A CALL TO ACTION!
Joe Dulin and Facts
It is very difficult to analyze ones own thought processes. That is because we all make assumptions which seem totally logical and therefore factual. I used to be a radical. That is a liberal on steroids. It has taken me a long time to realize how many emotional arguments I made. That is, not an objective analysis or a factual but one based upon emotional assumptions. In today’s Herald Mr. Dulin makes a number of simlar assumptions which he then treats as facts. First he doesn’t tell us the Republicans who made the statement that we should look at per student speeding differently, but spends a great deal of space ridiculing their logic. Now comes a whopper. Mr. Dulin states as fact that there is an “obvious correlation between education(sic) funding and income earned by the products of an inferior educational system.” Where are the facts for this argument? It should be easy to make such a correlation if it exists. Simply compare the amount of money spent per pupil to the average income per person. I have never seen any facts to support this argument. In fact, there have been a number of studies which indicate otherwise, including testing scores, which would be a stronger argument if it were true. What I submit is true is that our educational system is a complete failure. Americans spend a great deal more money on education than other countries yet get a much poorer return on their investment. John Stossel has written some very informative op-ed piece on this matter. Many Northern European countries spend far less than America yet constantly test higher on performance.
The Democratic Party has as one of its greatest supporters the NEA and other teacher unions. They make very considerable contributions to the coffers of Democratic Candidates every election cycle. Therefore they are very beholding to their union and try and protect traditional educational formats and teachers jobs.
Let’s look at Kansas City as an example. A Federal Judge assumed control of the laceName w:st="on">Kansas CitylaceName> laceType w:st="on">School districtlaceType> in an infamous ruling that the city was providing an inferior education. He ordered the district to spend billions more on education. The school bureaucrats renovated school buildings, adding enormous gyms, on Olympic swimming pool, a robotics lab, TV studios, a zoo, a planetarium and wildlife sanctuary. They also added intense instruction on foreign languages and the list goes on. Do you think this increased student performance? Of course not, it got worse, but Mr. Dulin seems to have missed this example. In a comparison of public schools vs. Catholic schools in three New York City boroughs. Parochial schools outperformed the city schools in every category and did it with have the money spent by the city!!! There are many more examples of this but you get the idea. Homeschoolers consistently test as well or better than any public educational students at a fraction of the cost. As long as people are stuck thinking in the usual boxes we will continue to make the same mistakes over and over.
Peace
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