Above the Law

This week, I am going to give some possible solutions for problems in the education system and some examples of how they have already worked.

With regard to the Department Of Education (DOE) issue, the solution is simple: get rid of government control over our school systems.

People are relying on the DOE to to fix the problems with the public school systems, but they are failing miserably. All the DOE has done is to try and throw more money at the problem, but that is not fixing it.

According to the 2008 Nation's Report Card assessment, "The average scores [of high school exit tests] for 17-year-olds are not significantly different from 1973 to 2004."

Incidentally, the school systems are receiving four times more money today than they were in the 1960's. The policies of the DOE have not changed much over the years, and Americans have simply gotten used to the idea of the government controlling these things, so they accept it.

Once the DOE has relinquished control of the school systems, then what?

Student vouchers.

This is a system where each child is assigned a dollar amount and the schools get paid based on how many children attend. So what happens to the schools not performing up to par and get parents to put their children in their schools? They fail.

First, it would make all schools more like private schools in that they are held accountable for their actions and would become competitive with each other.

This should cause the second effect: the schools performing badly step up their game on educating and controlling their student population.

Thirdly, it would get rid of the problem of "progressive education," which I explained in my previous article. If teachers were allowed to teach the way they need to, without having to coddle the students, I firmly believe the issue of learning and performance would fall back on the student. This could do nothing but strengthen our educational system.

In Washington D.C, the infamous Ward Eight district accounts for 30 percent of the homicide rate and has the lowest average income of about $14,000 a year. They had the lowest graduation rate in D.C., and then they switched to the voucher system.

Thurgood Marshall Academy (est. 2002), a school in Ward Eight, had a 95% attendance rate, the third-highest test scores in D.C., and for the first four years, every graduating student went to college after the switch.

The last issue I need to address is about the teachers' unions and the protection of the teachers with tenure, even when they need to be fired.

This simply has to stop.

Exceptional teachers should be monetarily rewarded, and the ones who do not should be penalized or fired. The unions are good in many cases, but when they protect teachers who keep drugs in their school desks or the teachers who lie or cheat in order to make themselves look good, it is doing nothing but hurting the children.

Ultimately, it is all of our faults things are turning out this way. We are unwilling to step up to the plate and take control of the situations, because we want someone else to do it for us. We are going to destroy our country this way, I promise you.