The Choice Channel

A few years ago I wrote an open editorial for a local newspaper in which I informed the superintendent of my daughter’s public school district that his services were no longer required. As far as my family and I were concerned, it was the day we fired the local bureaucrats and took our child out of a failing education system. I said it then and I say it now, government today is filled with politicians that think it is their job to take care of us. Either we are too lazy to care for ourselves and our children; or, we are too stupid to know what is best for our precious offspring and ourselves. No matter the reason, the majority of politicians in this country today believe in their hearts that they must save us from ourselves. Even to the point of promoting failing children so as not to ruin their self-esteem.

A few weeks after I fired the school system’s leading bureaucrat, the State justified my decision to remove my child from a forever-failing government school system. My hometown paper reported that the state’s promotion standards, which are designed to test third, fifth and eighth grade students, were largely being ignored by principals all across the state, at least at the fifth grade level. I was absolutely appalled to learn that seventy-three percent of fifth grade students (the only students tested for that year) who failed their exams were promoted anyway. In my county alone 298 students failed their tests not once, not twice, but three times and still only 53 of these unfortunate, inadequately-educated children were held back. Why are our children being robbed of a proper education?

You see, there was a “provision.” Ah yes, the all-powerful provision, better known as the exception to the rule. In this case the provision allows for principals to have the final word on who gets promoted to the next grade and who does not. Now I ask you, what the hell good is a standards test if the decision of pass and fail is left up to the principal anyway? Why even bother requiring these unfortunate children to take a test that means absolutely nothing since the final decisions rests in the hands of one individual bureaucrat? The result of this fatally-flawed system is 245 students from my home county entered the sixth grade that year woefully under prepared. Almost two hundred and fifty fifth-grade children did not learn that year and stood even a slimmer chance of learning the following year. Why? Just so principals could dress up their statistics to reflect success that does not actually exist, that’s why. Inexcusable! And remember, we are being forced to pay for this incompetence.

I say inexcusable, but of course, bureaucrats always have their reasons for doing something absurd. In this case an assistant superintendent for elementary schools told a reporter that, “Most of these students were promoted either because they won an appeal or because they met a variety of conditions that qualified them for a local waiver.” The “conditions” mentioned were appalling. For instance, if students are not achieving at grade level but they show a year’s worth of progress in one subject, they can be promoted. In other words, if your child enters the fifth grade reading at a third grade level all he or she has to do in order to be promoted to the sixth grade is improve their reading skills to a fourth grade level. This allows the school to show an inflated promotion rate while keeping a percentage of the children, and potentially even all of the children, perpetually two years behind in their studies. No wonder McDonald’s has little trouble filling those low-level positions.

Another “condition” the State uses is extra tutoring. If failing students (remember they more than likely are already two years behind) participate in extra tutoring, and, score within a range that is “very close to passing,” they can be promoted. That’s right, if a child just comes close to passing he or she can be promoted. Again we see how bureaucrats work the school system to give the impression that they are serving our children well. In reality, however, government schools are failing our children by promoting them with little regard for standards and no concern for their future. Education has become another governmental bureaucracy that perpetuates itself by falsely inflating its success rate at the expense of innocent children. But don’t forget, they are keeping the fast-food industry well stocked with a young, energetic work force.

Is your child receiving a proper education? How would you know if they were not adequately schooled? Can you trust a system that ignores skill level in favor of simple if only meager progress? The children of this country suffer and your own tax dollars pay for the instrument of their affliction. Do as I did. Take back responsibility for your child’s future. Do not leave their fate in the hands of a beastly bureaucracy that does such a poor job of educating young minds. These minds are too precious to be trusted to administrators that are more interested in graduation rates than they are in educating the future leaders of our communities. Enough is enough! Give your children a decent shot at success by taking control of their education. Love them enough to ensure not only that they do not fail in school; but moreover, make sure that the school system they attend does not fail them.