Thursday, January 15, 2009

Sharpton inches closer to reality

Supports some reform in education

It is distressing in 2009 that politics is so bedeviled by special interests that harm the general welfare. The teacher's unions and other people who generally support big centralized government are ruining millions of children's future.

The Reverend Al Sharpton is inching closer to realizing this. It is a shame that someone that smart is so slow to recognize solutions that really would work. Overnight for some, and over time better for every body.

We need a completely free market-place in education. The government should guarantee equal access to a quality education as a birthright for all American citizens.

Yet, the government should not be delivering education or even overseeing it except as a last resort.

We have tried government models vs free market models in many industries. Inevitably the free market is better for a few simple reasons.

It is better to have parents who love and want the best for their individual child making decisions rather than a distant government body.

It is better to have more people closer to a situation than less people at a centralized location making decisions.

Deciding what success is, how to define it, should be the job of each parent.
The government should take a philosophical viewpoint, and try to fill in gaps.

Leave education to local teachers and principals, the community, and the parents.

As much as possible we need to get rid of "boards" making decisions for thousands and millions of students.

We should offer as much choice and quality as possible. We should encourage new models of education from home, in the community, public/private partnerships, whatever.

The goal should be to help each individual student reach their God-given potential. That student/that parent should decide whether that is the case. Not a test score. Not some other arbitrary measurement.

Al Sharpton knows how bad the schools are for many poor blacks.

I'm worried about not only them but every child who is not being addressed individually and is not doing as well as they can.

Often the students who are hurt the worse are the ones who are naturally smart and do pretty well under any circumstance; because they don't show any obvious signs of distress. They pass all of the tests, and they don't fall into any "at risk" groups. They get passed along in the system never being challenged to do better than they ever thought they could.

They and we all deserve better.

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