Education Reform
- The Highest Priority For All Governors

Today is Monday, October 4, 2010. I will be attending a Luncheon Event in support of gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker including a truly special guest, the 55th Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie. Governor Christie, elected last year in spite of huge Democrat party support and repeated appearances of President Obama on behalf of his opponent, has been the trailblazer of the utterly imperative requirement that states address the exploding cost of education and complete failure in educating the populations of children most in need. His willingness to address this issue head on in New Jersey will pave the way for other Governors to replicate his plan, courage and dedication in creating and implementing a truly workable long-term solution which will benefit all, including students, teachers, parents and taxpayers.

Coincidentally, a colleague of a religious business conference I belong to sent me the following e-mail with graphical information about how the cost of public education has changed with time in relation to some other crucial educational parameters:

 

My initial response:

“The answer is certainly obvious.” One other person’s initial response:

This is typical of the results our federal government is able to achieve when it puts its mind and money to it. The teachers union traded votes for these heady results.

And another’s:

Good to see the national discussion on this has reached a fever pitch. About time.

My own experience in teaching economics at a midlevel university is that our crisis is in Math and English. Fix those and the other subjects would improve. At low marginal cost we could increase the length of the school year and school day and use those extra hours solely on writing and math. Not rote, but problem-solving and essay writing.

To which I then chimed in:

A longer school year will do nothing but pollute the minds of children more than they are. It is essential children learn outside of the school environment. The best high school in Wisconsin, Marquette, has only 155 school days. Yet they continually produce the best students ready for college and future community leaders.

The problem with schools is that they are time based and not achievement based. Money solves no problems in education. High expectations, family involvement and a customer-vendor relationship is what makes schools successful. MPS has none of these traits. Look at the results.

Another responded:

Steve: Good analysis of Marquette U HS. Great kids coming in, good value-added, and the results are just as you say. Can we extrapolate that to the kids on MPS? That is the problem to be solved.

In Harlem they are adding school days and school hours per day. Incredibly dedicated community people substitute for qualities lacking in the homes. I suggest that these added periods of time be spent on intense math problemsolving and essay writing because those are the skills I need to teach students at the college level.

True: the Marquette students don't need more days. They will fill their days very productively. Again, that is not the problem to be solved.

I then added:

Vouchers have worked wonders in all inner city locations they have ever been tried. Messmer High school has consistently produced excellently educated students ready for college and life taken from the MPS system. Vouchers do 2 of the 3 things previously mentioned. They mandate family involvement for it requires family decision-making on which school to go to and also establishes a customer-vendor relationship because the family controls the voucher use which is essentially the money.

The real problem as we all know lies in the teacher's union. This is a problem not only for parents, students and taxpayers, but for the teachers as well.

Let's face it. Government run education is a really bad idea besides being truly dangerous.

Now a new voice joined the discussion:

The claim was made on the Today Show this morning that those states with the highest level of unionization among teachers are the states with the best levels of performance on ACT, SAT and so on. Is this true? What is the response?

The problem is not government-run public education - this nation as a rural and small town nation and until 50 years ago was built on public education. It is what education has become that is the problem. What are the changes between the public education my parents and I knew and what passes for public education today?

This week I watched Ken Burns' Tenth Inning, much of it focused on steroids, and they are an evil, but one approved by our home-town hero, Bud Selig until the heat became to great. But then I turned to another show and one of the commercials was for Cialis - another performance enhancer. Why is one good and the other bad? And even if one is good and the other bad - what is the message we convey?

In terms of education and its value, do we as a society convey mixed messages? I do not know, I just ask. Tonight all of our local evening news programs at 10:00 p.m. will make a big deal about high school football. Will there be a story on academic achievement?

My response:

Your point is well made. Education does have a basis in a values system. Which is precisely why government run education fails. Governments cannot nor should try to provide a values basis. This is the job of religion, churches, and families. Dangerous things happen when governments provide the values to the population. There is a huge difference between publicly funded education and government run education.

MUHS was cited by some sources as the best school in Wisconsin, and you're right, alot does have to do with same sex make up. But this title is certainly up for debate, though I happen to agree with the claim, even being a Pius XI graduate myself.

I do feel bad for the teachers, sort of. But when you surrender your individuality as must be done in a union, you surrender your ability to be exceptional. The group dictates your fate. And most teachers will admit this on at least one level, and many of those on all.

I'd love to see truly exceptional teachers, which I believe could be most, be rewarded in many different ways that are not possible in the current unionized system. The apathy I see in some that I know is just tragic. Teachers are very important to our society. But when they or others portray them as victims, it helps no one and hurts the teachers the most.

These discussions continued and will go on hopefully forever. But the point of my sharing this chain with all of you is to demonstrate what we all can do in our individual spheres of influence. These discussion will reach the ears of people like Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and others in political positions that can effect real reform and positive change in education.

The start of the twentieth century brought us some very unpleasant albatrosses, two of the largest being the government takeover of education and the implementation of the income tax. Both of these bloated behemoths will continue to smother us until we fight our way out of their grip and stick a sword through their hearts. Education has been at the root of the movement to implement socialism in America. We must all step up and support the people committed to addressing and engaging in true educational reform, such as the fight Governor Christie has begun in New Jersey and Scott Walker promises to bring to Wisconsin.