Category: 1 - AmericanTusk

Dumbest Generation Getting Dumber 11/10/2009

by Walter Williams, GMU

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparison of 15-year-olds conducted by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that measures applied learning and problem-solving ability. In 2006, U.S. students ranked 25th of 30 advanced nations in math and 24th in science. McKinsey & Company, in releasing its report "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools" (April 2009) said, "Several other facts paint a worrisome picture. First, the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers. In recent cross-country comparisons of fourth grade reading, math, and science, US students scored in the top quarter or top half of advanced nations. By age 15 these rankings drop to the bottom half. In other words, American students are farthest behind just as they are about to enter higher education or the workforce." That's a sobering thought. The longer kids are in school and the more money we spend on them, the further behind they get.

While the academic performance of white students is grossly inferior, that of black and Latino students is a national disgrace. The McKinsey report says, "On average, black and Latino students are roughly two to three years of learning behind white students of the same age. This racial gap exists regardless of how it is measured, including both achievement (e.g., test score) and attainment (e.g., graduation rate) measures. Taking the average National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores for math and reading across the fourth and eighth grades, for example, 48 percent of blacks and 43 percent of Latinos are 'below basic,' while only 17 percent of whites are, and this gap exists in every state. A more pronounced racial achievement gap exists in most large urban school districts." Below basic is the category the NAEP uses for students unable to display even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level.

The teaching establishment and politicians have hoodwinked taxpayers into believing that more money is needed to improve education. The Washington, D.C., school budget is about the nation's costliest, spending about $15,000 per pupil. Its student/teacher ratio, at 15.2 to 1, is lower than the nation's average. Yet student achievement is just about the lowest in the nation. What's so callous about the Washington situation is about 1,700 children in kindergarten through 12th grade receive the $7,500 annual scholarships in order to escape rotten D.C. public schools, and four times as many apply for the scholarships, yet Congress, beholden to the education establishment, will end funding the school voucher program.

Any long-term solution to our education problems requires the decentralization that can come from competition. Centralization has been massive. In 1930, there were 119,000 school districts across the U.S; today, there are less than 15,000. Control has moved from local communities to the school district, to the state, and to the federal government. Public education has become a highly centralized government-backed monopoly and we shouldn't be surprised by the results. It's a no-brainer that the areas of our lives with the greatest innovation, tailoring of services to individual wants and falling prices are the areas where there is ruthless competition such as computers, food, telephone and clothing industries, and delivery companies such as UPS, Federal Express and electronic bill payments that have begun to undermine the postal monopoly in first-class mail.

At a Washington press conference launching the McKinsey report, Al Sharpton called school reform the civil rights challenge of our time. He said that the enemy of opportunity for blacks in the U.S. was once Jim Crow; today, in a slap at the educational establishment, he said it was "Professor James Crow." Sharpton is only partly correct. School reform is not solely a racial issue; it's a vital issue for the entire nation.

The Obama Effect: School Gets Rid Of Valedictorians 06/23/2009

8 Comment(s)

by Thomas Craig

Our Country has certainly underwent an amazing "change". President Obama has accelerated the decline of Capitalism and the degradation of our culture by confusing the notions of equality that the Founding Fathers often spoke of. Americans, as well as all people, are equal in the sense that we all share the same rights. We all are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are NOT all equal in intelligence, work ethic, and we certainly should not be equal when it comes to the rewards of our hard work.

In what has become a sad and ridiculous culture of socialist values, one school has surely embraced the spirit of mediocrity. Central York High School in Pennsylvania has decided to stop selecting the highest acheiving student of the graduating class to be the valedictorian. The school has actually not had a valedictorian for a few years now, instead they had an awards ceremony to honor the top two students with the highest grades. Not even this ceremony will take place now. The school has decided that having a valedictorian makes the students "too competitive". The school actually thinks that it is a bad thing that their students are competitive regarding obtaining high grades. Instead, now even the laziest, marijuana smoking, class skipping, under-acheiving student will not have to have his feelings hurt by witnessing the accolades for a student who worked harder than every other student in their school. Those students who worked hard for four years are now being told by the school that their efforts don't matter and that they are no better than the students with the lowest grades.

I'm going to assume that the student who should have been the valedictorian is intelligent enough to understand the injustice done to him or her. I'm also sure that their ambitions which led to their high grades were greater than just becoming the valedictorian. I'm mainly concerned with the rest of the students. These students are being taught the liberal philosophy that they don't have to work hard and that people who do work hard and are smarter than they are, should not receive any benefits that they don't receive. It is the core of socialism. No matter what you do, you can not acheive any more than your neighbors do. I have no doubt that the students will go on to have jobs where they demand recognition and rewards for the most menial of tasks. The notion of competition and striving to be better is completely lost to them.

After all, they grew up playing sports where you got a trophy no matter if you won or lost, idolized worthless and meaningless celebrities who are famous not for their talents but for having sex on film, and of course, being told that no matter how little you work in school, you will be rewarded the same as those who really deserve it.

I don't understand why this country has so turned it's back on capitalism. Capitalism is what made our country the wealthiest and most innovative land the world has ever seen. As of late, the idea of capitalism has such a negative context to it. It is truly depressing being alive to witness the decline of American values. I wonder sometimes what the Romans thought as their civilization began their fall. Did they worry as their culture was taken from them by false and misleading men? Did they realize that their Empire would not last if they allowed their government to change all that was right and all that their nation was built upon? Do we?

The "Cartel" Which Is Our Education System 05/23/2009

9 Comment(s)

by Dacia Nichol

At yesterday’s New York Young Republican Club’s monthly meeting, Bob Bowdon was the guest speaker of the night - a man who has enjoyed success as a reporter and anchor on various media networks. His most notable work has been as an anchor/reporter for Bloomberg Television and recently as a reporter named Brian Scott on The Onion News Network. Plug: He’s a highly effective and hilarious speaker even as he tells us things we should cry about....

Bob has done some great investigative journalism work for his new feature documentary film, The Cartel, about the mishandling of our education system (New Jersey in particular), which will be premiering at The Hoboken International Film Festival in New Jersey on May 30th at 2 pm.

[Please note that his premier is not actually in Hoboken, it’s in Teaneck, and Bob has stressed that Teaneck is much easier to get to than Staten Island...which actually holds no relevance to the film festival but would be a funny mention had you been at this awesome meeting...just saying...]

It is highly recommended that you visit the film’s website, or even better, visit, purchase tickets, and then take a haul out to Teaneck, NJ next weekend to see The Cartel for yourself. Some very interesting points of discussion in Bob’s film are summarized as follows...with some sensationalist modifications of course...perhaps to peak your interest? Yes, the evil plot unfolds:

- America ranks last in educational effectiveness (or for a positive spin, #1 in Suck-y-ness) among the world’s industrialized countries, and first in amount of money spent per student in the world.* [Read: modified GIGO effect - gold in, garbage out]

- 15 year olds in the United States have worse math skills than kids in Azerbaijan.* Pop quiz: Do you know where Azerbaijan is? [No, sorry - Borat was from Kazakhstan...]

- Some Jersey superintendents in poor districts make some serious bling. I’m talking presidential salaries folks.*

- There should be a show called “I Dream of Janitors”...or their salaries that is. For cleaning duties not to exceed 4 feet above the ground, you just might bring home a whopping $100k a year as a janitor in a Jersey public school.* Now if only they required a degree in waste management for it, they could be Stafford slaves like the rest of us over-achievers.

And there’s more where that came from! Be there for the premiere on May 30th at 2 pm in Teaneck, NJ. If you don’t, the forces of good in the world will unite and....in spirit of the United Nations...send you a letter**...telling you just how angry they are about it. Maybe.

* Based on information provided at http://www.thecartelmovie.com and by Bob Bowdon at this meeting.
** Link has explicit language used.

Thee Demokratz Edukashin Polasees 03/11/2009

0 Comment(s)

by Thomas Craig

Once again I am simply amazed at how the Democrats, time after time, prove to be anything but productive for minorities, yet they still capture the minority vote. Two recent issues have caught my attention. First, in a disgusting display of hypocrisy, the Democrats will be ending the Washington D.C. school voucher program. This means that many underprivileged children who are attending excellent and top-rated private schools (such as the ones many Democrats send their children to, including President Obama) will now have to return to the failed public schools which continue to hash out students who cannot even name the three branches of government. The degradation of all aspects of our society can always be traced to a healthy mixture of poor leadership and ignorance of the masses. Many of our schools have failed and the same Democrats who insist on bankrupting our Nation by financing zombie banks, also seek to force underprivileged students to obtain mediocre at best educations in these institutions. I wouldn't be so against this if the public school system was revitalized in some way. To begin with, education, much like most things, should be handled at a more local level. The thought of our children's education being decided on by the geniuses in Congress is a chilling one. The other issue in recent affairs is President Obama's commitment to merit pay. This is a completely foolish way to go, much like No Child Left Behind was a foolish mistake. Let me give you an example. In many schools, the classes are broken up into skill levels. Students are grouped by their above-average, average, or below-average skill levels. All three groups are given the same test. How is it fair for the Teacher who oversees the below-average group to be penalized when their students don't perform as well as the above-average students? What is even more ridiculous is that there are many schools that require Special Education students to take these very same tests, and they are held to the same standards as the rest of the students! Special Education Teachers are being punished in a way for not having a student with a disability perform as well as a student in an above-average class. This is disgusting and a gross mismanagement of our children's education. Furthermore, we've all heard examples of Teachers and Principals changing grades on students’ tests so that their schools don't get penalized under the No Child Left Behind Act. Imagine the cheating that will occur when a "merit bonus" is offered to an underpaid and underappreciated Teacher. Mark my word, it will become more and more of the norm.

In addition to this, can I just ask the silly question of how the President intends on paying for this? Or will we just continue our addiction to obscene borrowing and spending?

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