Category: Education

The Economist, 8/6/16, “Good Afternoon, Vietnam.” This article in the Finance section of the edition was talking about how Vietnam has benefited from the Asian economic growth through many good decisions of the government, as well as being on China’s southern border.

One of the those decisions is education. They spend more than most countries in their situation and, “15 years-olds beat those in America and Britain in maths and science.”

The Dems, under pressure have strengthened their plank for the election to push charter schools out of competing with public schools, Black Lives Matter, the NAACP and the teacher union power is evident.  Interestingly two organizations opposed the move, “Other groups have pushed back. Both the Democrats for Education Reform and the Black Alliance for Educational Options challenged the NAACP moratorium, and the latter’s president, Jacqueline Cooper, called the resolution “ill-conceived and based on lies and distortions about the work of charter schools.”” This from the article noted below.

AEI just came out with a study of Charter Schools concerning whether they cherry pick kids, they don’t, http://www.aei.org/publication/a-different-kind-of-charter-diversity/?utm_source=paramount&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AEITODAY&utm_campaign=081716. HRC was booed at a teachers organization by talking about giving charter schools an opportunity.

It is so obvious that we as a country refuse to address the issue of the downward trend of our public education results. Competition is the key. Choice is the key. Try something new. Shake off the control of the special interests that refuse to admit the problem to protect their jobs and benefits.

We are screwing our next generation, wake up America.

Yale University is one of many places where political correctness rules the roost. Elihu Yale (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elihu_Yale) gave the money to establish a college in Connecticut which was later named in his honor.

Well, Elihu was employed by the East India Company and used his position to enrich himself at the company’s expense, and happens to have gained further wealth in the slave trade.  He was fired, went back to England to live out his life in comfort. http://digitalhistories.yctl.org/2014/11/01/elihu-yale-was-a-slave-trader/.

So, the PC crowd wants to rename the University, pull statues down, rename buildings, etc., etc.

My question, who today can look back and say their ancestors were without questionable histories. None of us. Some certainly are better than others, but we are all at fault. That is part of being human. We mess up, we don’t protest when our basic nature says something is wrong.

The error the PC crowd is making is to not acknowledge the facts of the case and recognize we are able to learn from our mistakes and become better people. The Africans who were complicit in the slave trade, where is the condemnation. The American natives who took slaves from other tribes regularly, and Caucasians when they arrived. Slavery is as old as our written history, until, in the late 19th century, we decided it wasn’t good and outlawed it. Today there are still folks who use their faith to justify slavery, but thank God they are few and far between.

I am sure the PC crowd goes to the Frick art gallery in NY to view the amazing works of art contained there, I have been to see the “Woman in Gold”, the painting featured in the recent movie of the same name. Well Mr. Henry Frick ran Carnegie’s steel business and was notorious for violence against workers, many were killed. Mr. Carnegie gave millions to establish libraries in the U.S. so citizens can learn, be part of the government. I am sure the PC crowd uses those libraries. Bill Gates has been cited as a very tough boss, implemented policies that reduced competition in the software business. His foundation has done wonderful work.  Hillary Clinton has sold her office for money donated to the Bill and Hillary “charity.” The Hill and Bill organization has done much good. Trump has gone bankrupt but also donated millions. Romney has created companies, hired thousands, fired many but gives away 20% of his income every year. Will Smith advocates “cleansing” the U.S. of Trump supporters while pumping his new movie in Dubai, a place that suppresses women and jails homosexuals.

By covering up we don’t learn. Keep the name, create a place where our human failings generate learning that brings us closer together over time, that would be heaven on earth. Instead of protesting for changing the name, use the name to educate, recognizing we are the same as Elihu in many ways.  All are fallen.

Governor Mike Pence has been a leader introducing school choice, with the established education lobby vociferously opposed, duh!  Results?

33,000 kids are now enrolled in the programs. 60% of students in Indiana qualify for vouchers, the largest in the country. The $4800 cap has been removed. Court battles have been won by the governor.

The results of our current model of educating our youth show how we do it today are failing. We have been sliding down the scale compared to other advanced countries. Denmark has installed “project based learning” and it seems to be working. They learned that from us. We don’t use the methods.

Disruption and experiments are needed to reverse the trend in results.

See the WSJ, Allysia Finley, “Pence on School Choice”, July 20, 2016.

“California’s Supreme Court has the opportunity to make a civil-rights breakthrough by agreeing to hear a landmark case that challenges teacher tenure laws on equal protection grounds.”  The opening sentence in a WSJ article today, editorial page.  The article goes on to say that six students have sued California because lousy teachers are moved to low income schools since getting rid of them takes forever, is almost impossible and very costly.

The first trial judge agreed, it was appealed-supported by the idiot governor Brown and the unions of course-and the appeals court vacated the ruling.  Now it goes to the supreme court.

The web if full of more detail, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/vergara-v-california/, Huffington even agrees!

When will the money and power of the teachers unions stop protecting lousy teachers, our education results have been sliding for years, from in the high single digits to low 10’s when compared with our global competitors.  Wake up America!  Our youth are being screwed.

When does anyone deserve a lifetime job?  The rest of us sure aren’t. Academic freedom my butt, this is pure power and money.

Living in Alabama we are starting to see a change, not much yet, but the local union, the AEA, spent $40 million in the last cycle and all the candidates lost and the NEA had to come in and take over the union.

What are the results?  That is the question.

The above title is from the May 21-22 WSJ by Naomi Schaefer Riley. There has been a lot of hoopla about the Redskins name, how insulting it is to native Americans. Well, according to a Washington Post poll, 90% of native Americans are not offended.  Much ado about nothing?

Concurrently the Education Secretary John King announced a $100,000 grant to the Crazy Horse School of the Oglala Sioux tribe. More money won’t help much as plenty of money has been sent to the schools, as Ms. Riley states in her article.

The schools score half as well as other schools in South Dakota. Nepotism, a lack of accountability, no alternatives like charter schools, unenforced truancy laws, social promotions, etc. Sound familiar, maybe not to the same extent, but familiar for sure. While adults posture over tenure, staff jobs, keeping low performing schools open, unenforced discipline the children who want to learn are sacrificed by the adults.

Some Teach for America teachers were let go because “they are too white. They think Western.” Adults fighting their battles over who teaches their kids reading, writing and arithmetic.

Education is at the core of many of our issues in our country, yet the current administration and the Bern says global warming is at the top of the list. No guts to tell the truth.

A “Progressive” Student Figures Out Just How Unprogressive Colleges Have Become

Read more: http://www.everyjoe.com/2016/04/12/news/progressive-student-mahad-olad-social-justice-university-of-minnesota/#ixzz491UXPxFJ

 

The WSJ reported that the program initiated in Washington, DC, to give kids an opportunity to escape failing public schools was only authorized for this year, versus the expected five years.  The program has been around since 2003 and has been taken advantage of by thousands of kids. It has been opposed by President Obama, the local teachers’ union and the “representative” E.N. Holmes from the inception. The program spends HALF of what the public schools get per student, accepts all, and has much better results.  When will we realize that outcomes are more important than inputs.  When will we realize that leadership is more important than seniority. From the article a mother tells the journalist, “Sheila Jackson tells me she feels insulted by the black Democrats who claim to look our for her and her family interests–You want my vote but you don’t care about my children”

WSJ; February 16, “Fighting Congress for a Capital Education”

School Choice, primary and secondary systems

In the late-19^th century, “public” education was established in all the states. It was not consistent throughout the country but gained strength and became an institution, and a positive one for our democracy.  Our founders saw that an educated voter was the best foundation for the freedoms we hold dear.

Like any large organization, 150 years brings in lots of inefficiencies and waste that needs cleaning out.  The economist, Schumpeter, introduced a term, “creative destruction” in the mid-20^th century that describes the process organizations must, I repeat, must undergo to produce the results needed to be successful.  Although it was developed to talk about companies producing products or services, it certainly applies to any other organization.  We see the lack of results from large, non-market organizations that are due to the lack of a regular cleaning out that the market brings.  Congress, churches, non for profits, etc. are examples.  Our education establishment is long overdue.

Education resists measuring outputs, it likes measuring inputs.  Any attempt to evaluate teachers, provide for competitors that can tap into public funding, test students, etc. is met with furious resistance.  The U.S. has continually slid down the scale when our kids are tested and measured against other “competitor” countries. http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA-2012-results-US.pdf.

The article below talks about the Washington DC program to grant funds for kids to attend schools outside of the DC public system.  The parents love the program, the teachers and Democrat Congresswoman, Eleanor Homes Norton, hate it.  They fear competition.  We will lose this republic if we don’t reform education.  http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA-2012-results-US.pdf.

When Ben Franklin was asked after the new constitution passed, barely by the way, what type of government did the U.S. have, he replied;
The deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held in strict secrecy. Consequently, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended in order to learn what had been produced behind closed doors. The answer was provided immediately. A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”