Not only has public education robbed many youth of the opportunity to advance in the face of a demanding and more globalized world, the poor schooling that they are receiving also threatens the military ranks in this country. If 75% of high school students are unfit for military service after receiving a high school diploma, then this country is facing not just a crisis in public education, but a threat which undermines the security and sanctity of our borders and or defenses.
It's about time that voters in this country woke up to the damage that the public school government monopoly is waging on our future — our political standing in the world is nothing compared to the loss that young people are suffering through now — educational facilities which have done very little to prepare youth for the rigors of life with vigorous discipline complemented by adequate skill and content knowledge.
Students are unable to locate Washington D.C. on a map. Most students are graduating from high school still functionally illiterate. This is intolerable child abuse on a massive scale.
With a national drop-out rate of 25% (and almost twice as high for minorities) staring her right in the face, Randi Weingarten (President of the American Federation of Teachers) actually believes that public schools are doing an excellent job overall, and has maligned the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) report as an unjustified attack. Her response to the CFR's thorough research suggests otherwise. The poor public schools which we are currently struggling with in this country, including the wealthier regions, are harming the fabric and frontier of this country.
Although I was delighted to read that statesmen such as Joel Klein (the former Chancellor of New York City Schools) and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice prepared a thorough yet damning report, the suggestions which they highlighted to fix the ongoing public school crisis seemed like weak tea at best.
Declaring that schools must be "flexible, innovative, and aspirational" reveals more of the same empty rhetoric which politicians have pushed around, paying lip service to educational reform without implementing real strategies for change. The Federal government cannot do everything, especially micromanage K-12 public education from Washington. Less regulation, fewer disbursements of taxpayers funds, and less power to teachers' unions will certain improve the current sorry lot of public education. Voucher programs, however, will ensure that schools and districts will have to compete for students, dollars, and respect.
We owe our children and our country far more than they are receiving right now in our public schools. From damaging budget cuts to demeaning teacher morale, to the low expectations that have infiltrated our schools in abeyance to inane standardized tests, public education must become more public, with greater influence from parents, less involvement from the state, and a greater focus on the students, not the school boards and public unions.