The dumbing down of the education system

This Letter to the Editor was originally published in The Mercury. It's an excellent analysis of the unholy alliance between the Democratic Party and the Education Establishment. The results? A total failure of public education in the United States.

Democrats and the dumbing down of the education system

Has the alignment of the Democratic Party and the Education Establishment had the effect of dumbing us down to the point where intellectual curiosity and critical thought are endangered pursuits?

The Quid Pro Quo

In return for votes, money and the partisan indoctrination of our children, the Democratic Party has ceded monopolistic control of our education system to an ever less qualified teaching lobby. For its support, the Education Establishment has been rewarded with unparalleled job security, opposition to publicly funded school choice and what some might term a blank check at the taxpayers expense. Examples of the chronic abuse of our education system are legion. The New York Metropolitan School System spends $40,000,000 annually on individuals deemed unfit to teach yet immune to dismissal. The Washington state teachers' union killed a $13.2 million gift from the National Math & Science Initiative designed to reward teachers whose students showed marked improvements in math and science. From 1995 to 2005, only 112 teachers out of a teaching population of 43,000 were terminated in the Los Angeles School District. That is .025 percent per year. By contrast, the continuous improvement business model of General Electric requires the company to cull the bottom 10 percent of its managerial ranks annually.

The Dumb Down

We Need A Path To Citizenship For Undocumented Workers - If the estimated 12 million undocumented aliens 'doing the work that Americans won't do' are made citizens, who will do the work that these newly entitled Americans will no longer care to do and what will the associated cost be?

We Need A Tax On Big Oil's 'Windfall' Profits - If the $11.68 billion in net income that Exxon/Mobil realized in the second quarter of this year was a 'windfall profit,' what was the $32.36 billion in taxes paid by Exxon/Mobil during the same quarter?

Unions Need More Organizing Tools - If American workers are denied the right to cast ballots privately in union certification votes, what will protect these workers from intimidation by and retaliation from union organizers?

We Will Only Raise Taxes On Those Earning Above $250,000 - If 85 percent of those earning in excess of $250,000 per year are small business owners, what impact will an increase in their taxes have on their ability to create jobs and grow our economy?

The gist of the above examples and far too many others to illustrate is that the Democratic Party prefers that we be uninformed, gullible or just plain stupid. Anything that can be done to further this agenda is something to be advanced.

The Solution

There are no quick solutions to untangling the corrosive tentacles of public employee unions and the Democratic Party. In the case of the Education Establishment, the effort must begin with votes cast for political office and, more importantly, school boards.

MARK FURLONG
North Coventry