In the midst of the current nation-wide budget shortfalls, some have suggested that it might be time to cut funding to the Federal Department of Education. However, if I were in charge of the Federal Budget I would do no such thing because no such Department would ever exist If I were in charge. Never has any department in the Federal Government shown such a blunt failure and wast of good tax payer money. Pretty Strong statement considering we are talking about the Federal Government. Allow me to explain:
Every year, funding for the DOE has increased, while every year student performance has decreased. The US spends more than double the amount on education than Brazil and North Korea combined, yet our students trail both of these counties significantly on test scores. And for those naive people who tell us that its because our class sizes are too big to effectively teach our students, North Korea has well over twice our student to teacher ratio.
The truth is, many teachers in America today have become the moral equivalent of the 1980's "welfare queen", where their biggest accomplishment in a school year might be showing the class how to put condoms on cucumber's. Yet judging by the latest statistics on teen pregnancy even that instruction is failing to be demonstrated properly on the final exam.
The take home message here is not to bash teachers, how can we blame people who figgured out how to draw a paycheck without being required to demonstrate anything but a 50% success rate. "Summers off, don't mind if I do." We should blame ourselves for going along with the same old wrong-headed thinking that in order to excel in education the country needs to relentlessly pour money into the Department of Education and State governments and never ask the question: "Hey, is this money doing any good?" Until anyone can show me otherwise. I firmly believe that learning is inversely proportional to the amount of money spent.
For example, the State of Utah's funding of education is in the bottom 10% of the country while its students are in the top 10% in test scores, college entrance and graduate degrees. But before you get all fawning with praise for Utahans, the state is still filled with idiots who are appalled at the low level of funding for education. I guess they won't be happy until the state goes the way of California, highest education spending in the country, bottom quarter on test performance. Common people, as your signs say, "Utah Students Deserve More", or less as the statistics show.
But let me recognize the so-called unsung hero that is the American school teacher. As last year's recipient of the National Teacher of the Year Award said, "This is dedicated to all those unrecognized heroes out there that are teachers"... she said this, by the way, while receiving an award from the President of the United States standing on the White House Rose Garden.
So in the spirit of gratitude towards teachers let me make one thing clear about my own education: any academic success I have ever experienced, I owe absolutely nothing to any teacher that I have ever had. I owe everything however, to my Mom and Dad who taught me how to read, and the hours of studying done alone in my bedroom, (best education money can by).
But I would be totally amiss If I didn't recognize the unsolicited sex education that I received from public school teachers.
There are so many better solutions for fixing education than increasing funding on the backs of property tax payers. The solutions include an increase in responsibility on the part of parents, the states and teachers. However, the thugs that run the Teacher's Union will never allow any constructive solutions to be implemented for fear of recking the wonderful system of 50%incompetence they have perfected. And you thought a few million spent on undeserving bonuses was bad.
