Ever notice that we pay more and more for public education and always get less and less for it? I thought our “vaunted” Department of Education was going to set national standards that would make our “graduates” more competitive in the 21st Century? We spend literally billions of dollars each year on the Department of Education, a Department that was created under the Jimmy Carter administration (why am I NOT surprised about that). Yet we always hear about declining SAT scores, poor teacher performance, and high school graduates who STILL can’t read or write.
And did you ever notice that the answer to these problems from the liberal left is ALWAYS to spend more money? Of course, we need to spend more money on bad teachers in a system that promotes failure. What’s not to love? Just like the national economy, where we have already spent over trillion dollars on an economic policy which hasn’t produced any jobs, the answer “clearly” is to SPEND MORE MONEY! Are these people insane?
And did you also notice that private Catholic schools get much better results while spending a lot LESS money per child? Why do you think that is? Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that they don’t have to deal with Teacher’s Unions and can set their own standards for success (which are a lot higher than the ones for public schools)?
This is just another example of a big, bloated, Federal bureaucracy failing as it always does to do what it’s supposed to do, which is to graduate students who can actually read and write (go figure). And the answer for almost every politician is to keep feeding money into this failed system in order to placate the Teacher’s Union. They are knowingly subsidizing a system that always fails and yet they keep doing it year after year. To me, that’s almost borderline treason, making this country go bankrupt even though they know what they’re doing doesn’t work.
Keep an eye on Chris Christie here in my state of New Jersey. He is the first politician (God bless him) to take on the Teacher’s Union in this state. He is constantly asking a simple question: In many poor cities in New Jersey (like Newark) we spend almost $29,000 per year per student, probably the highest amount in the country, and most of those graduates still can’t read or write (if they graduate at all). Forget for a moment that we can’t afford this anymore but, if this system is that broken, why keep paying for it? Sounds reasonable, right? Yet the Teacher’s Union has all but crucified this man here in this state, calling him Hitler and actually wishing for his death. Now you know why I HATE the Teacher’s Union so much.
We need a lot, and I mean A LOT, more politicians like Chris Christie who is actually demanding results for all of the money we spend. Christie is also demanding that the Teacher’s Union start taking some cuts in the outragious pension and health benefits teachers get in New Jersey, benefits that are literally bankrupting the state. All Americans should be demanding this. I sincerely hope that all of the conservatives that are elected this November feel the same way.
