Excellent

This issue is a great example of the scam that socialists have been putting over on America for years. It has been going on, too long, to the detriment and potential ruin of our country. The standard formula applies – claim that ‘Old America’ has a white culture dominated education problem that needs to be corrected by socialist intervention; children are suffering due to the backward attitudes of old white people; all kinds of judicial decrees, educrat meddling, social engineering and opinion enforcement, pushed on children, parents and taxpayers, with the massive accumulation of evidence that they are completely wrong, damaging children, destroying their chance to get a first rate education, all at an astronomically high cost, with ongoing dissembling, deceit and fraud to keep the scam alive and funded, while conservatives are blamed for perpetuating attitudes of excellence and accomplishment, finally ending with the ratmob, unable to overshout the facts, doing the switcheroo to grab a place at the initiation of conservative programs and claim credit for charter schools, teacher accountability, testing requirements etc. without missing a beat, all with the propaganda assistance of socialist media gurus and internet cockroaches.

Charter schools, vouchers, no child left behind, race to the top, state lottery gimmicks – all of these are just band aids applied to a massive problem. We need to move the nation forward in one big step. Pass Federal Civil Rights legislation that gives parents the CIVIL RIGHT to send their kids, and their money, to whatever school they want. If it works for Harvard and Yale why shouldn’t it work for all schools? The law will provide a way to determine each person’s contribution level, and then give people the choice of directing their money to 4 different levels – pre-school/elementary, high school, college, and post-graduate. People who want to participate will be required to support the first 3 of the 4 with 25% of their contribution and allowed to send the fourth part to any level of their choice. People who do not have children in school will be allowed to make their contribution – rather than pay public school tax – until retirement age.

People can then begin the process of remaking education in Our Country by getting together and starting their own private schools. The wide open secret to successful schools is parental involvement in learning and scholarship. Those who want schools focused on a particular theme – science, art, business, sports, religion etc.- can bring their enthusiasm to starting a school at which kids WANT TO DO THEIR BEST. Schools can set their own rules and – the crucial point – DISMISS students who ain’t gonna get with the program. That is how you get the half-committed parents to row with the fully committed parents and put low achievers on the spot. It tells people that the students who WANT TO LEARN, those who want to put in the time and effort COME FIRST (a notion that is anathema in public schools).

The most important outcome that will occur is that some people will start SCHOLAR schools – schools that emphasize a high level of academic and intellectual performance. Those schools will set the standard which can be seen by all parents and taxpayers so that ALL schools will be up against performance and results that will weed out the bad schools (and there will be some bad schools at the start). People will vote with their feet and take their MONEY and their KIDS to the best schools. The public school system has gone as far as it can go. It survives thanks to the enthusiasm that kids bring to learning and a beleaguered corps of dedicated teachers. But the record of public education in this country is a disgrace. We get a low quality product at an astounding price. The performance of American kids compared to kids from other countries is  embarrassing. The near criminal behavior of teachers’ unions is an ugly feature of our current history.

Some people will say that we have put so much money into the public schools that we MUST stay with them because we will just have to spend more money to start new schools. But it is better to start spending money tomorrow on an education method that succeeds than to keep throwing good money after bad. People will have to sit themselves down and take time to consider what they want – more third rate failures or the hard work of creating schools that will be first rate. The process will not be a mission impossible because the new schools will have the support of parents who will work overtime to get the EXCELLENT schools they want for their children.

Conservative Principles include Respect for Knowledge and the truth that we all have vast, overwhelming capacity to learn, understand, create and take personal responsibility for making that happen in our lives. I have been around for seven decades and I am just tired of listening to the dopey ‘reform the public schools’ noise. We can get away from that endless grind and move up to a – Good, Better, Best way. For our children it starts with an Independent School Law. It will be so much easier when we have a National Conservative Party. EAP