NOT AS GOOD AS YOU THINK

Public Schools – Problems/Solutions

The Good Old Days (Were they?)

I had some great teachers in public school, though there were some problems.  My parents were very involved, so when I struggled (especially with a poor math teacher in junior high), they ensured I got some help.  But when we moved to Berkeley, CA, the schools weren’t as good. In fact, my parents wanted to move my sister to private school and after testing, they demanded she spend the summer doing a lot of makeup work.  (We’re talking the ‘60’s here.)

Private schools were generally too expensive for most, but Catholic schools offered a rigorous and affordable education.  But for too many, the options weren’t as good.  Oversight on schools rarely happened.  In junior high in the late ‘60’s, my honors English teacher began an indoctrination process introducing Communism while stroking our egos.  My mother heard me talking about what I learned and insisted I begin reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. 

Covid Reveals All

Teachers have gotten away with minimal oversight, even keeping jobs when they have behaved badly or provided no learning.  In New York, they call the places the teachers sit “rubber rooms.”  They are fully paid and vested with retirement while doing nothing.  But the many who are simply poor at their job or are using the opportunity to teach your children morality, politics or critical race theory, slide by undetected.  Colleges realized that kids weren’t being educated and started introducing remedial education to cover the shortfall in high school.

The teachers’ unions were getting away with it:  until now:  until we went to online learning.  Now, the parents could see the material and hear what the teachers promoted.  Even schools rated highly, revealed the political bias in every class, even that racist favorite, math.  Under cloak of different names, critical race theory indoctrinated children at all levels, destroying the amiable relations between classmates.  Sex ed, with an emphasis on minority “choices” rules the day.

At the same time, schools are trying to eliminate the SAT, the ACT and any sense of a high school completion test/assessment.  I think they know that fewer kids will pass these exams, owing to the poor quality of their basic education.  Reading, writing and arithmetic fall short to the political indoctrination the teachers hope to impose.  Besides, keeping a struggling child back a year and giving them more time and help to learn the material is racist, right?

Solutions

As always, wealthier parents have better options, such as charter and private schools and even home schooling.  But if you’re a single mother supporting your kids, home school is out and you probably can’t afford private school.  In California, charter schools (being a type of public school) are still free, but the powerful teachers’ union seeks to eliminate that competition.  And yet, competition and vouchers, giving the money to the families to use, is the only way to ensure each child has the education they need.

Not every child should be in college.  Judging from what I’ve seen in the IT world, college just delays success as so many of the kids are already far better at coding than I was at my best.  Many would excel in the trades where they could aspire to owning a business, a very cool option.  But every child deserves a full grounding in the basics, because only then, do they have a choice in how and where to work. 

But parents have gotten incredibly brave and are now taking on the school boards, running for office in an attempt to take back control of the schools.  This is a needed first step, but we need more, to support them and the lives/futures of all our children.

We need Larry Elder.  Elder promises to treat education as a priority, an emergency.  And it is.  Too many children have lost a year or more of education, as well as the socialization that helps them achieve a successful adulthood.  As vote in any election, consider what that candidate offers in terms of solving the education challenge.  And look at who sponsors/pays for initiatives. If it’s the teachers’ union, vote against it.  We can do better for our kids…and we need to.  Their future is our future too.