Naturalized-Texan
07-08-2003, 07:17 PM
The Declining Quality of Education and What to Do about It
By Naturalized-Texan
Historical Background
Back in the 1950s, I was a high school math and science teacher and I voluntarily joined the National Education Association (NEA) and the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) (joining was voluntary then). In those days the NEA and PSEA were professional organizations dedicated to maintaining teaching as a profession and improving the quality of instruction. Our meetings consisted of seminars on ways to improve our teaching techniques, displays of new and advanced textbooks, and the exchange of ideas on improving the quality of our instruction. Teachers were highly respected by students, parents, and the community.
We teachers demanded high academic standards from our students. Students and parents both knew that if the student failed to meet those standards, he or she would receive a failing grade and would have to repeat the course or repeat the grade in order to graduate. Contrast that with today’s schools where every student passes even though many don’t even know how to read.
What happened?
We have had a precipitous decline in the quality of education in the last 40+ years. There are three major reasons for that decline, each as devastating as the next. In chronological order, here are those reasons:
1) Elimination of Phonics - The 1930s and 1940s saw the beginning of the elimination of the use of phonics in the teaching of reading. During WW II, less than 1% of recruits were unable to read at the 4th grade level, but during the Korean War, 17% of the draftees were illiterate, according to the Armed Forces Qualification Tests (AFQT). U.S. literacy figures for adults over 25 were 98% in 1950. (1)
A 1993 National Adult Literacy Survey found that “over 96 per cent (174 million) can’t read, write, and figure well enough to go to college; two-thirds (120 million) do not have the ‘literary proficiency’ to go to high school; and nearly a fourth (40 to 44 million) can’t read.” (2)
Why the decline in literacy? The WW II draftees were taught reading using the phonics method while most of the Korean War draftees were taught reading using the “look-say” or “whole word” method. A personal example: When our youngest son was in second grade, he was barely reading at the first grade level. Over the Christmas break, we used a phonics kit to teach him how to read and when he returned to school, he was reading as well as any others in his class. Now, at age 41, he is a voracious reader.
2) Federal Control Education - In the 1950s the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was formed. This was the beginning of government interference into the local control of education. The federal government substituted federal bureaucratic control of education policies and spending for the proven American tradition of local control of education. In other words, parents lost their control the quality of education.
3) The NEA Became a Labor Union - In the 1960s the NEA was transformed from a professional organization into nothing more than another labor union involved in left-wing politics and opposing any education reform that would improve the quality of education. We are now spending far more per student than at any time in our history (adjusted for inflation), yet the quality of education continues to decline. All the NEA can think of to solve the problem is to throw more money at it. Lack of money is not the problem.
It is a sad commentary on the state of the NEA that the only action that was reported from their 1994 convention was the vote to boycott orange juice because the Florida orange growers were sponsoring the Rush Limbaugh Program. If the NEA would spend as much time on making real improvements in education as it does on politics, we would have the best educated students in the world.
Why did it happen?
The goal of the liberals’ education program was to place control of all education in this country into the hands of liberal educrats - the teachers’ unions, the federal education bureaucracy, and school administrators. Liberals claimed that the liberal elitist educrats knew more about educating children than the parents of those children or the locally elected school board.
When the liberal takeover of the schools occurred, we had the best education system in the world. Now, after 40+ years of liberal control of education, the quality of education has declined so far that the majority of our graduates can’t compete with graduates from other countries. Even worse, millions of jobs are going unfilled and remedial courses must be taught in most colleges and universities because our high school graduates can’t even read, write, or do simple math. In fact, many of our high school graduates can’t even read their own diplomas.
There is a direct correlation between the decline in education quality and the increase in Federal control of education. There is also a direct correlation between the decline in education quality and the evolution of the National Education Association (NEA) from a professional organization to nothing more than a labor union begging for federal handouts.
The liberal programs for education have succeeded in doing what Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D, NY) described as, “The dumbing down of America.”
What can we do about it?
1) We need to introduce competition into the education system. Competition would force an improvement in working conditions in public schools. Such an improvement would attract more gifted students to the teaching profession and prevent good teachers from leaving to go into industry like I did. See also 3) below.
2) More than $120,000 is now being spent per classroom (assuming 20 students) in public schools. More than $52,800 (44%) of that amount is being spent on administration. I see no earthly reason that 44% of school spending should be spent on administration. Competition would force public schools to streamline their administrative bureaucracy, pay teachers what would be required to get the best available, and purchase additional educational materials.
If you’ll pardon a personal note, the main reason that I left teaching was the administrivia that we had to endure. If I may say so, I was a good teacher who demanded and got superior performance from my students. I taught in a poor school district but we produced many superior graduates, proving that money is not the solution to the education problem.
3) Introducing the use of vouchers into the education system would force all schools, public, private, and parochial, to improve the quality of education in order to get the consumers’ (parents’) voucher dollars. The beauty of vouchers is that the competition would force the public schools to demand the same performance standards as we already have in private and parochial schools in order to compete with them. As a result we have a significant improvement in the overall quality of education.
Vouchers have proven to be very popular wherever they have been tried. One of the most successful voucher systems has been the one in the inner city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It has become so popular that every year more schools are being added to the list of available schools. One of the reasons that vouchers are so popular in Milwaukee and elsewhere is that they are not discriminatory and there is no screening for ethnic and religious backgrounds or financial ability to pay. Any parent who has a voucher can go to any participating school and enroll his or her child.
Of course, that child will have to meet the standards of performance for each subject in order to remain in that school. In other words, the child must pass the courses. What a novel idea. How different from most public schools where students are graduated when they reach the correct age whether they have learned anything or not.
Conclusion
We have seen how the quality of education has drastically declined in this nation as a result of education policies forced upon us by liberal educrats. The best way to restore quality into our education system is to introduce competition by giving parents education vouchers so that they can have the freedom to choose the best available education for their children.
(1) Regna Lee Wood, “That’s Right – They’re Wrong,” National Review, 9/14/92
(2) Regna Lee Wood, “Our Golden Road to Illiteracy,” National Review, 10/18/93
By Naturalized-Texan
Historical Background
Back in the 1950s, I was a high school math and science teacher and I voluntarily joined the National Education Association (NEA) and the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) (joining was voluntary then). In those days the NEA and PSEA were professional organizations dedicated to maintaining teaching as a profession and improving the quality of instruction. Our meetings consisted of seminars on ways to improve our teaching techniques, displays of new and advanced textbooks, and the exchange of ideas on improving the quality of our instruction. Teachers were highly respected by students, parents, and the community.
We teachers demanded high academic standards from our students. Students and parents both knew that if the student failed to meet those standards, he or she would receive a failing grade and would have to repeat the course or repeat the grade in order to graduate. Contrast that with today’s schools where every student passes even though many don’t even know how to read.
What happened?
We have had a precipitous decline in the quality of education in the last 40+ years. There are three major reasons for that decline, each as devastating as the next. In chronological order, here are those reasons:
1) Elimination of Phonics - The 1930s and 1940s saw the beginning of the elimination of the use of phonics in the teaching of reading. During WW II, less than 1% of recruits were unable to read at the 4th grade level, but during the Korean War, 17% of the draftees were illiterate, according to the Armed Forces Qualification Tests (AFQT). U.S. literacy figures for adults over 25 were 98% in 1950. (1)
A 1993 National Adult Literacy Survey found that “over 96 per cent (174 million) can’t read, write, and figure well enough to go to college; two-thirds (120 million) do not have the ‘literary proficiency’ to go to high school; and nearly a fourth (40 to 44 million) can’t read.” (2)
Why the decline in literacy? The WW II draftees were taught reading using the phonics method while most of the Korean War draftees were taught reading using the “look-say” or “whole word” method. A personal example: When our youngest son was in second grade, he was barely reading at the first grade level. Over the Christmas break, we used a phonics kit to teach him how to read and when he returned to school, he was reading as well as any others in his class. Now, at age 41, he is a voracious reader.
2) Federal Control Education - In the 1950s the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was formed. This was the beginning of government interference into the local control of education. The federal government substituted federal bureaucratic control of education policies and spending for the proven American tradition of local control of education. In other words, parents lost their control the quality of education.
3) The NEA Became a Labor Union - In the 1960s the NEA was transformed from a professional organization into nothing more than another labor union involved in left-wing politics and opposing any education reform that would improve the quality of education. We are now spending far more per student than at any time in our history (adjusted for inflation), yet the quality of education continues to decline. All the NEA can think of to solve the problem is to throw more money at it. Lack of money is not the problem.
It is a sad commentary on the state of the NEA that the only action that was reported from their 1994 convention was the vote to boycott orange juice because the Florida orange growers were sponsoring the Rush Limbaugh Program. If the NEA would spend as much time on making real improvements in education as it does on politics, we would have the best educated students in the world.
Why did it happen?
The goal of the liberals’ education program was to place control of all education in this country into the hands of liberal educrats - the teachers’ unions, the federal education bureaucracy, and school administrators. Liberals claimed that the liberal elitist educrats knew more about educating children than the parents of those children or the locally elected school board.
When the liberal takeover of the schools occurred, we had the best education system in the world. Now, after 40+ years of liberal control of education, the quality of education has declined so far that the majority of our graduates can’t compete with graduates from other countries. Even worse, millions of jobs are going unfilled and remedial courses must be taught in most colleges and universities because our high school graduates can’t even read, write, or do simple math. In fact, many of our high school graduates can’t even read their own diplomas.
There is a direct correlation between the decline in education quality and the increase in Federal control of education. There is also a direct correlation between the decline in education quality and the evolution of the National Education Association (NEA) from a professional organization to nothing more than a labor union begging for federal handouts.
The liberal programs for education have succeeded in doing what Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D, NY) described as, “The dumbing down of America.”
What can we do about it?
1) We need to introduce competition into the education system. Competition would force an improvement in working conditions in public schools. Such an improvement would attract more gifted students to the teaching profession and prevent good teachers from leaving to go into industry like I did. See also 3) below.
2) More than $120,000 is now being spent per classroom (assuming 20 students) in public schools. More than $52,800 (44%) of that amount is being spent on administration. I see no earthly reason that 44% of school spending should be spent on administration. Competition would force public schools to streamline their administrative bureaucracy, pay teachers what would be required to get the best available, and purchase additional educational materials.
If you’ll pardon a personal note, the main reason that I left teaching was the administrivia that we had to endure. If I may say so, I was a good teacher who demanded and got superior performance from my students. I taught in a poor school district but we produced many superior graduates, proving that money is not the solution to the education problem.
3) Introducing the use of vouchers into the education system would force all schools, public, private, and parochial, to improve the quality of education in order to get the consumers’ (parents’) voucher dollars. The beauty of vouchers is that the competition would force the public schools to demand the same performance standards as we already have in private and parochial schools in order to compete with them. As a result we have a significant improvement in the overall quality of education.
Vouchers have proven to be very popular wherever they have been tried. One of the most successful voucher systems has been the one in the inner city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It has become so popular that every year more schools are being added to the list of available schools. One of the reasons that vouchers are so popular in Milwaukee and elsewhere is that they are not discriminatory and there is no screening for ethnic and religious backgrounds or financial ability to pay. Any parent who has a voucher can go to any participating school and enroll his or her child.
Of course, that child will have to meet the standards of performance for each subject in order to remain in that school. In other words, the child must pass the courses. What a novel idea. How different from most public schools where students are graduated when they reach the correct age whether they have learned anything or not.
Conclusion
We have seen how the quality of education has drastically declined in this nation as a result of education policies forced upon us by liberal educrats. The best way to restore quality into our education system is to introduce competition by giving parents education vouchers so that they can have the freedom to choose the best available education for their children.
(1) Regna Lee Wood, “That’s Right – They’re Wrong,” National Review, 9/14/92
(2) Regna Lee Wood, “Our Golden Road to Illiteracy,” National Review, 10/18/93