by Paolo von Schirach –
WASHINGTON – For many years we have been debating the sorry state of US public education: too many drop outs, large percentages of high school graduates who cannot read or count, and how education could and should be improved. Alas, there has been and there is much talk –and very little remedial action.
No accountability
Nationwide, the public schools sector seems to belong to a different universe, a universe in which professionalism, the pursuit of academic excellence, merit-based pay and promotions for teachers, accountability, and cost-effectiveness are unknown concepts.
Awful record in Colorado
Below, you can look at yet another illustration of this catastrophic failure that essentially condemns students educated in bad schools to a life of under achievement. (Letters to the Editor, The Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2019)
In Colorado, not a poor under resourced state, most high school students perform well below grade. Many of them cannot pass a simple test that would allow them to join the Army. This is simply outrageous. But you do not hear any public outcry.
The children of the elites are taken care of
Here is my theory about this general indifference on the part of all American elites regarding this colossal societal failure when it comes to educating so many of our kids –and these are mostly poor kids.
The truth is that the children of key policy-makers, at all levels, in most cases do have access to quality education. As they normally live in good areas, they can enroll in higher quality public schools. If these are not available, they can always go to charter schools or private schools. In other words, their parents are reassured that their kids will get a good or even superior high school education, itself the ticket to a good university and eventually a rewarding, well remunerated career. The children of the American elites are taken care of.
And what about all the others? The others, oh well the others will go to the regular (bad to failing) public schools. They will graduate (those who do) with minimal skills and knowledge, while they will often be functionally illiterate, as the Letter to the Editor reproduced below illustrates.
From: Letters to the Editor, The Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2019
“Regarding Baker A. Miller’s “The Smear Campaign Against Charters” (op-ed, Aug. 14): Last week our state test results were released here in Colorado: Only 45.8% of our students read at grade level, and only 34.7% can do math at grade level.” [Bold added]
“These results have changed little over the last 20 years. This is noteworthy because our current governor, Jared Polis, worked to pass an amendment to the state constitution in 2000 that required education spending to increase at the rate of inflation plus 1% every year. This should put to rest the notion that more money is the answer. No doubt we will hear the usual calls for increased funding of public education, but even if we gave the system a billion dollars tomorrow, it wouldn’t know what to do with the money.”
“I own a remedial-education business and have lost count of the number of students I’ve taught who hold high-school diplomas from the Denver and Aurora Public Schools systems but are functionally illiterate and innumerate. Many want to join the military but can’t pass the entrance exam (the ASVAB). It’s official—the academic standards required to join the Army are higher than those needed to earn a Colorado high-school diploma.”
“Isn’t it high time we moved this incompetence from the realm of the merely scandalous to the specifically criminal? What’s to stop U.S. attorneys around the country from filing RICO [The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] charges against school boards, superintendents and union officials? If there’s a bigger racket than public education in the U.S., I’m unaware of it.”
(Signed) Nate Braden, Denver www.wsj.com
Criminal conspiracy?
The author of this sad letter suggests that all the players involved in this public education drama are in fact members of a criminal conspiracy. Of course, this should not be taken literally. However, the enduring gap between education standards and disastrous outcomes at the very least indicates irresponsibility and neglect.
America is now a two tier society
And this neglect has and will have horrible consequences for our country. Because of this public education disaster, America’s leaders, wittingly or unwittingly, are creating a two tier society. The top tier belongs to the well educated and affluent who have the means and the opportunity to educate their children, so that they will earn good degrees leading to great careers and well rewarded employment.
The bottom tier is for everybody else. The children of the poor and lower middle classes cannot afford private education. Higher quality charter schools may not be available in their areas. And so they are stuck with bad or failing schools where they will learn little or nothing.
Birth is destiny
And we should all be clear as to the implications of all this. In this super charged, hyper competitive knowledge economy, there is no chance to land a good job without a good or superior education.
Sadly, all this means that in America now “birth is destiny” –just like in many poor countries, with rigid barriers that prevent upper mobility. Indeed, in today’s America –the exceptional country once upon a time known as The Land of Opportunity— if you were born poor and live in a bad area, your chances of getting a good education –the essential tool to move up in life– are practically zero.
This being the case, you will spend your life in the bottom tier. Hard work alone will not allow you to climb the socio-economic ladder. Now, and even more so in the future, in order to make it, young people need increasingly sophisticated knowledge. If they do not acquire it while in school, the chances of getting it later on through other means are slim.