Education reform is of vital importance. America’s youth are falling behind the rest of the world in their studies. Children are not being taught the basic fundamental principles, traditions and values of our Republic. These are irrefutable facts that come despite the massive amounts of money we spend to correct the problem.
Real reform must look deep into the root causes of why our country is failing the children and at the same time understand that throwing more and more money at the problem is not the solution. Think about it, if money was the obstacle, we would have solved the problem long ago. After all, that’s what our government does best, spend money. Our government is so good at spending money that it has spent $14.2 trillion that we don’t have and can’t pay back.
Education reform must also be about more than drilling facts and figures into the skulls of school children so they can perform well on national standardized tests. Wasting so much time teaching a child to perform well on a test simply does not a well educated, well informed individual make.
Education reform is also too important to leave in the hands of a life-long liberal, career legislator that views government and increased spending as the solution to fixing problems. Senator Tom Harkin’s (D-IA) questionable relationships with his benefactors also calls into question his ability to do the right thing on education reform; mainly to reform education for the betterment of children, not unions or objectionable donors.
School choice, vouchers, distance learning, revised curriculums, a longer calendar school year; these are all solutions that should be looked at individually or collectively, not shunned and dismissed out of hand. Perhaps the answer is a combination of these things, or maybe it’ something altogether different. One thing is for sure, if we go down this road that President Obama and Senator Harkin appear set on traveling, we really will find our car in a ditch.
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