Posted by
Brian Koenig on Thursday, March 05, 2009 11:49:01 AM
It is evident that the United States’ reduced literacy rates and proficiency ratings are a result of a failed education system. Not only are our children not improving academically, they are declining in many areas, particularly in the reading and math subjects. What is the answer to this problem? Two of the most common liberal responses are increased government funding and increased teachers’ salaries; just like everything else, “increased” government is the answer.
First things first, is increased funding the answer? The Bush Administration has INCREASED funding for education over 40% since 2001! Does this mean George Bush supports education 40% more than Bill Clinton did? I don’t think so. This seems to be Bush’s attempt to disprove the liberal claim that all Republicans are “ANTI-education”, but the problem is that flat, and sometimes declining education rates have shown that Bush’s desperate ploy for education reform has failed. Who would have thought that increasing government control is not the solution to all of our problems? We have almost 50% more educational funding then we did 7 years ago and our children are not any less dumb! Why is this? Because CORRELATION does not guarantee CAUSATION.
Funding is NOT the problem, it is poor educators. The District of Columbia has the 3rd highest per-child expenditure rate in the nation, spending $500 million a year, and the 8th highest paid teachers. Guess what? Their student performance ranks lowest in the nation for 4th and 8th grade reading and math! Funding certainly has corrected their problem hasn’t it? Like I said, CORRELATION does not guarantee CAUSATION.
I think most people agree, even conservatives, that our educators need to be paid a fair & competitive salary. Currently, the national average is $42,000, which is for 9 months of mandatory work. This equals to $4,667 per month. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to say that this is excessive, because I believe that educators are one of the most important ASSETS to our society. I am simply trying to debate that the typical leftist retort, “teacher’s are not paid enough”, is false. I also believe that if teachers’ salaries were much higher, we would have an even higher surplus of deficient educators. Why wouldn’t anyone desire this line of work if they got a soaring salary with a 9 month work year? If the average educator salary was say, $70,000, do you really think that our quality of educators would increase? No way. Individuals with caring, empathetic personalities that have a PASSION for schooling are who we want educating our children, not individuals whose solitary motivation is monetary.
Ideas for educational reform will come later…