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Townhall Finance
The Two Types
of Child Victimization at Government Schools
by Daniel J. Mitchell
Oct 27, 2013
You would think the bureaucrats who run government schools would want
to focus on the basics, such as teaching reading, writing, and
arithmetic.
After all, no nation spends more per pupil on education than the United
States. And based on some Cato Institute research, I suspect the OECD
estimate of about $15,000 per student is a low-ball estimate of the
burden on American taxpayers.
So what do we get for all this money? To be blunt, the results are
miserable, with Americans ranking well below average compared to our
overseas competitors.
Here are some comparisons on both literacy and numeracy from the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. You’ll have to
click the images to get an enlarged view. But maybe you won’t want to
do that since it’s depressing to see that Americans are near the bottom
for math skills and well below average for verbal skills.
Geesh, this is embarrassing. I like Slovaks, but I don’t want Americans
to be less intelligent. I also like Belgians, but why are they kicking
our tail? And I really like Estonians, but they’re putting us to shame.
So how is the education establishment dealing with these dismal results?
Well, they keep asking for more money. But as this remarkable chart
from the Cato Institute illustrates, throwing more money at the system
is a great way of building bureaucracy. But is sure doesn’t do much for
kids.
So you could say this is a form of child abuse. But that would
trivialize the plights of kids who are grossly mistreated. So let’s say
that the sub-par education provided by government schools is a form of
child victimization. Or mistreatment. Or some word that signifies how
they are not well served by the government’s education monopoly.
But let’s also remember that sub-par education is not the only bad
thing that happens in government schools.
We also have amazing (in a bad way) episodes of intrusive and abusive
political correctness.
Here’s a story from Massachusetts about a student being punished for
doing the right thing.
It’s tough for Eleanor Cox to talk about how heartbroken her daughter
Erin is over the punishment she received for doing what she thought was
right. …Two weeks ago, Erin received a call from a friend at a party
who was too drunk to drive. Erin drove to Boxford after work to pick up
her friend. Moments after she arrived, the cops arrived too and busted
several kids for underage possession of alcohol. A North Andover High
School honor student, Erin was cleared by police, who agreed she had
not been drinking and was not in possession of alcohol. But Andover
High told Erin she was in violation of the district’s zero tolerance
policy against alcohol and drug use. In the middle of her senior year,
Erin was demoted from captain of the volleyball team and told she would
be suspended from playing for five games. …the parents of Erin’s
teammates have started a petition to support her.
For the rest of this article and more, go to Townhall Finance
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