Education

The web site has lots of important news, such as pictures of Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton visiting a D.C. school and smiling at all the wonderful things the taxpayer funds have accomplished. Another site will tell you that between 2007 and 2009, 8th graders math scores went up 2 points, but that 4th graders stayed the same.  Obama signed into law the Education Recovery Act recently, with Republican support I am sure, which cost a measly $11.3 billion, probably added to the already budgeted $46.7 billion, making the total a trifling $58 billion.

While the Department of Education was founded in 1980, under Jimmy Carter, the “No Child Left Behind” nonsense was under George W. Bush in 2001.  I have heard nothing good about that one.  The web site shows Secretary Arne Duncan playing basketball with Stephen Corbet, before he went on to his comedy show, and another shot of Duncan and his wife beaming at some other wonderful accomplishment in D.C.  The site says that in 2006, 72.3% of high school students graduated.  Did the Dept of Education ’create and save 250,000 jobs in education,’ as the web site says?  Or wouldn’t it be nice if the whole shebang were obliterated, along with its costs, and thousands of bureaucrats who make absurd rules, which few follow, or even could follow, except the handouts from D.C. are wanted.

Each state has its own department of education as well, and Colorado’s, where I live, costs $45,000,000 a year, and is a small, nonsensical, copy of the federal one, with its own set of bureaucrats and mundane rules, eating tax dollars by the bushel baskets full.

It is a non debatable fact, that home schooled kids far outperform public school kids, and that those who went to a locally funded one room schoolhouse with no bureaucracy, always outperformed other schools.  Today, public schools have facilities beyond the imagining of a person living a hundred years ago.  Air conditioning, swank gyms, auditoriums, and electronic stuff to boggle the mind…except no one seems to be learning anything, or very little anyway.

                                             Public Schools

Until the mid-1800’s, there were basically no public schools paid for with tax dollars.  It wasn’t until the early 1900’s, that the public school became an accepted fact, and states began to force attendance.  The one room schoolhouse in rural areas was still common, and my best friend went to one in Montana, and swears that it was the best education he ever had.  If one was an advanced or smart student, he automatically learned at a higher level, since all grades were taught in the one single room.  Catholics protested the public school system, insisting that their semi-private parochial schools, did a much better job of educating.  They did and still do.

John Dewey, a marxist-athiest, born in 1855, had a lot of influence in advancing the public school system.  Like all ’public’ things, be they rest rooms, or other supposedly ’free’ public things, they usually aren’t free, always decay and eventually become either worthless, or a laughing stock.  The current public school system, with its thousands of districts, and millions of mostly union teachers, are little more than baby sitters.  In order to really get an education in a current public school, one must virtually educate ones self, using the books and facilities provided, and hopefully having a teacher who cares and will give individual attention.  It is possible to get a good education in today’s public schools, but the average kid will fail to do so.

When the D.C. Gang gets involved in anything, the costs escalate, and the bureaucratic influence multiplies.  Any D.C. ’cabinet post,’ is always rife with gross inefficiency, corruption, influence, payoffs, and mucho gobbledygook.  That’s the departments of anything today. And now we have ’czars?’ Should the Department of Education be abolished?  For sure.  Should the individual state departments also be either abolished or greatly reduced in size and influence?  I am certain.  Should government influence at all levels of education, be greatly reduced?  Of course.  Would it be to education’s benefit if there were no public schools, everyone’s property taxes reduced by 75%, and parents be responsible for their children’s education, and no one else?  YES!  Will it ever happen.  No.  So, if you are a parent, act responsibly and keep total track of your children’s education, regardless of where it is conducted.  If you can have the patience and time to home school, by all means do so.  If not, and there are church or private schools in your location, please enroll your kids in them.  Stay as clear from ’public education’ as you possibly can.