Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

456 are being called upon to participate in the political process through communitarian group management procedures (site-based school management, task forces, blue-ribbon commissions, town meetings, group consensus, call-in talk shows, polling, etc.) and public policy is being made using the “uninformed” opinions of those who have, through no fault of their own, been dumbed down by being either mis-educated or not educated at all in the traditional sense. Many cannot even read a newspaper and depend on TV for their knowledge and understanding of current events. Part of the solution to this problem could be to return all decision making to duly-elected officials. That, of course, would not assure that those who are elected would be any better qualified to make decisions than those presently calling the shots in Delphi circles and the numerous unelected decision-making venues at work in our country. However, accountability would be restored, and citizens could once more, as free individuals—and, I repeat, individuals —vote these people out of office and elect persons who are educated in the traditional disciplines of history and government (the U.S. Constitution ), economics and basic academics. Eventually, if the public education system can be restored to its former excellence, our nation would be able to get back on track. Seldom, if ever, does one hear the following fairly simple solution suggested when the question is posed regarding how to restore our public education system to its traditional (pre-1930’s) state of excellence: Elected officials at the local level have the authority to re-establish public education according to the wishes of the taxpayers in each local community. Teachers with degrees in specific subject matter could be hired without requiring that they have state or national certification which subjects them to seemingly ruinous training courses which do not deal with academic material. However, the funding of the schools must remain local if citizens wish to re-create truly academic institutions. There can be no tuition tax credits, vouchers, charter schools, or laundered state tax monies (monies co-mingled with federal money) if citizens wish to be 100% in charge of the education philosophy; i.e., curriculum, hiring of teachers, teaching methods, etc. Americans forget too easily the old saying, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” For those who find such a solution unworkable due to the discrepancies in local community tax bases, I say refer to the beginning of this book regarding the ability to educate on a shoestring. Education costs little: brainwashing and social services are very, very expensive. Granted, the above “solution” may sound simplistic, and in this day and age would not be easy to implement in urban areas, where many of the needs are the greatest. However, when one surveys the urban education landscape as presently constituted, there are few bright spots. Billions of dollars in tax money, which should have gone into true academics, have been siphoned off into the operation of huge and unnecessary bureaucracies. As one has seen after reading this book, community services and changing students’ values have been judged more essential than teaching a child to read, to understand his historical setting, the essentials of science, and how to calculate. Basic academics, in most inner city schools under the umbrella of Effective Schools Research, have been taught using Skinnerian mastery learning programs which have resulted in producing low test scores. Discipline has broken down to such an extent that the prescription of the drug Ritalin is commonplace, retired military officers are running urban schools, uniforms are mandated in many public schools, and the police are being called upon to keep order in the former halls of academe.