Conservative Education Solutions
Education is a subject that makes me livid. I first realized the federal government had their nasty hands in education when I was a kid in school. I remember watching the television news and hearing about the battles over prayer in school. I of course asked my parents about it and they gave me the 8yr old summation.
I didn't think much about the subject after that until I became an adult and was attending community college. I had a professor that that absolutely loved trashing America and President at the time, Reagan. Needless to say I had it out with this guy more than once in class in front of everyone. Members of my family had served in the military and this 40yr old hippie was talking badly about what all of them had served and fought for. The question at the time was how did this happen that so many of these people occupied these jobs with captive audiences to spew their hate. I found out later the answer was government. Government when run by leftists is insidious. It is like a stage three cancer spread throughout the body via lymph nodes. Public education now in most places is so bad that even lower middle class people are getting second jobs to send their kids to private or parochial schools.
"Well Mike what's wrong with that? It's a free country and if they want to pay for it" These people are still having to pay taxes to support the failing government education system. The same one that hires scumbags that indoctrinate kids into thinking America is a horrible, selfish place. That's the problem with it. It's funny how everything that the government touches turns into a disaster. Education will never get better with government controlling and funding it.
My solution to the education problem in the country is a simple one. Get the government out of it. The only way to do that is to stop taking their money. As we have all seen with GM and Chrysler, once you take money from them they take control. I say privatize education. Education is not a mandate in the Constitution. If it were totally privatized, the taxes we pay for it would remain with the parents and they could decide to do with that money whatever they thought was best for their kids.
If parents wanted to home school their kids they could, and if they wanted to use that money to send their kids to a private school they could as well. The extra kids in need of education along with parents that have the extra money would open up a huge surge in free market education. Schools would be competing for prospective students. Did you hear that? Competing for kids to go to school at their school! What happens when banks compete? You win, right? What happens when schools compete? You get a better education at a lower cost! Imagine that.
Of course the inevitable question is. "What if the parent pockets the money and keeps their kid home without teaching them" There would have to be a standard set that requires parents make sure that their kids are getting an education, to a point. Remember we don't want government dictating parental decisions to us. The argument is that if the government doesn't mandate, then people will take advantage and we'll have idiots walking around that don't know how to read. My answer is, we have that now and we are paying enormously for it. All of this without an upward curve of progress, rather a flatline on the bottom. Needless to say, that argument is not valid to me. Parents would be doing their best to get the best for their kids at the best cost. Keeping them in the game with their wallet is also a good motivator. Competition is good, it creates the best in the end and that is what America is all about, being the best.
The problem now lies in the fact that it is provided by government which some people equate to free. It's not free. The resources we waste filtering them through the many government bureaucracies is enormous. The tax burden kills all of us and for what? a terrible second rate education for our kids. The only alternative is to swim upstream and pay for private school which of course only people with the extra cash can do. Again the little guy takes the hit when government is involved. When things are not given to you, you appreciate them because you have to work for them.
This principle applies to everything that is government controlled other than what is granted it in the Constitution. Every time the government has an equal in the private sector the quality is exponentially better in the private sector. Private schools vs Public schools, the Post Office vs FedEx and UPS, etc. The government has no accountability and they hire only union workers that can never be fired. You all know what that does for quality of service. It's doing the same for our kids in public school and state universities. We can turn all of this around because we vote. We need to vote in Conservatives. Conservatives want to shrink government and one day we will get it done. Our kids depend on it.
I didn't think much about the subject after that until I became an adult and was attending community college. I had a professor that that absolutely loved trashing America and President at the time, Reagan. Needless to say I had it out with this guy more than once in class in front of everyone. Members of my family had served in the military and this 40yr old hippie was talking badly about what all of them had served and fought for. The question at the time was how did this happen that so many of these people occupied these jobs with captive audiences to spew their hate. I found out later the answer was government. Government when run by leftists is insidious. It is like a stage three cancer spread throughout the body via lymph nodes. Public education now in most places is so bad that even lower middle class people are getting second jobs to send their kids to private or parochial schools.
"Well Mike what's wrong with that? It's a free country and if they want to pay for it" These people are still having to pay taxes to support the failing government education system. The same one that hires scumbags that indoctrinate kids into thinking America is a horrible, selfish place. That's the problem with it. It's funny how everything that the government touches turns into a disaster. Education will never get better with government controlling and funding it.
My solution to the education problem in the country is a simple one. Get the government out of it. The only way to do that is to stop taking their money. As we have all seen with GM and Chrysler, once you take money from them they take control. I say privatize education. Education is not a mandate in the Constitution. If it were totally privatized, the taxes we pay for it would remain with the parents and they could decide to do with that money whatever they thought was best for their kids.
If parents wanted to home school their kids they could, and if they wanted to use that money to send their kids to a private school they could as well. The extra kids in need of education along with parents that have the extra money would open up a huge surge in free market education. Schools would be competing for prospective students. Did you hear that? Competing for kids to go to school at their school! What happens when banks compete? You win, right? What happens when schools compete? You get a better education at a lower cost! Imagine that.
Of course the inevitable question is. "What if the parent pockets the money and keeps their kid home without teaching them" There would have to be a standard set that requires parents make sure that their kids are getting an education, to a point. Remember we don't want government dictating parental decisions to us. The argument is that if the government doesn't mandate, then people will take advantage and we'll have idiots walking around that don't know how to read. My answer is, we have that now and we are paying enormously for it. All of this without an upward curve of progress, rather a flatline on the bottom. Needless to say, that argument is not valid to me. Parents would be doing their best to get the best for their kids at the best cost. Keeping them in the game with their wallet is also a good motivator. Competition is good, it creates the best in the end and that is what America is all about, being the best.
The problem now lies in the fact that it is provided by government which some people equate to free. It's not free. The resources we waste filtering them through the many government bureaucracies is enormous. The tax burden kills all of us and for what? a terrible second rate education for our kids. The only alternative is to swim upstream and pay for private school which of course only people with the extra cash can do. Again the little guy takes the hit when government is involved. When things are not given to you, you appreciate them because you have to work for them.
This principle applies to everything that is government controlled other than what is granted it in the Constitution. Every time the government has an equal in the private sector the quality is exponentially better in the private sector. Private schools vs Public schools, the Post Office vs FedEx and UPS, etc. The government has no accountability and they hire only union workers that can never be fired. You all know what that does for quality of service. It's doing the same for our kids in public school and state universities. We can turn all of this around because we vote. We need to vote in Conservatives. Conservatives want to shrink government and one day we will get it done. Our kids depend on it.
Posted by michael spence at 7/30/2009 5:14 PM 
Categories: Education, Constitution, Reagan, Conservatives
Tags: taxes freedom Americans Constitution Conservative
Categories: Education, Constitution, Reagan, Conservatives
Tags: taxes freedom Americans Constitution Conservative
Good article. I tried to be a teacher at one time and it is not easy and they have a lot on their shoulders.Made me appreciate what they go through and all the burdens they have.
It ticks me off that some people just want a free ride, where ever they can can get it, and education is one of these areas.
Not only would some parents pocket their kids home schooling money but then they would play the discrimination card to have gov get someone else to teach their kids for them.
Kids deserve the best education possible
not to be thrown a bone with no meat.
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Some good ideas, but this will never work! This is a case of you cannot go back!
Not all people will bother to educate their own and the majority will then be the bearers of that responsibility or our society as we know it will fall apart. There is no good solution. Being a retired teacher, I personally think that a whole lot of the responsibility for the failure of schools in general today is due to the fact that many parents do not reinforce the learning process at home. The children are disrespectful at school and simply don't care whether they get an education or not. Why should they, when their government is willing to give them a check and some food stamps? The last year I taught, every test I gave was an open book test and 50% of the students still made C's or below. Very few cared enough to try to get things answered correctly. At my particular school, we were not allowed to give a zero. If assignments were not handed in, we were required to give them at least a 60. I had one student in the 4th grade who was barely literate. He basically could not construct a sentence and could read at about a 2nd grade level. Simply put, students are not allowed to fail! School systems now only teach what could possibly covered on standardized tests. Teachers are no longer allowed to control what happens in the classroom. The principals, superintendents, etc. were controlled by parents who basically believed everything their child told them about school. Needless to say, after 38+ years in the public schools of 3 different states, I am glad to be out of it and that my blood pressure has returned to a normal reading. I would also like to say that most teachers are not like the far out hippie liberal that you unfortunately encountered. Most are very dedicated and try to do what is right including supporting love and respect of our country.
I don't have any answers, but I sure hope that some how someone can come up with something that works. Public education most certainly needs a fix, and just adding more money is not the answer
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First let me thank you for your comment. It is very nice to get feedback from the trenches, and I know teachers for the most part are fighting a very uphill battle their entire career. I can only base my opinions on my experiences and knowledge. With that said, I do concede I am by no means an expert.
I know what you mean when you say that not all parents will follow through with their child's education. That is a blaring fact right now in public school and I believe the situation is exacerbated by the government run school model. In a private school incorrigible students are not allowed. If the private option were the only option, parents would be more apt to make sure their kids behaved as to not have to find another school to send them to. At worst you as the teacher would not have to teach around discipline cases. Public school now allows the students to run wild. Like you stated they are not allowed to fail, they are allowed to be undisciplined and disrupt classes without proper recourse. The fact that angers me the most is that children that want to learn are missing the time with the teacher that they want and need because of a few bad apples. The privatized model would eliminate that and does right now if you go to private school. I believe the entire issue is only a matter of money and control. Change is tough I know, however our future as a viable nation depends on this getting fixed in the community rather than in Washington or in the state capital. The more brain dead products that come out of public education the further we fall.
I know that not all teachers are hard core leftists. For every moron teacher I ever had, I had 10 others that were outstanding human beings that deserved much more recognition than they ever received.
Again thank you very much for your insight.
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I am a little bit older then you and I was born in texas. However, my father had to go overseas during wwII, My mother and I were sent up to Pittsburg,while he was gone. I ended up going to catholic school there. When we moved back to Texas I went to public school, our home was 10 miles from mexico. I found out at an early age, and even realized it at the time, the teachers were teaching down to us. They had no choice I guess, because the mexicans would drive their kids from Reynosa, Mexico to our school everyday and use a relatives add that lived on the Texas side. I still resent that because I lost out on a better education,I got bored because what they were teaching was 2 to 3 years behind what I had already learned. Now it seems they are doing that everywhere, and our country is growing and educating our young on a level where it would be easy for government takeovers.
I feel we are raising 2 different kinds of kids, the me,me,me and the dumb. We see it everyday and its become the norm. It makes me scared for our countr's future.
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