-
Even the Europeans Rethink the Welfare State
April 21, 2013 | 4 comments
-
ObamaCare for Everyone Except Obama’s Appointees
March 8, 2013 | 3 comments
-
The Sensitive Saudis: They Want Democracy for Everyone Else
March 5, 2013 | 3 comments
-
Remember, There Is No Spending Problem!
February 26, 2013 | 1 comment
-
Another Useful Reminder that Communism was Loathsome
February 24, 2013 | 16 comments
The Spectacle Blog
The Washington Post usually operates as the company newsletter, with the federal government the company, of course. Today, however, the Post ran an article that indirectly makes a powerful argument for school choice and empowering families.
Darryl Robinson, an African-American freshman at Georgetown, writes about how his time in D.C. public schools, even relatively better charter schools, left him unprepared for college:
Entering my freshman year at Georgetown University, I should have felt as if I’d made it. The students I once put on a pedestal, kids who were fortunate enough to attend some of the nation’s top private and public schools, were now my classmates. Having come from D.C. public charter schools, I worked extremely hard to get here.
But after arriving on campus before the school year, with a full scholarship, I quickly felt unprepared and outmatched — and it’s taken an entire year of playing catch-up in the classroom to feel like I belong. I know that ultimately I’m responsible for my education, but I can’t help blaming the schools and teachers I had in my early years for my struggles today.
It’s an arresting article that explores the extraordinary frustrations of a kid who obviously is talented and determined to learn. Brought up by his grandmother, he was accused of cheating when he did well! He writes: “Failure was more believable than achievement.”
Children in broken families and broken communities will never have an easy time breaking out. But the monopoly government school system often seems determined to hold them back. We desperately need an educational process which better responds to families and students. We need a system with far more educational choices, especially for the most disadvantaged.
Thankfully, it looks like Darryl Robinson will make it, with extraordinary personal effort and grandmotherly support. But it shouldn’t be so hard for him and so many other kids like him.
View all comments (26) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Doug Bandow
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/04/15/the-washington-post-makes-the
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
RJ| 4.15.12 @ 12:35PM
America has spent much more on public schools over the last few decades, with too few results. Much of public school curriculum is indoctrination rather than education. If government can't run a school system without politicizing school work, we need to rebuild our education system with private schools and reduce government's role to providing vouchers to parents.
Jack in Wi.| 4.15.12 @ 1:34PM
The vast majority of our nations presidents have been home schooled or privately schooled at least in part. All kids should have the option to escape the moral, educational, and cultural sewer that most American public education has collapsed into. I lived in the most expensive school district in my state but was opposed to the lack of decent moral instruction in these schools and sent my kids to the parochial schools. Why should anyone have to pay for something that is against his moral conscience?
RJ| 4.16.12 @ 2:59AM
Yes, it is amazing how much better the old country school house was and today's private schools are than the current government schools. Hard to see why so many people reflexively support a failed system.
Best wishes to you and Governor Scott in the Recall election. I hear that Wisconsin has the best state GOP organization in the nation. I am hoping not only for Governor Scott's victory, but a new conservative senator and a vote against Obama in November.
Sean| 4.15.12 @ 1:40PM
Public education is a failure in this country. I have seen some schools rated exemplary in Texas and they don't even do as good of a job in teaching as the low cost parochial schools. Not only is the quality substandard, but they insist on doing this in a very expensive way with huge buildings and bloated staff.
Drek| 4.15.12 @ 3:22PM
The case for school choice was definitively made over a decade ago.
So why this somewhat concession that the issue is still moot?
It's not.
Anybody interested in advancing the education of America's youth has to be on board for vouchers and choice. If they're not, then they're toadies of the educational establishment and devotees of a disastrous status quo.
Ask Trayvon Martin if his high school education prepared him to do anything with his life, other than aspire to be a playa', gangsta' and punk?
But before we bash the left, --------- let's save some fire for men like GW Bush, who cravenly sought to ingratiate himself with Ed Kennedy by allowing him to dictate one of Bush's pieces of legislation, which then Bush pushed through Republican opposition, all in the interests of advancing "bipartisanship."
Bush was such a God awful screw up!
Drew| 4.16.12 @ 10:01AM
I knew it wouldn't take long to interject something unrelated and polarizing into this article.
C Bowen | 4.15.12 @ 5:54PM
School choice is sort of a con job, though. It suggests that the masses should keep paying for the apparatus, though school choice, will make accountability at the local level (property taxes) ever more difficult.
If my Great Grandfather could finish high school at 16 and be in law school by 18 not 110 years ago--the entire system has to be re-evaluated.
The truth is that mandatory education until 18 hides massive unemployment (and lets not get started on post-high school education.) Beyond school choice, other options need to be available, labor restrictions for the young need to be removed, and a more serious criticism of education (lets call it what it is, subsidized day care for two working parent homes, and the benefit to the government, a vast opportunity to make a compliant people) is required.
albert constantine jr.| 4.16.12 @ 12:14AM
School choice means more than one thing. In some jurisdictions, a student/parents get to choose amongst which public (or charter, as the article above suggests) school best meets their needs. In others, vouchers are available to partially or fully fund a student’s attendance at a private school.
Of course, a third option is where a parent or parents choose to shell out their own money for their children to be privately educated. Having to this point paid 33 years worth of tuition sending my children to school without dime one from my own property taxes has somewhat hardened me to the sacrifices one is required to make if one wants a better service then the government offers for “free”. Your suggestion for re-evaluation certainly has merit, and not just for education.
Regarding mandatory attendance until the age of 18, in most jurisdictions (including my own), compulsory attendance is required until the age of 16. The average inmate being released from our state prisons attended up until that point, and then dropped out, which with social promotions was usually tenth grade. Few then went to work (unless one considers daytime burglaries and street drug dealing the pursuit of a vocation).
So while your assertion may be correct that schools may serve a “day care” function, the absence of it does not necessarily diminish the need, but often shifts it to uniformed, somewhat less educated but better trained public servants. Governments may use schools to make a more compliant people, but they do that poorly, too. On the other hand, where families and communities fail to socialize youth, at least the schools serve a valuable warehousing function prior to the more expensive variety in juvenile and adult detention facilities.
C Bowen | 4.16.12 @ 6:35PM
"Governments may use schools to make a more compliant people, but they do that poorly, too."
Our "capitalist" and "liberty loving" people are served by a government that bailed out Wall Street with trillions upon trillions of dollars.
And the majority seem not to much care, so long as their government check arrives on time, or their healthcare is paid for.
I'd say that is a compliant people, a compliant people by design.
As to the example of the inmate--just keep in mind, $10K was spent each year on his education --surely a better allocation of severely limited resources can be constructed that better serves all parties--including the inmate to be and the community that will then have to house said inmate.
john | 4.19.12 @ 12:17AM
"Governments may use schools to make a more compliant people, but they do that poorly, too."
Our "capitalist" and "liberty loving" people are served by a government that bailed out Wall Street with trillions upon trillions of dollars.
And the majority seem not to much care, so long as their government check arrives on time, or their healthcare is paid for.
I'd say that is a compliant people, a compliant people by design.
As to the example of the inmate--just keep in mind, $10K was spent each year on his education --surely a better allocation of severely limited resources can be constructed that better serves all parties--including the inmate to be and the community that will then have to house said inmate.
Машина Розлива | 4.19.12 @ 12:18AM
I'd say that is a compliant people, a compliant people by design.
Conveyor Belts | 4.19.12 @ 12:18AM
And the majority seem not to much care, so long as their government check arrives on time, or their healthcare is paid for.
Tower Crane | 4.19.12 @ 12:18AM
Our "capitalist" and "liberty loving" people are served by a government that bailed out Wall Street with trillions upon trillions of dollars.
Electric Reach Truck | 4.19.12 @ 12:19AM
So while your assertion may be correct that schools may serve a “day care” function, the absence of it does not necessarily diminish the need, but often shifts it to uniformed, somewhat less educated but better trained public servants. Governments may use schools to make a more compliant people, but they do that poorly, too.
Passenger Elevator | 4.19.12 @ 12:19AM
Governments may use schools to make a more compliant people, but they do that poorly, too.
Drilling Tools | 4.19.12 @ 12:20AM
And the majority seem not to much care, so long as their government check arrives on time, or their healthcare is paid for.
Seamless Steel Pipe | 4.19.12 @ 12:20AM
surely a better allocation of severely limited resources can be constructed that better serves all parties--including the inmate to be and the community that will then have to house said inmate.