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2:47:00 PM CDT
The Education Quagmire
Having been out-of-blogging-touch for a couple weeks, I'm tentatively scratching the surface again to learn that (no surprise) there's been no action on mine, but a couple of the authors I found interesting are still hard at work. One of the most prolific, "amba," (personal journal at Ambivablog, and a contributor to The Yellow Line) has no fear of tough topics. Now she's tackling one of the most daunting challenges in our nation which I've agonized about, but have a lot of trouble breaking out of my own biases enough to even begin to address it: EDUCATION!
As I flinch at every wild-eyed accusation of racism, and my anti-public sector feelings and roots bristle, the "education problem" in this country seems hopeless. The system HAS failed! We are in deep trouble in the competitve world, and the future is very bleak. And like so many "government answers," clearly throwing money at the problem is wrong. When I hear or read about the "learning gap" between whites and minorities, and that 50% of blacks in California are dropouts, or all the other statistics that show that blacks and other minorities have a higher percentage of low test scores, or dropout rates, my instinctive reaction is always....well DUH! When do we talk about root causes? How about dysfunctional families? How about economic opportunities?
I've often felt (albeit irrational) that I would love to run for the local School Board on a platform to "shut them down" (i.e. cutting funding is the only answer for a grid-locked money pit with such lousy results). It would be a helluva campaign, and crazier platforms have been elected.
I know.....there have been, and are a myriad of social programs, both government and non-profit, that have consumed billions of dollars over the years. Generally, we wouldn't be where we are today if they were successful. No doubt there have been successes, and I think amba's 9/25 post highlights a critical success with enormous potential. Click on: Education: Fix It in the Mix.
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Education is the key to the good life. Material and otherwise.
It is a shame that we have allowed the schools to be run by so many incompetent bureaucrats, and staffed by so many disinterested and mediocre teachers. We shed the good teachers fast as we can -- by paying them poorly and by subjecting them to the frustrations of the worthless bureaucracy of school administration.
There are social issues, family issues, economic issues. It all seems insurmountable.
So we give up, or opt out. We call for vouchers so that some can escape, without regard for the good of all. We institute testing, and measure the wrong things because they are easy to measure.
Increasingly, education is becoming a means to separate Americans by class, and we are going after it whole hog, as if that were a worthy purpose -- something good for America. E Pluribus Unum, and the democratic idealism embraced by our founders, is threatened now by our tax policy and our education policy and our health care policy -- in fact, by every institution and policy of our government.
Income gaps between the wealthiest and poorest Americans widen every year, and increasingly we find ourselves surprised to learn for example that there are poor people in New Orleans.
The American dream is rooted in merit and opportunity; education is the key to both.
We have to revitalize the institutions that deliver these services to young people across the country. There is no other way.
Neil
11/1/05 7:03 AM