Is Our Children Learning? by Patrick J. Buchanan
Apparently not in the twin capitals of liberalism, D.C. and New York.
In a ranking of 50 states and D.C. by how much each spent per pupil in public schools in 2005, New York ranked first; D.C. third. The state spent $14,100, and New York City just a tad less.
And the bountiful fruits of this massive transfer of taxpayers’ wealth?
In D.C., nearly half of all black and Latino students drop out. Of those who graduate, nearly half are reading and doing math at seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade levels. D.C. academic achievement ranks 51st, last in the U.S.
Yet last week came a report from New York that makes D.C look like M.I.T. Some 200 students, in their first math class at City University of New York, were tested on their basic math skills.
Ninety percent could not do basic algebra. One-third could not convert a decimal into a fraction.
If this was a representative sampling, nine in 10 CUNY students not only do not belong in college, they do not qualify for their high school diplomas. As for that third who can’t do decimals and fractions, they should not have been allowed into high school until they could do sixth-grade math.
As 70 percent of all CUNY students are graduates of city schools, a question arises: What are the taxpayers of New York getting for the highest tax rates in the nation?
If a private business annually turned out products that were of inferior quality than the year before, management would be thrown out by the board. Yet, the education racket has been shaking us down for four decades, and turning out graduates that know less and less.
Scholastic Aptitude Test scores peaked around 1964. Ever since, the national average has been in an almost unbroken descent.
Source:
Is Our Children Learning?
takimag.com
One Comment on “Is Our Children Learning? by Patrick J. Buchanan”
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At the University of Texas in Austin, Prof. David Prindle, my former Gov. professor was forced to equalize grades. He refused. Eventually he took his case to the Supreme Court and LOST.
When I taught school, I did not get to see the financial largess forcefully taken from the taxpayer’s pockets in my own salary. I might have stayed on in the unpleasant job if I had such money thrown at me. What such money cannot buy are quality students, quality parents and as such NO amount of money will fix this retarded Humpty Dumpty.
I advised parents who had good children that were lost in the garbage of Public “Education” to get their kids out asap! Private school or home school but the mess that is public school will not assist good children but rather dumb them down and pollute the their minds with the sludge of current day society. They seemed surprised. I rather suspect that many just did not want the problem to handled by any institution other than the STATE. I admonished them to do the right thing. Delay the new car purchase… and help their children avoid the banal caverns of public school as many public school teachers do with their own children! I am certain that some did.
My own father had no shoes when he and many of his fellow classmates went to school and yet he received an education, a great education! But then, he and his classmates for the most part were worlds away better than what constitutes for “students” today. And per teachers, heavens! There were so many marginal teachers out there that I met, I was stunned but then many of those had long since seen the situation as hopeless and just burrowed in for the long haul just to reach retirement. Affirmative Action produced, shoved out, truly ludicrous, laughable “teachers”, individuals who could hardly speak or write English.
Pat, 1964 a peak?! Humm, 1965 the start of mass immigration of 3rd world peoples. Any chance there is a connection? You can put as much expensive lipstick on this pig and in the end you have a weird, creepy looking pig.