Allowing parents to pick their school would result in the schools that do a crappy job and employ lousy teachers to be closed. The teachers unions and government bureaucrats scream bloody murder at the possibility of their comfortable little tenured world, and gold plated pension and health benefits, being disrupted by having to teach well.
Ben Carson on America’s education challenge
Friday, October 26,2012
In the midst of the third presidential debate in Florida, which was supposedly about foreign policy, President Obama interjected a few words about American education.
The rationale was not unreasonable. A better-educated America will be a better-performing and more internationally competitive America.
“Let’s talk about what we need to compete. … Let’s take an example that we know is going to make a difference in the 21st century and that’s our education policy,” he said.
Unfortunately, as is so often the case with politicians, what we hear sounds so logical, so compelling. If only it had anything to do with reality.
According to the fractured political logic on education, which is not much different from what we hear regarding most areas of public policy, the reason we have failure is we’re not doing enough of what already isn’t working.
In the case of education, we’re spending a lot of money and not getting results. So the problem must be, in the brilliant political take on matters, we’re just not spending enough money.
“I now want to hire more teachers, especially in math and science, because we know that we’ve fallen behind when it comes to math and science,” Obama said. “And those teachers can make a difference.”
But, Mr. President, what information do you have that leads you to conclude that more teachers can make a difference?
According to information recently published by Face the Facts USA, a nonpartisan project of the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, over the last decade the federal government spent $293 billion and states spent a combined $5.5 trillion — money targeted to improving academic performance — with no discernable change in reading and math scores. “A quarter of high school seniors don’t meet basic reading standards and a third fall below basic math proficiency,” Face the Facts USA reports.
Throwing money at education may make those who get the money better off, but there is little, if any, evidence that it makes any difference at all in improving academic performance.
Recently, I sat down and interviewed one of my heroes: Dr. Ben Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Outside of his work, Carson’s passion is education. As someone who grew up in a Detroit ghetto, whose mother was a domestic who could not read, he has some idea what it means to start with nothing and achieve the American dream.
But listening to Carson — whose latest book is titled “America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great” — you get a much different take on what is wrong with education and our nation today than what we hear from politicians.
Carson says, “We were a ‘can do’ nation and now we’re a ‘what can you do for me’ nation.”
He talks about the two biggest influences when he was a boy: a demanding and caring mother and his church.
According to Carson, “we’re being crucified by political correctness — that any lifestyle is equivalent to any other lifestyle.”
Through the Carson Scholars Fund, he provides $1,000 college scholarships to kids “who excel academically and are dedicated to serving their communities.” He also builds reading rooms — there are now 77 at schools in 11 states — designed to provoke kids to want to read.
After a half-hour interview with Carson (see www.CureAmerica.us), here’s my takeaway: Education is about family, meaning, personal responsibility, standards of right and wrong, and appreciating the uniqueness of every child.
Without these fundamentals, truckloads of taxpayer money will accomplish nothing. Which is why the trillions being spent are poured into a black hole.
I would add that, given the realities of today’s public schools — defined by the political correctness that Carson says is crucifying us — there is no hope of meeting his standards for education without giving parents freedom to choose where to send their kid to school.
Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure.org.
KaD says:
I think it’s a good idea in theory; the problem starts when the problem kids end up at the better schools en masse. Then what? They drag the good schools down?
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27th October 2012 at 11:36 am
sangell says:
A few months ago I was reading an interview of one of the managers for the Kepler Space Telescope. During the interview it came out that this woman had attended the public schools in Richmond, California. To anyone familiar with Richmond, California the idea that its schools could produce a student capable of becoming a Phd in science with the ability to build and operate a space telescope of such exquisite sensitivity that it could detect the dimming of a star when an earth sized planet passed in front of it would seem ludicrous. Of course the Richmond Public Schools did not produce this student. Her Hindu family did. She SURVIVED the Richmond Public School system and one can only imagine her lonely sojourn to advanced math classes through hallways full of raucous, obscenity spewing aspiring homicides and girls whose goal in life was a baby and a section 8 apartment.
Most of our public schools have degenerated into a jobs program for marginal college students. A place to draw a public paycheck and retire at 55 with a generous pension if you are willing to endure 30 years of feral children misbehaving and failing to learn.
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27th October 2012 at 11:59 am
ron says:
The schools dont need more money,they need better teachers.I also think schools should be able to give swats with a paddle if its needed.If parents object than they can accept the swats for theyre little angel.Funny my kids school has none of these problems.
I still think the vast majority of kids well graduate with the skills for blue coller jobs,that have been shipped overseas.How many scientists can there be? And with the schooling needed and the government involvement i dont see many wanting to be doctors.Also the schools here have already started federally mandated tougher requirements.
Mabe a degree in criminal justice well help with all the jobs that well be available for prisons and FEMA camps.Riot cop squads. Well theres always the military.The illegal wars are sure to continue.
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27th October 2012 at 1:13 pm
taxSlave says:
I believe in the Separation of School and State.
Get the government out of education.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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27th October 2012 at 1:15 pm
Milw05 says:
Milwaukee has the largest school choice program in the nation. It numbers in the neighborhood of 25,000 students. Also, open enrollment and what is called chapter 220, which allows minority students to attend suburban schools. Nowhere in the nation is it as extensive as it is in Milwaukee. Guess what, the choice kids score no higher on the test than the students in MIlwaukee Public schools.
We can try new programs, new schools, new teachers, new systems until we are blue in the face, but if discipline, respect, good habits, work ethic, attitude are not established at home and engrained into a child by a certain age it really doesn’t matter what we try. Teachers and schools are not miracle workers. They can only do so much, regardless of what fancy new theories or techniques or schools or anything else. If it doesn’t start at home it is over before it even begins.
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27th October 2012 at 1:29 pm
sangell says:
We spend about $5-6 billion per year on Head Start . We’ve done this for over 40 years now and it has failed. A major reason is because Head Start is merely a jobs program for the underclass. We know toddlers can learn a foreign language with ease if it is spoken in their presence. We shouldn’t be surprised that putting children in the care of ebonics speakers damages their verbal and reading aptitude.
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27th October 2012 at 2:13 pm
ragman says:
Education(book learnin’) is about sacrificing fun time and studying ones ass off. It’s about assimilating information presented by instructors, in books, in Computer Based Training, &tc. Parents must be available to facilitate said learning, but they can’t do it for the student. I disagree that the “Uniqueness of Every Child” has anything constructive to do with a real education. Book learnin’ is hard, tedious work. Many young people simply want no part of it.
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27th October 2012 at 2:15 pm
harry p. says:
The only true solution is choice, govt only operates as a monopoly so as long as govt is involved in education its quality will be poor because it will be conducted like a monopoly.
Sure, you can homeschool but you cant choose to not pay.
If a group gets paid for a service regardless of the quality of the product only a moron should be surprised that the quality is shitty.
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27th October 2012 at 7:50 pm
IndenturedServant says:
I think this problem is going to be nearly insurmountable. We have *generations* of people living on welfare. For the most part, these people have no idea how to parent a child, how to instill values, work ethic or anything else that business or the country at large would find desirable or useful. In many cases it’s kids raising kids. Most of us here on TBP seem to have had a decent education and values instilled in us. Now imagine for a minute how dumb and ignorant you were at ages 12-17 when many of these people begin having kids. What sort of human being could you have raised at that age?
Dr. Carson’s reading rooms are a great idea but it’s a bit like throwing a gram of gold at the national debt IMO. Giving $1000 dollar scholarships while laudable, probably helps less than the reading rooms. I’d bet that a thousand bucks barely covers book costs for a semester and it does nothing to to get kids from their homes to school in the first place. You practically have to teach these people how to be human beings. Nothing short of a complete and total overhaul of the education system will do it. Education need not be expensive either. I’ve met young adults from refugee camps in Africa (the Lost Boys) who are better educated that anyone *in the hood* and their education probably cost less than a thousand bucks to age 18. Apart from that I have no idea how you fix shit like this.
I_S
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27th October 2012 at 10:27 pm
IndenturedServant says:
ron said:
“I also think schools should be able to give swats with a paddle if its needed.If parents object than they can accept the swats for theyre little angel.”
Not a bad idea but a better one was what my parents did. Being a nomadic military family, we changed schools often but my parents always insisted on meeting our teachers in person with my brothers and I in tow. Two things I always remember them telling every teacher was that no one at the school was allowed to strike their kids and if they ever had a problem with one of their boys, just call us and you will never have that problem again. I would have much preferred getting swatted at school by a teacher than facing mom and dad. Luckily, it was not something we had to face many times to believe that they meant it.
I_S
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27th October 2012 at 11:04 pm
IndenturedServant says:
ragman said:
“Education(book learnin’) is about sacrificing fun time and studying ones ass off. Many young people simply want no part of it.”
I distinctly remember my parents and teachers using my own, natural interests in various things to make me see and understand why other subjects like math, english and history were essential for me to understand and engage in things I was already passionate about. In this way, book learnin’ became a step along the way to do the things I wanted. I was a curious little prick so education was fun for the most part. I think all kids have this natural curiosity and using that to keep them engaged is not that hard.
I_S
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27th October 2012 at 11:26 pm