One Guy's Opinion on the Political Scene By: Jim Herndon
Education: Sorry State of Affairs
For education, we in California spend $11,000 per student; that is 3 times, inflation adjusted, more than we spent 50 years ago when we had the highest ranked schools in the nation and comparable to the best in the world.
Back then, before the enormous government school system bureaucracy and the advent of the stifling teachers unions, teachers did not have to provide various supplies. There was plenty of construction paper and blunt-nosed scissors for everyone. We did not have the high school dropout problem we have today. We have too many incompetent, lifetime tenured teachers with a pathetic lack of control, discipline, or expertise in the classes they teach. An educational survey found that 85% of American high school seniors are deficient in American History and math. The teachers unions spend funds for radio and television ads that make a plea for more education funds. Education has become just another government fumbleflop and teaching our kids is much too important to be left to the government. The government controls 90 percent of our schools yet most Americans are oddly unconcerned. Something is terribly wrong with this picture.