What the heck is going on with American government schools? The latest report card is out on how we are doing, and it is dismal. How dismal? This is the worst backslide our kids have had since the 1970's. But wait - did I mention it was only government schools? Charter schools, especially the ones who have adopted Classical Education are doing very well, thank you. My grandies, who go to a Montisori school are wicked smart, and I am amazed at how much they know for their ages. So what is the deal with government schools?
The Bird's eye view? Government schools have been co-opted by folks who have a different world view of education. They don't like our history, so some of it is being modified. They don't like the zero sum game of solving a math equation, so multiple answers are now acceptable. They don't like God, so much of our founding principles are out the window. They don't like the cisgender stuff, so you know what has become of that issue.
When one of the union higher ups was inverviewed on this subject, the typical answer was given. "Well, we need more funding to fix this problem!" Really? How about a different approach? BTW - the often mentioned achievment gap has not done well the past couple of years also. We can blame the pandemic, Jupiter rising or climate change, but the answer is in the recipe, not externalities. What recipe? The one charter schools and private schools are using. The "More bang for less buck", recipe.
Also, did you know now that we are in June, we are in (what is referred to by some educators from the past) as the "summer of forgetting"? What little gains which might have been made over the past few months will be wipped away by three months of mental atropy. That means September and October of next school year will be for remedial learning, to make up for the three months off.
We can continue to throw good money after bad on education. Or - we can change the recipe. Meanwhile, as we debate this issue, Johnny keeps drifting further and further behind. Sorry Johnny. You should have been born in the 1950's, when a government school education meant something.
According to statistics from the MN Department of Education, we could raise average scores by 20 points by simply cutting all schools back to the current state average funding-- from $23,000 per student to about $10,000 per student.
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