THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 182, September 24, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ROBBING PARENTS TO PAY TEACHERS
By Alan Caruba
THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION & ITS LOW QUALITY OUTPUTS: PUBLIC SCHOOLS THAT PROMISE TO
EDUCATE AMERICA'S CHILDREN & YOUTH, BUT MORE OFTEN PRODUCE "GRADUATES" WITHOUT EVEN THE MOST BASIC
SKILLS, LET ALONE A USEFUL, WIDER BODY OF KNOWLEDGE -- DEFRAUDING AMERICAN TAXPAYERS BY FAILING TO
EDUCATE STUDENTS ATTENDING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
FULL STORY:
It is an act of thievery to take money to provide goods or services and then fail to provide them. Our nation’s public schools
have become a great criminal conspiracy, promising to educate our children and youth, but more often producing “graduates”
without even the most basic skills, let alone a useful, wider body of knowledge.
One mother wrote to me recently:
"My daughter is now 20 years old. After graduating from high school
in June, 2005, she enrolled at the local community college. It was
necessary for her to take a placement test, and it was determined she
needed to take Basic Skills Math and English before she could take
[college level courses.] After failing both classes twice, she will not
be returning. It breaks my heart to see that she can’t pass basic math
or English class. How did she graduate from high school?”
The answer is that her parents were heavily levied with property taxes, the vast portion of which was then given to the local
public school system to pay teachers and administrators salaries, along with all the other costs of operation. They, in turn,
passed her daughter along, unmindful and indifferent to whether she learned anything. “She has been robbed of a basic
education and we have been robbed of our tax dollars for 19 years,” her mother said.
Early in his first term, President George W. Bush embraced the “No Child Left Behind” legislation that has since been found
wanting, due to its one-size-fits-all approach to education, its over-emphasis on testing, and its punishment of
“under-performing” schools. The result has been to expose most schools as inadequate and to encourage every form of
administrative cheating necessary for a school to meet the standards set by the law.
The idea was to force some improvement on a school system everyone already knew was failing in its mission to educate
students. Laws, however, do not educate students. Teachers are expected to do that, and it is no surprise that the National
Education Association — a labor union — hated the idea of improvement. Indeed, from the 1960s to the present day, the
NEA has done its best to undermine, if not destroy, a system of education that served previous generations of Americans
quite well.
In the July/August, 2006, edition of The American Enterprise, Jay Greene, wrote an article entitled “Education Myths:
Debunking the Fictions that Obstruct School Reform.” The article was based on Greene’s book of the same name. Here are
just a few examples of how schools rob parents to pay teachers who are producing students deliberately rendered ignorant.
The standard answer to any question about the quality of our schools is the demand for more funding. The truth, however,
is that “spending per student has been growing steadily for 50 years.” It has doubled and then doubled again. What did not
occur, however, was any significant improvement in test scores, particularly since the introduction in the 1970s of the
National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Okay, we may be spending more on schools, but isn’t it true that teachers still aren’t paid enough? No, if the poorly educated
students they produce are the standard, they are vastly over-paid. “The average teacher’s salary does seem modest at first
glace”, wrote Greene, “about $44,600 in 2002 for all teachers.” However, teachers only work nine months a year. A nurse
making the same salary works twelve months with two week’s vacation and perhaps ten paid holidays. The statistics are
damning evidence they are paid well for far less actual work than comparable jobs.
Another favorite myth, holding “that schools are helpless in the face of social problems, is not supported by hard evidence,”
wrote Greene. “The truth is that certain schools do a strikingly better job than others at overcoming challenges in the culture.”
There is a reason why parents clamor for school choice and vouchers, when they know that some schools do a better job.
Competition and incentives for the better schools would raise the standards for all schools.
Class size is yet another myth. Greene notes, “Research suggests there may be some advantages to smaller classes — though,
if so, the benefits are modest and come at a very high price tag.” There is ample evidence that reducing class sizes is costly to
the point of taking money from the purchase of books, equipment, and other reforms that would benefit students.
In most professions and trade, certification is regarded as a reliable sign that practitioners have demonstrated a reasonable
level of expertise. “One of the strongest and most consistent findings in the entire body of research on teacher quality is that
teaching certificates and master’s degrees in education are irrelevant to classroom performance.”
When the teacher corps is drawn from those college graduates who enter the profession because of a lack of aptitude that
would give them access to other, presumably better paying jobs, you end up with classrooms placed in the charge of
teachers who may know barely more than their students -- or worse, are teaching classes in subjects for which they really
have neither skill nor knowledge.
Green notes:
“According to the U.S. Department of Education, the average
private school charged $4,689 per student in tuition for the
1999-2000 school year. That same year, the average public
school spent $8,032 per pupil.”
Somehow, private schools are able to out-perform public schools when it comes to imparting knowledge and skills, despite
the fact their students have less than half as much funding as public school students, and the success of home-schooled
students over their contemporaries taught in the public schools is already legendary.
The entire education establishment, frequently advocating the teaching of values at odds with those held by parents, has
ruined our nation’s schools and are defrauding taxpayers by failing to truly educate the children and youth placed in their
care.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Education & America's Schools
A Practical Guide to Homeschooling
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2006
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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