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Jewish World Review Jan. 25, 1999 /9 Shevat, 5759
Thomas Sowell
Moral bankruptcy
(JWR) --- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, MADE NATIONAL NEWS last year because it was pushing
for teaching "ebonics" -- black English -- in its public schools. This year
Oakland is back in the news again, this time because its schools scheduled
an all-day teach-in on capital punishment.
For many, if not most, of the low-income and minority children in Oakland,
education is their one hope for a better life. Yet the schools that are
supposed to educate them are instead using them to carry out the ideological
agendas of the so-called "educators" who are failing to educate them.
This is more than a tragedy for the children of Oakland. It is a sign of
what is wrong with too many public schools across the country. Instead of
being dedicated to the education of children, schools have become places
that exist to provide jobs and jollies to the adults.
It may be capital punishment that gives these adults a buzz in Oakland and
sex education or some other ideological fashions elsewhere. But the point is
that children are being used as means to non-educational ends. Why
"educators" do this is one question but a bigger question is how they are
able to get away with it.
Teachers' unions and iron-clad tenure are a big part of the reason for such
arrogant disregard of the well-being of the children entrusted to the
education establishment. Against this background, efforts to improve the
public schools by simply pouring more money into them are either very naive
or very cynical.
California's new governor, Gray Davis, has loudly proclaimed that his top
priority is to "improve" education -- which, to Davis and other liberals,
means spending more tax money and making cosmetic "changes" in the system.
Governor Davis has called for higher standards for public school teachers.
Who could be against "higher standards"? Only someone who knows what that
pious phrase really means. What are called "higher standards" are arbitrary
restrictions that keep out potential competitors for the jobs of existing
school teachers. Since educators are drawn disproportionately from the
bottom half of college students, it is not hard to find better people to put
into the nation's classrooms. That is why teachers' unions and the education
establishment in general are so determined that only people who have been
through education schools and departments be hired.
Education credentials are barriers to protect existing teachers' jobs from
competition. Such credentials have no demonstrable relationship to the
ability to teach. To sell all this to the public, requiring meaningless
credentials is equated with "higher standards" for teacher hiring.
Sometimes these are called "tough" standards, as Governor Gray Davis does.
Why not? Throwing in a word costs nothing.
As part of his supposedly tough, higher standards, Governor Davis wants
"peer review." This means that teachers evaluate one another. After they
give each other high grades -- can anyone doubt it? -- they will then all
qualify for higher pay.
Silly as this political game may seem, it has worked repeatedly, all across
the country. American students continue to finish at or near the bottom on
international tests, but this approach is as big a political success as it
is an educational failure. Polls show that the Democrats' biggest edge over
the Republicans is on education --- and the Democrats are all for throwing
money at the education establishment.
Since the National Education Association -- the country's biggest teachers'
union -- contributes millions of dollars to Democrats, it is understandable
that Democrats would support the NEA. What is not understandable is why
Republicans remain so inarticulate on this issue.
It will not be enough for Republicans to come up with a few phrases or a
few gimmicks in election years if the NEA's propaganda goes unchallenged
during the years between elections.
One of the few rays of hope is that private individuals and organizations
across the country are contributing many millions of dollars of their own
money to provide low-income children with scholarships to attend private
schools. This is one of the great untold stories of our times.
It is also real compassion, as distinguished from the kind of phony
political stuff that leads to educational tragedies like those in
in the schools
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