All this poor performance comes with a hefty price tag! In the United States, we spend close to $10,000 per student. The No Child Left Behind Act spent $23.1 billion in 2001, in 2006, the figure went up to $38.7 billion. Then of course, there is the regulatory burden. Florida reports that 40% of the state's education department staff spend all their time performing administrative and oversight tasks to meet the federal government's rules and regulations.
If you are old enough to remember the sixties, you probably can recall how shocked America was that the Russians were the first to put a man in space. In a bold and daring move, President John F. Kennedy launched the U.S. space program to put a man on the moon. American science and education were second to none, and we all knew it. We accomplished that, and no one else has come close. Also, in an effort to boost our educational system, the Head Start program was enacted in 1965 to help our young pre-schoolers, particularly those from poor areas, to get up to speed quickly. Head Start enrolled 733,000 pre-schoolers in 1966 and spent $198 million. In 2005 enrollment was approximately 907,000 at a cost of $6.8 billion. During Jimmy Carter's presidency, congress authorized a new cabinet level department, the Department of Education. Still, with all this money spent and attention focused on educating our young people, we have been declining in performance year after year. The time has come for action!
The action I favor however, is not to spend more money and create more regulatory burdens for schools. We don't need more standardized testing and higher pay for teachers. We do not need more government involvement in our schools. We need to get the government out of the education business. The time has come to turn control of our schools to the states. They should be working with the local school systems to see to it that the resources kids need to learn are available. The local school boards need to get the priorities of each school back to basics. It is time to disband the Department of Education!
For too long now, our schools have been drifting off into non-academic studies at the expense of the good old fashioned 3 R's. There are just too many non-academic courses being taught and too much emphasis on "feeling good", sex education, gender and minority studies and many other similar topics of dubious value. Actually, they are not of dubious value, they are of no value. If they had any worth, our kids would not be in the uneducated state they are currently in.
This is not to say we should ignore modern techniques where they prove helpful, but we need to restore the primary emphasis on the basic tools an educated person should have. Not only the 3 R's, but history, particularly American history, civics, science, music and art, and physical education need to be the very first priorities.
The classroom environment is also in need of drastic improvement. Dress codes should be established and enforced. Cell phones should be banned from school grounds, or else checked in at the start of the day and returned when school is out. Due to the terrible state of affairs in our inner city schools, drastic measures should be taken where needed. If that means up to date security systems and armed guards, so be it. Most of the kids in these schools want to learn, or would want to learn if they could be provided with the safety they need. Also, the number of holidays and school closing days needs to be reduced.
Finally, our teachers need to change. It is time to re-evaluate tenure and pay increases. The teacher's unions need to drop their opposition to vouchers and school choice. As consumers, we expect choices in the products we buy because we want to get the best item for our money. Why would anyone think that in something so important as the education of our children, there wouldn't be a great benefit to having some competition.? If each school knew it had to compete for students, it would strive to produce the best product it could.
Our elite congressional leaders send their kids to private schools because on the money we pay them, they can afford to do so. You should have a choice also, and if you are poor, you should be able to receive vouchers. Still, the politics of power comes into play, and most of our leaders are deathly afraid of the teachers and their other union allies. Our kids are failing in school, and guess what? It's your fault! It is time to break the hold of the Democrats and Republicans on the education of our children. We need a President not affiliated with either party to stand up for you and your children and let you know what they are and aren't doing to make us once again the best educated people in the world. If we are well educated, we will remain free, but if we become an uneducated group of sheep, they will be able to rule over us in any way they choose, and we will slowly but surely lose the precious freedoms we have. It is that serious and it is up to you!
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