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"Yes, it's really sad we have such diverse standards and that the states are still allowed so much control over education. Prior to 1980 - which was when the illustrious Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Education into existence - our system of education was in total chaos. No one was learning anything. We were 35 out of 30 of the top nations in educating our young.
Except that everything I just said is utter crap. We began seriously losing ground in the late 50's, after we went into panic mode that the Soviets won the race to space and we started pushing math and science over history and literature. State after state signed on to changes in curriculum that supported this directive. The result was predictable: history and literature courses became moribund afterthoughts; your average modern high school history course is a waste of a teacher's salary and of a student's time.
The fact of the matter is prior to 1959, the American system of education was one of the best in the world. Nowadays, not so much. Does anyone think the solution to that problem is to grant even more control to a useless, national education bureaucracy?
Yet still we hear the cries: "more money, more money! We can fix it with more and more money." It is a waste of time to point out that Utah spends the lowest amount per pupil on education of all the 50 states - yet still ranks somewhere in the middle for student achievement. Conversely - and equally as futile to point out - Washington D.C. spends the most per pupil on education. Yet ranks last .. yes, dead last in student achievement. There is no greater bureaucratic boondoggle than the D.C. public schools. The Washington Post acknowledges this.
You can quite accurately predict "student achievement" based on racial/income demographics. Money doesn't have a damn thing to do with it. Yeah, I know, it's not politically correct to say stuff like that. I just don't give a rip about being politically correct. What I do care about is 2/3 of my property taxes go to pay for the education of children I don't have in the local, substandard public education system. But more money and government involvement will fix everything. Sure it will. Whoooot!
The approach Rall advocates - abolishing private schools and all other forms of free choice forcing everyone into an awful school - would be akin to acknowledging you can't save everyone, so might as well just sink all the lifeboats and let everyone drown.
Come to think of it, that's exactly what a government-engineered solution would look like."
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