Yeah But, Never did Anything Worthwhile

The photo to the left is for those of us who were trained in public school in the arts of critical thinking and keen observation.

In Texas, the State Board of Education voted to end nonfactual historical revisionism in the state's textbooks.  The Board also decided to eliminate much of the federally approved bias toward collectivism and social pandering and against free enterprise and American exceptionalism.

On the topic of education, the head of the illegally created federal Department of Education is calling for a $23b taxpayer funded bailout for the government union members of the nation's education collective.  This is in addition to the $46.7b in federal funding that is already allocated for fiscal year 2010.

The question begs to be asked as to why this group of Theftocrat supporters should avoid bearing the same degree of joblessness that affects the general public.  The loss of jobs among the nation's poorest performing educators could substantially improve education in the US.

The first improvement that could be made is to end tenure at all levels, from grade K through postsecondary education.  Perhaps local school boards should eliminate extracurricular activities altogether to lower expenses.  Greatly reducing after school programs could help also, as well as de-funding daycare facilities guised as summer schools.  Maybe we should also consider ending the Head Start program that provides cost free daycare for those entitlement hustlers whose primary function is producing TANF recipients.

The second scheme needing to get the ax is the jigsaw classroom with its mandated involuntary servitude and dumbed to the lowest level curriculum. Establishing competition between and among educators, creating strict accountability, and requiring that the bottom one-half of teachers, staff, and administrators re-apply for employment each school year could help to separate the wheat from the chaff, especially if the applicants pay the costs of their evaluations.

There is much that could be done to improve our educational products, drive down their costs, and make quality education more readily available and affordable for all citizens; however, that would necessitate applying capitalist principles to a group of subsidized collectivists, a politically unlikely prospect. Additionally, many of us would have to develop the discipline and character needed to keep one's greedy hands off of the public coffers, another unlikely prospect.

May your gods be with you.

Education in America

It has not been just the laziness and ineptitude of far too many teachers that has caused education to fail in this country.  Greedy trial lawyers' use of frivolous lawsuits to establish demographic quotas for school suspensions has left educators with virtually no means to discipline unruly students. 

This is but one reason that we should support education vouchers for private schools.  It might be justified to respect, or at least take seriously, someone who shoves a gun into your face and robs you.  A person who pencil whips you deserves absolutely no respect.

On the topic of furtive and devious behavior, American universities are factories of progressive propaganda that champion the socialist, totalitarian, and fascist form of government that they have put into place.  These institutions foster the education colleges that produce classroom teachers who inculcate into unsuspecting children values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that are consistent with progressives' ideals.  They are responsible for giving students diplomas that they cannot read.

These videos are two good examples of the products of American education.

It is a dreadful mistake to allow these people to bargain collectively.  Government unions are antithetical to public interest.  The reason for collective bargaining is to gain leverage against employers.  First, they are not employees; they are overhead.  Second, the leverage is against us, the taxpayers.  Now in Florida, we have the recently outed Communist Charlie Christ who, in an act of political groveling, vetoed proposed legislation that would have eliminated tenure and established merit pay for teachers.

This article and its video version offer 10 suggestions that will greatly improve academic achievement in the US.  These recommendations, along with removing political indoctrination from the curriculum, would go a long way toward improving education.  By the way, we should also end the practice of paying tenured professors to conduct ersatz research in Provence for three months each summer while graduate teaching assistants substitute for them in their classrooms.

May your gods be with you.