The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 6 of 10)

br> -- Marc Jeric br> Las Vegas /p>

There appears to be only one way for school reform to take place, and that is for the national Republican Party to admit the fact that teachers and their unions are the enemy of effective education and behave accordingly.

The rationale for Federal action is that the schools clearly affect interstate commerce. Producing a generation of uneducated adults, wasting the human potential of 75% of the children of Detroit, is a crisis. These kids are going to grow up to be less productive, economically, and less able as citizens to participate intelligently in American politics, and the rest of the society is going to carry the attendant costs for the rest of their lives. The Republican party should seize the high ground on this issue by making clear the willingness of the Democratic Party to condemn a generation of children to reduced lives simply to support one special interest group. The teachers unions are already at war with the Republicans, and it's high time Republicans returned the favor.

Then, Republicans should simply break the monopoly of the public schools. I suggest something like the following: (1) make available to each child a voucher for 90% of the per capita spending amount in the school district of their residence, (2) define a core focus on the tools of functioning, reading, writing and arithmetic, allowing that focus to be evidenced by curriculum or by testing results such as that 12th graders should, on average, read at the twelfth grade level (although that is oversimplified) or that each grade should show progress towards the norm taking into account levels at the start of a year, (3) jump through any constitutionally required hoops about establishment of churches, require acceptance of all applicants not already attending the school on a first-come-first-served basis to enhance opportunity leveling, but allow schools to expel and flunk out nonperformers to provide tools to maintain discipline and focus, and (5) get out of the way. As to the question of what to do with the left-behind kids, note that the system automatically increases per-pupil spending in the public schools, and thus makes more resources available to them than to private school pupils, and the more who leave the higher that amount goes.

You would almost certainly see an immediate springing up of schools that emphasize quality, minimize bureaucracy and its attendant costs, and focus on useful subject areas (say, trade schools that teach the three Rs, or computer technology, arts, sciences, sports or whatever high schools that do the same). Even schools that want to teach absurdities like Jesus was black or Islamic schools would be better than what we have now, as long as they were compelled to provide the tools their students need to disagree with their teachers. Let Bill Ayers create a Communist school and Greenpeace create a string of Chicken Little schools, as long as it keeps him away from my kids and grandkids. Maybe somebody will even create an inner-city school that teaches basic business, accounting and entrepreneurial skills so that poor kids who now sell drugs can channel their energies into other businesses, are more readily hired by others or can move up an organization more quickly.

Now let's suppose the country did this and kids started learning things that improve their lives economically and otherwise. Wouldn't that help Republicans in either areas? If the Party can fix inner city schools and have already shown a better capacity to reduce crime rates, won't a lot of voters conclude they may be better able to govern those inner cities. Maybe this would even put the Black vote in play.

p>This is an emergency, and one particularly suited to solutions governed by conservative principles. And by doing so, or trying to do so, conservatives can show the electorate that Democrats care more about power and collectivist theory than they do about children and the poor. br> -- Tom Geer, LL.M br> Youngstown, Ohio /p> p> If anyone cares to compare public school enrollment with census figures, they will find out that more and more students are not enrolled in public schools. Some have dropped out, some are home schooled, and some are in private schools. In Denver less than half graduate from traditional high schools. Sooner or later people will notice.

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