Despite spending 425 billion of tax dollars annually on public education, and two billion dollars in annual corporate giving, our public schools continue to fail as reflected in low test scores both nationally and internationally, a high rate of high school dropouts, and a negative school environment that drives 50% of new teachers out of the profession within five years.
Why Bill Gates Can’t Solve America’s Educational Crisis
“This is like Sputnik. We need to give the educational crisis the same focus and energy. We have an economic war.”- Donald Evans, Commerce Secretary
September 14, 2006 - - Despite spending 425 billion of tax dollars annually on public education, and two billion dollars in annual corporate giving, our public schools continue to fail as reflected in low test scores both nationally and internationally, a high rate of high school dropouts, and a negative school environment that drives 50% of new teachers out of the profession within five years.
Other countries and America’s private schools spend less on education than public schools and yet they outperform them. It’s obvious that funding is not the issue and more funding doesn’t necessarily equate with educational excellence.
Even Bill Gates, the biggest contributor to public schools admitted (as quoted in Business Week’s June 25, 2006 issue) that his multi-million dollar contribution to public schools was a crushing disappointment and a complete failure.
So why do pubic schools continue to fail?
Simply put, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Since economy and politics go hand in hand, America’s educational crisis is failing because it has become too politicized to do what’s in the best interest of the children, even if it means putting America’s economy, its national security and its leadership in the world, at risk.
Sadly, public education is no longer about educating children. It no longer prepares them for success in college, the workforce and in life with meaningful life skills to meet the growing challenges of a highly competitive and technology-driven global economy. Education has become a big business and a political football that wins votes. That is why politicians who have acknowledged the problem for the longest time have not done taken any meaningful actions to solve the problem and are not going to stand up to special interest groups such as the teachers’ union, because it’s political suicide.
The teachers union has a vested interest in keeping the status quo of no accountability in order to maintain their own power base. They are not interested in educating kids, but in controlling the education system for their own personal gain. And as we all know, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Take teachers’ tenure for example. The union supports tenure because the union is in the business of guaranteeing employment to its members even the incompetent and unmotivated teachers.
“This is like Sputnik. We need to give the educational crisis the same focus and energy. We have an economic war.”- Donald Evans, Commerce Secretary
September 14, 2006 - - Despite spending 425 billion of tax dollars annually on public education, and two billion dollars in annual corporate giving, our public schools continue to fail as reflected in low test scores both nationally and internationally, a high rate of high school dropouts, and a negative school environment that drives 50% of new teachers out of the profession within five years.
Other countries and America’s private schools spend less on education than public schools and yet they outperform them. It’s obvious that funding is not the issue and more funding doesn’t necessarily equate with educational excellence.
Even Bill Gates, the biggest contributor to public schools admitted (as quoted in Business Week’s June 25, 2006 issue) that his multi-million dollar contribution to public schools was a crushing disappointment and a complete failure.
So why do pubic schools continue to fail?
Simply put, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Since economy and politics go hand in hand, America’s educational crisis is failing because it has become too politicized to do what’s in the best interest of the children, even if it means putting America’s economy, its national security and its leadership in the world, at risk.
Sadly, public education is no longer about educating children. It no longer prepares them for success in college, the workforce and in life with meaningful life skills to meet the growing challenges of a highly competitive and technology-driven global economy. Education has become a big business and a political football that wins votes. That is why politicians who have acknowledged the problem for the longest time have not done taken any meaningful actions to solve the problem and are not going to stand up to special interest groups such as the teachers’ union, because it’s political suicide.
The teachers union has a vested interest in keeping the status quo of no accountability in order to maintain their own power base. They are not interested in educating kids, but in controlling the education system for their own personal gain. And as we all know, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Take teachers’ tenure for example. The union supports tenure because the union is in the business of guaranteeing employment to its members even the incompetent and unmotivated teachers.
The tenure concept does not exist in any other profession and career field except education, and then only in America. It’s an absurd concept that defies logic as eloquently put by Bill Gates: “Any business under these appalling conditions (in the absence of incentives to perform such as an accountability and a reward system) would go bankrupt quickly.” What’s more, tenure tends to attract the people who are primarily interested in job security.
According to Investors Business Daily, half a million teachers are incompetent and have failed a basic skills test. According to Public Agenda, a national nonpartisan non profit public opinion research organization, a majority of teachers admit that being awarded tenure does not necessarily mean that they have worked hard and proved themselves to be very good at what they do. In addition, three out of five teachers acknowledge that there are a few teachers in their building who “fail to do a good job and are simply going through the motion. In the long run they hurt our children.”
This is why in the words of the National Council for Teacher Quality, “Because California in particular is not meeting the challenge of ensuring quality teachers in every classroom and because of other defects and deficiencies in the system (a lack of an effective accountability system), California gets an “F” grade.”
The sad commentary is that more than 50% of new teachers leave the profession within five years. They leave not because of low pay but because of a negative school environment and a system that lacks a reward system and does not allow teachers the freedom to innovate in order to improve student achievement.
Another contributing factor to the continued failing of America’s public schools is the No Child Left Behind Act which sadly leaves the majority of students behind. That’s because it’s based on a pass/fail concept. All public schools need to do to get federal funding is to pass. As such, the focus is no longer on educating kids but rather on preparing students to pass tests, also known as “teaching to the test.” As a result, students are not learning but rather memorizing and ultimately failing as reflected in low test scores and a high rate of high school dropouts.
In an attempt to get federal funding, many public schools resort to unethical behavior and questionable practices such as gaming the system. In the words of The Reason Foundation’s Education Program: “Schools have learned to lie with statistics. Whether the topic is violence, test scores, or dropout rates, school officials have found myriad methods to paint a prettier picture of their performance. These distortions hide the extent of schools’ failures, deceive taxpayers about what our ever-increasing education budgets are buying, and keep kids locked in failing institutions. All this only scratches the surface of the ways public schools use statistics to mislead parents and the public. From reporting teachers’ salaries without including benefits as part of their compensation to reporting per-pupil spending while excluding billions in spending on school buildings and infrastructure, the list of deceptions goes on and on. But the most common way school data deceive people is through omission.” Since local School Boards are too powerless to stand up to the teachers, the only thing they have control over is to attempt to get more funding. It’s convenient for them to blame the continued lack of student achievement on a lack of funding. The fact is that no amount of money (and not even Bill Gates) can save a system that is flawed and too politicized to do what’s in the best interest of the children.
It’s a fact that no system and especially no bureaucracy can ever produce any meaningful results unless people are held accountable for their actions. If Americans are to get a decent return (student achievement) on their investment (tax dollars) we will have to rethink our approach to education.
Given the fact that anything run by government is not likely to produce any meaningful results, the ideal solution would be to keep the government out of education and privatize public schools (to create competition in order to drive the performance necessary for producing high achieving students).
However, since this is not very likely to happen anytime soon given the current political climate of doing what’s politically correct, real change will have to be driven by the only group of people who have a vested interest in education because of the their kids, the parents. They are in an ideal position to overcome political obstacles necessary to put an end to the status quo of no accountability as echoed in the words of California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, “Rather than simply calling for more education spending, parents and local taxpayers should demand greater transparency in financial performance to ensure more effective use of education tax dollars.”
Copyright © 2006, Geela
http://www.Geela.com
Geela is an award winning nationally syndicated columnist, author of the highly-praised book “The American Dream,” and founder of The Parent Advocacy Group (http://www.theparentadvocacygroup.org)
Given the fact that anything run by government is not likely to produce any meaningful results, the ideal solution would be to keep the government out of education and privatize public schools (to create competition in order to drive the performance necessary for producing high achieving students).
However, since this is not very likely to happen anytime soon given the current political climate of doing what’s politically correct, real change will have to be driven by the only group of people who have a vested interest in education because of the their kids, the parents. They are in an ideal position to overcome political obstacles necessary to put an end to the status quo of no accountability as echoed in the words of California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, “Rather than simply calling for more education spending, parents and local taxpayers should demand greater transparency in financial performance to ensure more effective use of education tax dollars.”
Copyright © 2006, Geela
http://www.Geela.com
Geela is an award winning nationally syndicated columnist, author of the highly-praised book “The American Dream,” and founder of The Parent Advocacy Group (http://www.theparentadvocacygroup.org)