Better in their words…

I’ve received hundreds of supportive emails regarding the several-part series posted here* about the problems with the US K-12 education system, and what is the most effective solution to do. Many people also had constructive suggestions.

Based on the extreme importance of this matter — and the fact that academics and major conservative organizations do not seem to be focusing on the main problem — I decided to combine these commentaries and helpful inputs into a single Report. This was just released, so you are now on the leading edge.

The Key to Fixing the US K-12 Education System has powerful and effective suggestions that almost no one else seems to be promoting. That’s puzzling considering that there have been hundreds of articles and books about how to fix our education system. Yet the indisputable fact remains: based on almost any appropriate criteria, it is getting worse, not better!

Wouldn’t that tell the powers-that-be that we ought to step back and try something different?

A few people wrote me that the solution was to scrap the entire system and start over. I can sympathize with that thinking, but the realist in me says that such a solution is simply not practical (for several reasons), and will never happen.

Some people said that they were focusing on things like school choice. Indeed that is a very worthwhile objective. However, in the overall scheme of things, even if they were 100% successful (which won’t happen), that will not address the fundamental problem we are dealing with: that our children are being miseducated.

Going from a marginal public school to a better one, or to a private school, or to homeschooling, will certainly be a benefit for some. However, WHAT children are taught is still determined by state standards, and tests that students must pass are still created by the state (based on their own standards).

Some said that we need to fix the teacher certification problem. Yes, we do. However, even the best teacher will be severely handicapped if they are burdened by poor subject standards, poor textbooks, and must have their students pass poor tests.

Some people are only paying attention to what is happening in higher education. Yes, that is important, but K-12 education sets the stage for what happens later. Without fixing the K-12 part, we have zero chance of fixing the higher-ed part.

Several said that the federal government should get out of education. Yes, they need to substantially reduce their footprint. Some states are looking into whether the education money they get from the federal government, exceeds the cost for compliance monitoring, etc. Good idea! However that said, the states are the primary controllers of what our children are taught, not the federal government.

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Once we have a better understanding of how our bureaucratic education system works, the obvious conclusion is that until state standards (e.g., for Science) are fixed, everything else is doing little more than re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

The GOOD NEWS is that standards are fixable, at relatively low cost, and can be done fairly quickly. Please read the Report for the details. [Although the Report is 36 pages long, the heart of it is only five (5) pages. The rest is optional elaborations.]

The target audience of this revolutionary Report is State Education Department leaders, and State Boards of Education. The secondary audience is teachers, parents, citizens, scientists, legislators, conservative organizations, sympathetic media, etc.

If you are interested in making a major improvement to the US Education System, please read this Report. If not, please pass this info on to someone who is.

To fix this, quickly, we need to be of one mind on this matter. Taking the rifle approach will be MUCH more effective than our current shotgun strategy.

PS — If you have some connection to your state’s Board of Education, and you think that they might be receptive to the solutions in my Report, please let me know as I’d be glad to make a formal presentation to them.

PPS — The Report is a living document. As I get good suggestions I’ll update the report and change the revision date on it.

* My prior commentaries here on this topic are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Postscript, Equality vs Equity, and The Left’s American Education Strategy.