Educated Idiots

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In yet another Op-Ed piece by Paul Krugman entitled The Uneducated American, we are told that the problem with today's education system is that we need to throw more money at it. Because, after all, that's how you fix any problem. More money, bigger government.

As with most of Krugman's articles, he leads with a strong, truthful first paragraph that you can agree with. Then flies off to Pluto with the traveling space circus complete with Mexican Mariachi band in tow.

If you had to explain America’s economic success with one word, that word would be “education.” In the 19th century, America led the way in universal basic education. Then, as other nations followed suit, the “high school revolution” of the early 20th century took us to a whole new level. And in the years after World War II, America established a commanding position in higher education.

There are many problems with the education system in America, but they are hardly going to be solved by throwing more tax dollars at them. Let's start with the Teacher's Union. Public Education is a state run institution. Tax dollars fund it. Explain to me why a union is allowed to exist in a government-run public institution? Thanks to this gigantic blunder, a safe haven has been created for sociopathic imbeciles, who shouldn't even be trusted as Walmart security guards, to be in control of our children's futures.

There’s no mystery about what’s going on: education is mainly the responsibility of state and local governments, which are in dire fiscal straits. Adequate federal aid could have made a big difference. But while some aid has been provided, it has made up only a fraction of the shortfall. In part, that’s because back in February centrist senators insisted on stripping much of that aid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the stimulus bill.

Then there's the education itself. We don't teach facts and knowledge in the classroom anymore. Instead, we teach opinion, political correctness, and social misanthropy. We also don't teach reality in the classroom. There are many ideological mantras we have over-zealously spread throughout the years in this country, which have really come home to roost. The biggest being: You can grow up to be anything you want.

I realize that you watched Perry Mason reruns when you were a child, and you really want to be a Lawyer. However, there are thousands of lawyers who come out of law school every year with no hope of finding a job. Why aren't we counseling and promoting people to educate themselves in a field that needs people? Especially if we're going to be giving them government grants and scholarships to fund their education.

Let go of the cat, Paul. What happens on Pluto, stays on Pluto...

When everything's said and done, you can't force people to do the smart or useful thing, but if they want to do something else, we don't have to fund it with government funds. They can pay for it on their own.

Another deep rooted issue, is there's a major gap between high school education and college education. By the time most kids graduate high school, they're not even close to prepared for college. Most of them end up having to take 100 level prep courses to raise themselves up to where they need to be, which causes a greatly added expense to their already expensive education.

So what should be done?

First of all, Congress needs to undo the sins of February, and approve another big round of aid to state governments. We don’t have to call it a stimulus, but it would be a very effective way to create or save thousands of jobs. And it would, at the same time, be an investment in our future.

Beyond that, we need to wake up and realize that one of the keys to our nation’s historic success is now a wasting asset. Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process.

So what should be done?

First of all, we need to completely reform the education system. Throwing money at it isn't going to help one bit. You might as well put a band-aid on a gangrenous, sucking chest-wound. From the curriculum up, it all has to be reformed and reinvented. We need a strong education system which teaches our children everything they need to prepare them for the World, and more important, for college. We need an education system which takes into consideration that these children will be moving on to college, and make their education fluid from kindergarten to PhD.

Beyond that, we need to wake up and realize that the key to our nation's success was quality over quantity. It was our drive and ambition which led to pushing our boundaries and creating the epic quantity and excess we've enjoyed. The minute we started sacrificing quality, the whole thing has been falling down like a house of cards.