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Everyone is talking about the problems in our
educational system. Everyone is searching for solutions. Most
of what we hear in the way of solutions are ill-conceived vested-interest
solutions. One easy solution which has reared its head recently
is the concept of charter schools and academies. This is another
political and vested interest solution to a community, social
problem.
Alternative schools is another bad idea whose
time has come. What the alternative schools do is steal money
from the public system without doing anything really better. They
take the very best students which are easy to teach and then take
money away from the public system and the people it belongs to.
This is simple dishonesty, but typical of our governments pattern
of cowardly evasions.
Let's realize that we are talking about replacing
and supplanting a system which has worked for more than 100 years.
It has not always worked well, but it has served to give our children
basic education. Let's look at this, so called, educational problem.
I propose that we have a community problem, not an educational
problem. Governments; local, state, and national stand at the
focus as a major supporting cause of the problem. Perhaps stand
is the wrong word. Wallows may be more appropriate.
Politicians fuel the situation by using nonsensical,
inflammatory phases like ‘educational crisis.' Our rotund,
orotund Governor of Michigan is one of these opportunists. He
is quick to easy solutions, be it a gambling casino, a lottery,
or charter schools. All of these have the same, easy solution,
weakness. They ignore the basic problem and attack the symptom.
Easy solutions have become an epidemic in our culture. We find
these ill conceived plans being heralded and propagated by the
governments and the media all over the country.
Even, the TV personality show "60 Minutes"
is propagating this Edison School nonsense. November 14, 1999.
They are not looking at the numbers. Please notice that this private
corporation is spending a great deal more per student that the
school districts can afford to make those private schools look
viable. Thus, they create the illusion that their schools work.
Then they talk about economy of scale, as though there were some
kind of magic to make more cost less. It's a nonsense con. There
is no economy of scale that will make Edison schools cost less
than they do now.
They have insane investors who are putting
more and more money into this venture. These investors are the
same people who have been dumping billions into half baked internet
ventures. Somewhere, these investors are going to expect returns
on capital. It won't be there. Where will this return come from?
Where will the school districts get that kind of money? It's a
Ponzi scheme, worse than the Tucker automobile fraud.
This bubble will burst. When it does, it will
be the kids who get screwed. It will prove to be the greatest
consumer fraud since the Tucker and even more damaging. Just look
at the numbers. How can it possibly work? The numbers do not add
up. It's an easy solution for the mindless public officials to
grab onto. Nothing more.
If the government continues to steal money
from the public system to fund these half baked, private corporation
solutions, there will be little money left for the public system.
That will circumvent the constitutional rights of a great number
of children. When the public system finally dysfunctions completely,
for lack of funding, the con-artists will say, "See! We told
you so." Then we will see, because the blackmail will start.
The private schools will demand more and more moneys as fewer
and fewer of our children have any opportunity for education at
all. We could quickly have a third world situation where millions
of kids would get no education.
The public must pay for the public system.
The public should not have to pay for privately run schools no
matter what their promise or philosophy. When they use public
moneys, it's stealing. Charter schools just steal money from the
system. Private education should remain private and should be
paid for by the people who want it. Let's cut out the nonsense!
It's not about fairness. It's about an essential public service.
It's not about the right of choice or of education. Its about
the necessity of educating as many children as we can. It's about
the necessity of public education as a tool of ongoing democracy.
It's about long term public good.
Because we have established an educational
system, many people have it in their heads that nothing else should
be needed. The parents and the kids think the kids can just show
up at school and they will be taught. That's lazy middle class
thinking. They do not grasp the basic law of education. Namely,
that learning is the responsibility of the student. At best, the
educational system can create the supportive environment which
makes learning easier. That is all it can do. In the final analysis,
you cannot teach people. People must discover and learn.
Let's try to be honest. There are no easy
solutions. The hard solution is family involvement and community
involvement in our venerable public school system. Until this
happens, no solution will work. When it happens, no solution will
be necessary. The government cannot do it. People, at every level,
must do it. The government can help by not meddling. Education
belongs to the local community, not the state.
Take a look at these, so called, charter schools
and their methods. Their methods seem to work, so let's look.
What is the first thing they demand on enrollment? A formal, signed
commitment from the students and the parents is their usual demand.
Involvement of the family. If the promise is broken, the kid gets
kicked out. It's that simple for them. Send the problem kid back
to the public system. But, take a look at what happened when a
bunch of thugs got kicked out of public school. Who showed up?
The Most Reverend Jessie (political) Jackson showed up to rouse
a few rabble. And he did.
Do you just suppose that public education
would work with the kind of commitment that the charter schools
demand? You know darn well it would. So long as the political
hacks stay out of it, public education can work. It will work
when every citizen, parent, and student in the community gets
it through their thick, stupid, lazy head that public education
is their personal responsibility. When each person sees education
as being more important than Monday Night Football. When each
father sees it as more important than Tuesday night bowling. When
each mother sees it as more important than her Wednesday bridge,
bingo, or pinochle game. It will work when all of us want it to
work. It will never be perfect, but it will work for basic education.
So far as I can discern, the only difference
between public education now and when I was a kid is the sense
of responsibility by the parents and community at large. This
sense was instilled, not always gently, in each kid that went
to school. You, and you alone, are responsible for your behavior
and for learning. In short, the parents supported the schools
and the teachers. I can testify that it was not always fair, but
it worked.
In the final analysis, the community has the
responsibility to educate its children. That responsibility cannot
be sidestepped. It cannot be handed over to the state and forgotten.
It cannot be auctioned off to private corporations and forgotten.
It is a total, local community responsibility. It is not just
the responsibility of the parents who happen to have kids of school
age. It is the responsibility of every citizen of the community.
It starts in the home, but it belongs to the whole community.
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