Another "Progressive" argument I hear ad nauseum is "We must raise taxes! More money for education! It's for the children!" The problem with this argument is the dreaded "trickle down" theory that Democrats scoff at for national economics, but it seems to work just fine for any government entity or whenever unions are involved. Education has both with the Dept. of Education/Indoctrination and the teacher's unions. See, all the money is gathered at the top and then is filtered down through the many layers of bureaucracy until the pennies get to the local schools and students. So really, raising taxes for schools~not so smart. We spend more per student than any other developed country, and have increasingly abysmal returns.
Sadly, many US high school seniors can't read the chart above, but it clearly shows the out-of-control federal spending and the non-existent increases in performance. We're spending more and more for basically the same bad results. So what is the answer? Why are our schools failing our students? One reason is the dumbing down of the curriculum. And a reason why many home school and private school students outperform their peers. When the State isn't setting the curriculum to the lowest common denominator, then students can enjoy a full and challenging education.
I came across this at The American Thinker this morning. Very good read.
"I then made it my business, when finding an older teacher, to ask if education had been "dumbed down." To a person, I found that this question unleashed volatile diatribes on how dull children had become since the responders had begun as idealistic young men and women in the field. Algebra teachers informed me that every year they were forced to eliminate problem sets that previous years had mastered. English teachers who once taught Shakespeare and Dante were now reduced to leading seniors through Orwell's Animal Farm or postmodern novels featuring teens in existential moral dilemmas. Moreover, the analysis of themes in book reports had been deconstructed into not what the author was attempting to portray, but what personal emotions were elicited in the reader."
Read more:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/educations_great_divide_my_time_in_the_trenches.html#ixzz2EaNGKo12
The sad truth is when early pioneers used to send their children to the one little red schoolhouse in the area filled with children from every grade, they got a better education then than they do now with every possible learning aid, specialized teachers, gadgets and gizmos. so sad. so shamefull.
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