Anyone who wants to see how useless Government spending is on education should take a long, hard, look at the Washington, DC, public school system. Even though Washington, DC, spends more per student on a per capita basis than almost any other school system in the country, Washington has one of the worst high school graduation rates and dropout rates in the nation. I guess asking the parents of these kids to be more responsible and make sure they go to school and graduate is too much to ask for, especially since we live in a “victim” society where everyone is to blame except the parents. After all, it’s a lot easier to abdicate parental responsibilities and dump them on to a public school system. But just throwing money at a problem doesn’t solve it, either. Well, maybe it does, because now the head of the Washington DC public school system has instituted a program of actually paying students to attend school. That’s right, if kids do what they’re supposed to do (which is go to school), they actually get paid by the Washington school system. If you want to read more about this program, click here: http://www.barbarafeldman.com/paying_kids_to_show_up_at_school.html
If the new Obama administration is going to spend $100 billion on education, why not just give every student a check for about $10,000? It will be cheaper than investing in an educational system that hasn’t really changed much in over 30 years (even though administration after administration, Republican and Democrat, keeps throwing billions of dollars at it, including the “No Child Left Behind” program which had massive bi-partisan support) and, by just giving money away at least the students and their families will be able to spend on things they really need, like a flat-screen TV. Talk about stimulating the economy! All these kids with $10,000 cash would have a field day at their local mall and that would do a lot more to stimulate the economy than trying to graduate kids that don’t want to be in school. Of course I’m joking, but evidently the head of the Washington DC school system isn’t.
What Americans have to understand is that not every kid is cut out for college or should even go to college. We are now a nation obsessed with sending every high school student to college, whether they want to go there or not. If you really want to make a difference, invest more in trade schools and at least offer kids the opportunity to work as apprentices in fields that desperately need new workers and pay good salaries, like plumbers, electricians, or carpenters. I don’t have to tell anyone living in a large urban area, like New York or San Francisco, how much a licensed plumber or electrician makes. If you give many kids a trade it may be more valuable than a college degree, which he or she may not want or need.
But sinking billions of dollars into failed school systems will only help the Teacher’s Unions and the various pork projects in the states that get this money. It will do nothing to help the economy. But one thing I do find curious. If Mr. Obama believes so much in the public school system and is so dedicated to reforming it, how come his kids go to PRIVATE school?
