In June 2017, I shared an image and made the bold claim that it told us everything we needed to know about government.
In July 2017, I shared a story and similarly asserted that it told us everything we needed to know about government.
In that grand tradition of rhetorical exaggeration, here’s a court case that tells us everything we need to know about government.
…a lawsuit arguing that Detroit students were being denied an education had been dismissed. …With the help of a public interest law firm, a handful of Detroit students charged in federal court that educational officials in Michigan — including Gov. Rick Snyder — denied them access to an education of any quality.
…Student cannot be expected to learn when they are simply “warehoused for seven hours a day” in “an unsafe, degrading, and chaotic environment” that is a school “in name only.” …almost 99 percent of the students are unable to achieve proficiency in state-mandated subjects. Last year, the state moved for dismissal, arguing that the 14th Amendment contains no reference to literacy. …U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III agreed with the state. Literacy is important, the judge noted. But students enjoy no right to access to being taught literacy. All the state has to do is make sure schools run. If they are unable to educate their students, that’s a shame, but court rulings have not established that “access to literacy” is “a fundamental right.”
I’m not a lawyer, so maybe the judge made the right decision. Indeed, I suspect it probably was the right outcome since a decision in favor of the suit may have resulted in some sort of judicial mandate to squander more money on failed government schools. And we have lots of evidence that additional funding would mean throwing good money after bad.
But I still feel great sympathy for the students and their parents. They are stuck with rotten schools that cost a lot of money.
They have been betrayed by government incompetence. Both Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams have explained how the system is rigged to benefit teacher unions rather than kids.
And even though most of the victimized children are minorities, the NAACP sides with the unions. Shame. The failed government school monopoly serves the interests of insiders, not students.
The only solution is school choice, as explained in this video.
P.S. Needless to say, the federal government shouldn’t play a role. Bush’s no-bureaucrat-left-behind plan didn’t work, and neither did Obama’s Common Core boondoggle. The best thing that could happen in Washington would be the abolition of the Department of Education.
P.P.S. There’s a lot we could learn about school choice and private schooling from Sweden, Chile, India, Canada, and the Netherlands.
[…] Education Association is so important that it’s okay to trap kids from poor families in failing schools. And that, to me, makes him a political hack rather than an honest […]
[…] so often, I’ll see a story (or sometimes even just a photo, a court decision, or a phrase) that sums up the essence of government – a unseemly combination of venality and […]
social justice and math funded by the federal government…
This piece articlulates precisely why would homeschool my kids today if they were of school age!
it’s interesting to contrast a very simple educational system to modern factory schools… particularly those run by the socialist democrats… the kids that come out of these simple schools are prepared to live in their societies… many of them will be successful business people and farm owners… and yes… they can read… write… and do math… no matter that goats keep the playground tidy in the summer…
“A Look At Amish Education”
from: “exploring-amish-country.com”
http://www.exploring-amish-country.com/amish-education.html
Why Does It Cost So Much to Educate a Child in America?
BY PAULA BOLYARD AUGUST 10, 2018
https://pjmedia.com/parenting/why-does-it-cost-so-much-to-educate-a-child-in-america/
Baltimore: ” A Project Baltimore investigation has found five Baltimore City high schools and one middle school do not have a single student proficient in the state tested subjects of math and English.” and they spend around 16k pr student… it’s unbelievable… and there is little wonder that young people are ill prepared to make their way in life… and this goes on year after year… generation after generation…when young people are functionally illiterate… there is no way in hell they can make their way out of poverty and off the welfare rolls… you have to wonder why… someone has to benefit… politicians? bureaucrats? special interest groups? lobbyists? the kids certainly don’t….
https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/6-baltimore-schools-no-students-proficient-in-state-tests
“No Bureaucrat Left Behind.”
Lol.
I went to a fabulous public high school, it is rated in the top 20 in the united states. When it was time to send my children to school I began attending the local school board meetings. I was looking for the same academic and community spirit like the school I had attended. By the end of the fourth school board meeting, ( only 8 weeks) my wife and I choose to send our children to a private school. Three children graduated college on full-ride academic scholarships – one to go. I wish all parents had a choice, not just a choice based on family economics. Vouchers are a good start.
The substitution of healthcare for the subject of education in this piece gives us all a fabulous idea of where we’re heading.