Can We Compete?
- on 07.30.07
- Fund The Child, Funding Reform, General
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In an NEA cover story for July entitled “Can We Compete?â€, there are several comments I would like to discuss. The article is 6 pages long and rambles on, mostly about how testing is bad. [Emphasis mine]
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The fear of competition is nothing new. In March 1958, a year after Russia launched Sputnik, the cover of Life magazine proclaimed a “Crisis in Education,†which concluded that the Soviets beat America into space because their students were more serious and more advanced in science and math. It happened again in the 1980s when Japanese cars and electronics flooded the American marketplace. In 1983, a government commission on excellence in education issued A Nation at Risk, warning of a “rising tide of mediocrity†among American students. Many of those students went on to lead the dot-com revolution of the 1990s. |
This paragraph has to be one of the most ironic I have seen in a while from the education establishment. In it they are arguing that American students can compete effectively today just as they always have. They claim this is just fear of competition and we should not be afraid of that. The question that immediately pops into my mind at this point is why are teachers unions and our government schools so afraid of competition? If competition is nothing to be feared, why do they fear it and try to stop it at every turn. They fight to stop charter schools; school choice; and homeschooling. They instead try to impose younger starting ages and mandates to prevent competition.
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At Freedom High School, math chair Deborah Strickler is all too aware of the comparisons being made between American math students and those around the world, but she doesn’t think that test scores can accurately measure the aptitude of all students. “There are many excellent math students who experience test freeze when you put a pencil and paper in front of them,†she says. “But give them a hands-on assignment and they can always puzzle it out.†|
Maybe this is why our education establishment is so afraid of competition. They don’t teach the basics anymore. They only teach students how to puzzle guess until they find the correct answer.
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Strickler also believes test scores don’t reflect talent because American students are forced into a one-size-fits-all mold with lower-level math requirements. “Here, every single child must take algebra, but in Asia only those going to math and science academies take it,†she says. “As a result, we can’t cover as much as quickly because the curriculum is watered down. We’re not supposed to track students, but it seems we’ve forgotten that students’ minds develop differently.†|
Ms. Strickler understands the problem. Our system of a government monopoly over education is the reason our children are not being taught properly. I wonder if Ms. Strickler understands that empowering parents to select the school their child attends would end this one-size-fits all government school system. It would force all schools to innovate and meet the needs of its students. Many schools would naturally specialize in teaching certain types of learners. This would allow all students to learn better fulfilling the idea of no child to be left behind without the actual need for the actual law itself.
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Correspondents from the Financial Times back up Strickler’s assertions. After observing successful secondary schools around the world, they determined that the best schools were locally controlled and emphasized individualized learning, where teaching is tailored to students’ needs. |
Currently, local control is only a myth. Schools are for the most part locally funded, but they are controlled by the education bureaucracy, state legislatures and federal regulations. Parents have less local control over education than have over the purchase their automobile. They can pick the model, color, and style of car. They can even choose the dealership to purchase from. But with the current government school system they are assigned a school based on their street address. They are even assigned the classroom and the teacher. Imagine being told, you can only purchase your car from the dealership in your neighborhood. If you decide to purchase it elsewhere because you don’t like the selection, you still have to pay the local dealership as well as the other dealer.
The system is broken and must be changed. It is time to stop playing around the edges of reform and actually reform the system. The government run monopoly must be ended. We need to introduce true competition and true local control by funding each and every child equally. This puts the parents back in charge of education since they now wield the funding power over the school they feel is best for their child.
