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"For some reason there is a perception that American schools are failing, but I don't see it in the data." It's been a linchpin to the ultra-conservative and l

"For some reason there is a perception that American schools are failing, but I don't see it in the data." It's been a linchpin to the ultra-conservative and libertarian arguments for "free market"-izing education in the US. The opinion being "well, school sucks when I grew up and/or for my child currently, and it's because government is involved". They point to other countries and their educational superiority (erroneously thinking that the countries' respective governments are somehow not at all involved in education when, in fact, the top-achieving systems have similar if not identical systems as the US). Let's not even discuss how little they care for teacher's unions, how much teachers get paid (way too much is the current sentiment), and how all teachers are as lazy as unionized NYC construction workers on their lunch break because schools have summer breaks. They point to a combination private schools and vouchers for the poor as the ultimate solution to our educational woes, some even going so far as saying let the dumbest, poorest, and difficult kids opt out of school by not making K-12 school mandatory.

hcribkram 14y ago
Time out, I am the post author here and I never inferred anything about free market anything. In fact, I have written extensively on this topic and have stated on many occasions that education needs to remain public in order to provide fair opportunities for all. However, that does not mean that US public schools are without problems. Teachers actually should receive higher salaries, but they also need to be better qualified. Unions are not an evil that diminishes educational outcomes for students, but they do need to recognize that teacher standards have steadily eroded over the past few decades instead of protecting the status quo. I could go on with statistics and such, but you can read the full post here: http://birch.co/post/10127535253/the-us-education-conundrum http://birch.co/post/10127535253/the-us-education-conundrum
streptomycin 14y ago
It's also been a linchpin to the liberal argument for more funding for education, despite a lack of results http://www.human20.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/200909_blog_coulson1.jpg http://www.human20.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/200909_blo... Basically everyone with a political ideology wants to believe that US schools are horrible.

hcribkram 14y ago

Time out, I am the post author here and I never inferred anything about free market anything. In fact, I have written extensively on this topic and have stated on many occasions that education needs to remain public in order to provide fair opportunities for all. However, that does not mean that US public schools are without problems. Teachers actually should receive higher salaries, but they also need to be better qualified. Unions are not an evil that diminishes educational outcomes for students, but they do need to recognize that teacher standards have steadily eroded over the past few decades instead of protecting the status quo. I could go on with statistics and such, but you can read the full post here: http://birch.co/post/10127535253/the-us-education-conundrum http://birch.co/post/10127535253/the-us-education-conundrum

streptomycin 14y ago

It's also been a linchpin to the liberal argument for more funding for education, despite a lack of results http://www.human20.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/200909_blog_coulson1.jpg http://www.human20.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/200909_blo... Basically everyone with a political ideology wants to believe that US schools are horrible.