Dakota Beacon

When you don’t have a superior product to sell, the last thing you want to offer is a choice.

Education – or the lack thereof – has been much in the news recently, it seems.  In North Dakota our learned legislators decided that North Dakota public schools were better than excellent, and no “buts” about it.  “If they want private school let them pay,” was the phrase, despite compelling testimony to open the door to the less wealthy among us to avail themselves of better schooling for their children.  It would appear that only the wealthy really count in North Dakota.  After all, we have a great graduation rate to brag about.

Then it turns out we shouldn’t be bragging so much.  The same week we heard about the “nay” vote on the private school funding bill we found out that 28% of those who built up the graduation rate need remedial classes when they enter the ND university system.  So that would seem to be so much bluster and hot air after all. 

There was another story out today from back east.  New York City high school graduates are also in the soup.  Some 80% - yes, I said 80% - of them require remediation in reading, writing and math.  I suppose their graduation rate is also inflated.  That could account for it.

But what we should do now is focus on finding solutions.  Obviously money is not going to solve this.  At least not money thrown into the public schools that have turned in this kind of result.  We’ve heard the idea that these kids who have been cheated out of an education throughout their grade school, middle school and high school careers should now just start in a two-year college instead of a four-year college.  Now, really, does that seem fair to you?  The operative word there should be “college”.   A two-year college should have the same entrance requirements as a four-year college.  Many prefer to start in a two-year institution not because they are deficient academically, but because they are either working their way through school and the schedules are more accommodating, because they find them less expensive for the first two years, because of location, or because of a specialized program available in them.  They should not be devalued and used as some sort of catchall for those who shouldn’t be in college in the first place.

A college student is making a huge investment decision when he begins his college career.  If he starts out in his first year with remedial classes it only means that he has been cheated out of 12 years of his life and his parents out of many tens of thousands of dollars in taxes to support the public schools which have yielded such fantastic graduation records and such abysmal academic records. 

I would think that parents and responsible legislators and even school leaders should consult their consciences and their intelligence and recognize officially that not all students are well served by our public schools, either in North Dakota or in New York.  We have allowed our public schools to experiment on our children and their minds.  Now we are giving them permission in many places to experiment with their morals as well.  This is insanity.

Clearly, our school system, if not designed to do so, has been warped to manipulate our younger generations into compliant, ignorant pawns for the use of the state or whatever other masters.  No other explanation can account for this – no one could keep his job in any other kind of work with this quality of result!  Therefore, if you care about your children don’t sit by and wait for the system to destroy them too.  Either home school them (the best bet) or if you think you can’t (in other words your own schooling was also deficient) or you have other priorities (hard to imagine), at the very least, read to your young children, teach them to read or get a tutor to help out BEFORE THEY START SCHOOL and keep involved with them as they grow.  Find out how they’re getting along in their classes, of course, but check them out yourself.  Can they add? Subtract? Make change? Tell time?  Write in a standard cursive hand?  If they can’t do these things they will be in trouble soon.  Just because they’re “getting along” in the inflated schools does not mean that they are doing alright – not at all! 

Remember those great graduation rates?  These deceptive graduation rates so puffed by school authorities and legislators could be leaving your child vulnerable and academically crippled.   When will he suffer?  In time.  And what will be the price he pays?  A lost job opportunity?  A lost relationship? A decent quality of life? Self respect, perhaps?  And how will this affect his life?   Don’t kid yourself.  The lies believed by parents and some legislators will have a terrible price, and it will be borne by our children.

The problem is, too many find out too late, long after they have been cheated after they have squandered their childhood in schools that do not deliver but waste their time (and your money, of course) and then have the nerve to demand that the student take and pay for remedial classes! 

And get to work on your legislators.  Demand answers.  Why don’t they support choice in education?  Anyone who doesn’t like choice doesn’t have a very good product to sell you. 

Sally Morris is a member of Americans for Constitutional Government and has home schooled her three children, all of whom are now published writers, artists, musicians and composers.