Failing Education

I don't know if you all realize just how bad our education system is. But the fact that politicians and others who have a vested interest in this government bailout to "save the economy," keep touting the mantra, "the average person just doesn't understand what all's involved and just how devastating it will be if we don't provide this bail-out," should be an indication just how terrible things are in public education.

Here's why. The government caused a problem that now they are trying to convince you the average person, that they are the solution to. The sad part is that many people have decided that this must be true. They accept the word of the government rather than question the word of those in our government. This should be scary to most of you come election time. Because many or most of the people won't be voting on substance, they'll be voting on who looks good to them, or who their parents told them to vote for, or who their friend told them to vote for, without ever doing 10 minutes of research on the issues and what and why the candidates take the position they take and what that means if that person is elected.

The government has a monopoly on education. What I mean by that is that all the tax dollars collected and distributed for education, go to government schools. You can't just decide to send your kid to the private school of your choice and expect the government to give you the money they would have paid the public school in your district for your kid to attend. So what happens if you choose to forgo the tax dollars you already pay for your child's education and send him to private school? That money still goes to the government school district you live in.

Then the government teachers teach your kids to become mindless followers and believers in the need for government. If you don't intervene and teach them to question everything, then that is what they will become. They don't question the motives or actions of politicians, they just vote for the one that will "take care" of them. Luckily there are still parents out there that take it upon themselves to continue their kid's education at home. Good for you and keep up the good work.

I believe there are things that shouldn't be taught at school because it is the responsibility of parents to teach their kids their belief system or send them to a school that will instill their belief system. Two topics in particular are sex and religion. The biology associated with sex is fine but birth control vs abstinence should be addressed at home. There shouldn't even be any arguments as to whether or not the government school should teach abstinence or birth control. Stick to biology. Same with religion. They can and ought to offer elective classes on religion just as students should be allowed to form religious clubs if they want to. But it should not be forced on any student who's parent doesn't want that. Likewise that parent shouldn't fight to remove any non-forced religious classes or clubs from the campus.

That said I believe a parent should have the right to choose where to send their child to school, be it a government school, a parochial school, or some other private school offering something they want for their child. Schools should have to compete with each other for students. You know operate in the free market like businesses do. If some schools can't keep up, let them fail. Government or not. They have to offer something there's a market for. The money should follow the child, not the child following the money. Maybe that's why we have such a subpar education system in this country. But that's my solution. Oh and while we're taking the monopoly away from the government, let's dismantle the department of education while we're at it and leave it up to the states to determine how much regulation they want on schools and teachers in their state. You all know just how much money we're wasting at a federal level on departments like this.

Who knows, it just might work. Good teachers might start getting paid more, students might learn to think for themselves, and we might become competitive with the rest of the world again.