The biggest threat to America is not Obama and it's not Romney. It isn't Wall Street and it isn't unions. It isn't even foreign wars. It's education the lack of quality education. In science and mathematics, our country has dropped to 20-something in the world. Too many of our high school graduates cannot read at an adult level. What makes this so tragic is that we are a nation whose citizens believe in government by the people. Clearly, governors should be endowed with more than a modicum of knowledge and wisdom.
I'm not wise enough to propose a solution to our education problem, but I can offer one or two ideas that will help. The first idea is to follow the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution and get the federal government completely out of the education business. It's clear that the more they get involved, the worse education gets. The areas where education is worst are precisely those who spend the most on it.
There are too many bad teachers. They remain at the head of the classroom due to union power and a liberal philosophy that puts the welfare of teachers above that of their students. Clearly, we need to be able to get rid of bad teachers and reward good ones.
There are too many bad schools. Most of these would seem to be in the inner cities. If parents had the right to send their children to schools of their own choice, the principle of competition would take over. This would mean the bad schools would have to improve or die, just as it is in the real world. But again the liberals win, saying how unfair that would be to the teachers and administrators in those failing schools. At the same time, liberal thought ignores the purpose of education. It's for the kids, not the educators.
We have ceased to teach the history of our country, whose wise and courageous founders forged the greatest nation on Earth. Curricula have moved away from the "three R's" into social subjects. Perhaps the reason for this is partly to graduate more students. "Hooray, my son got a diploma!" The sad reality is that he can't read well or think logically.
The feel good and fairness philosophy is new to our beloved republic. Our children are being taught the wrong lessons today. We risk that these children will grow up to embrace the ideas of redistribution and dependence, rather than self-reliance and being the grasshopper instead of the ant.
Peter Hefner
Montoursville
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom
