Education

I write on a lot of sites. On some of them, people don’t see any problems with education. Amazingly. On other sites, at the other extreme, people have totally given up hope: the public schools are lousy and will always be that way. As for myself, I’m in the middle. I see lots of problems but I'm trying to find ways to fix
them. Now, all the experts agree that the November elections will lead to huge swings in Congress. I encourage people to start thinking now about the kinds of changes they would like to support. Here are my Big Eight education proposals (from a just-published article): 1) Encourage and strengthen charter schools, vouchers, homeschooling, and all types of private schools, because diversity and competition is a sure way to have improvement. 2) All teachers must major in the subjects they teach. Just as nurses have degrees in Nursing, biology teachers must have degrees in Biology. (At present many unprepared teachers are told to teach subjects they know little about. Ridiculous.) 3) Support fast-track alternative credentialing. If smart, educated people want to leave other fields to be teachers, all they really need is several months of classroom training. Grab these people and put them to work as soon as possible. 4) Make schools safe and secure. School boards and principals must be held responsible for eliminating violence from schools. (There is far more violence in public schools than most people realize; and it seems to be tacitly accepted. Zero-tolerance seems to be a cynical ploy to distract people from the real problem, which is children committing acts that adults would be jailed for. A pill in a purse is not the problem. Assault and battery is the problem. INTENTIONAL physical injury is the problem. 5) Teachers must not be required to join a union. The power of the NEA is a major problem for reform. This union uses enforced dues to elect political allies, almost always Democrats. (The NEA’s incessant political activity should be reined in, especially if dues are enforced, as many teachers are paying for politics they oppose. How can that be legal?) 6) Repeal, rescind, or scale back Race to the Top. This was always a stunt by the federal government to impose its will on local education. We want to go in exactly the opposite direction. There’s no mention in the Constitution of a federal role in education. The states should be encouraged to innovate and compete with each other, not submit to the absurd pretenders who have done all the damage so far. 7) Cut the Department of Education by half. And then do it again. This thing should never been created (it was a pay-back gift from the Democrats to the NEA). Similarly, cut in half the role of schools of education. These places take two years to impart two months worth of information. 8) Try to dismantle all the sophistries and gimmicks introduced by progressive educators in the last 100 years, for example, Sight-Words, New Math/Reform Math, Constructivism, Self-Esteem, Multiculturalism, Fuzziness of any kind, Group Learning, etc. Instead, there must be a renewed emphasis on foundational knowledge and basic skills, with mastery of both. At least, here is a list to shoot for. Suppose even half of these items became real. Any four. The power of the Education Establishment would be much reduced. We would see real improvement. But the first step is a much more engaged public. If you’d like to see the article that contains these proposals, see The Tea Party Education Manifesto. For conservative analysis of education theory and methods, see my site improve-Education.org.