Venitist Lindsey Burke points out that as parents rushed to fill their children's backpacks with back-to-school supplies, the White House quietly set the stage for a dramatic change dictating what will be taught in public schools. All but unnoticed this summer, the Obama administration busily advanced its plan to implement national education standards and tests. The administration's national standards agenda is an overreach made possible by a $100 billion "bonus" given the federal Department of Education in last year's stupidus stimulus.
Burke notes the infusion of taxpayer money effectively doubled the agency's budget, an exclamation point added to decades of increased funding. Combined federal, state and local education spending exceeds $10,000 a year per student - yet academic achievement has stagnated and graduation rates flat-lined.
Now, with tens of billions more at its disposal, the Obama administration seeks to impose "reforms" through the Department of Education without the consideration of the American people or the consent of Congress. The federal "educrats" already have developed national standards, but are pondering how to implement them and assess results. State education officials must overhaul or junk existing standards and tests developed at taxpayers' expense with input from local leaders.
The US Department of Education is deteriorating to the level of Minitrue of Greece! Basil Venitis muses the Greek Ministry of Education is George Orwell's Ministry of Truth or Minitrue in Newspeak. Minitrue never sought the permission of parents to educate children. Instead, Minitrue uses force to secure audience. As is only natural, the arrogance of Minitrue and its contempt for parents has grown with the years. So also has its power over the Greek society.
The purpose of education is to train young people how to use their minds, to use their capacity to think and reason. A proper education provides students with knowledge of the facts, and more importantly, knowledge of how to gain new facts in order to live and pursue values.
Public education, by definition, cannot meet the goals of a proper education. Because the state funds public schools, it not only provides the facilities housing the students but it determines the content taught in them. As such, children in such schools learn what the state determines they should learn, with all of the ideological biases that advocates of public schooling endorse. Under state-subsidized schooling, students don't necessarily learn facts, and how to acquire new knowledge; they learn state-sanctioned facts, and state-sanctioned methods of acquiring knowledge.
Public schools are controlled by the government and subject to all the ills of government bureaucracy and power. Private and home schools are run, in varying ways, by parents. Private schools are dependent upon the satisfaction of parents in order to remain in business. They do not control the children in their care. Instead, families retain their authority and hire the schools for certain aspects of raising their children.
Basil Venitis favors ending government involvement in education. Any influence by the state over education corrupts its goals, and therefore the ability of its graduates to think and reason. Only a full separation of education and state allows for parents to choose how best to equip their children to function in the world. Anything less is a violation of the parents', and child's, rights.
National standards and testing cannot overcome the deficiencies of schooling, which are rooted in the public education system's power and incentive structure. National standards would strengthen government power over education while weakening schools' direct accountability to parents and taxpayers. Centralized standard-setting will likely result in the standardization of mediocrity rather than establishing standards of excellence. While proponents of national standards point to the variation in local standards, the rigor and content of national standards will face pressure to scale down toward the lowest common denominator, undercutting high quality standards.
Venitis points out Fourth Reich is standardizing mediocrity. Some argue that Fourthreichian standards are necessary because state standards vary in quality. But the same pressures that detract from the quality of many state standards are likely to plague Fourthreichian standards and would be entrenched in a less-responsive and less-accountable Fourthreichian bureaucracy. As a result, the rigor and content of Fourthreichian standards would tend toward the average among states, undercutting states with higher quality standards like Germany and UK.
Curricula is typically designed around standards and tests. With the Eldorado of Corruption now backing Fourthreichian standards and tests through Fourthreichian funding, Brussels is becoming increasingly involved in what ultimately determines curriculum. As a result, Fourthreichian standards would increase conformity in education, which would fail to meet the diverse learning needs of children.
Some argue that standards are necessary so that parents can understand how their children compare to other students across Fourth Reich. But the meaningful information that parents need is already available. What has been missing in some cases are clear reporting of data to parents and the ability of parents to act on it. Information is useful to parents only when they can act on it. Empowering Fourthreichian parents to hold schools accountable through school choice is a crucial element in improving educational outcomes.
Venitis asserts that a real public school is not defined by who owns it, but by universal access and accountability to the public for results. It matters little whether public schools are run by a school board, a group of parents, a teachers union, a company, or a church. Once public money flows to private schools, they are no longer really private. The government's hooks will be firmly set to brainwash and dumb down the kids, in the name of public accountability. Vouchers open the door to government control of private schools. Private schools are already regulated by every State, but they are not as regulated as public achools. If the voucher plan is ever embraced in a big way, we can expect elaborate criteria for determining which schools may accept vouchers.
Public schools dumb down the curriculum, in teaching pseudoesteem over knowledge, in challenging Graecoroman notions of truth and virtue, and in convincing children that their parents are not to be trusted. It is an insidious bargain that encourages young people to stop thinking for themselves in exchange for living in a statist world in which they will never be held accountable and will never be expected to care for themselves.
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