The problem with public education is that it has nothing to do with education, it’s politics. Public school systems are political institutions, administered, run and funded by bureaucrats for political expedience. Is there anyone who doesn’t understand the inherent inefficiencies, half-truths and political horse trading of politics? People you wouldn’t trust to babysit your kids but who you trust to educate them?
Any politician’s priorities are to his party first then to his political capital. Schoolboard decisions, regardless what it is, has nothing to do with what’s best for the school, the kid’s education or the community. Schoolboard bureaucrats have to ‘play ball’ according to their party’s platform and do whatever’s necessary to get reelected. And like all elected officials, there are no qualifications required to be on a schoolboard and no work experience required, anyone from the community can be elected, just get the most votes. That should seem odd, shouldn’t it? Have you ever heard of an organization deciding who will fill a job vacancy simply by popular vote rather than the best person for the job by education, experience, qualifications, interviews and internal discussions?
School budgets and teacher salaries are not determined by their value to the market, they are just line items in a state budget set by political policy. And like all political policy they are susceptible to corruption. When school budgets depend on student performance, teachers and administrators will sacrifice their professional integrity and principles and do whatever it takes to protect their budgets and salaries, even lie and cheat. The list of such scandals in public education is far too long to list here and annual statistics show that the more money public schools get, it has little to no effect on student performance. Internationally, American students don’t even rank in the top 20 in reading, mathematics and science while public school budgets have skyrocketed.
The politics of public education strips children of their individuality, it standardizes education and treats every kid as if they learn the same way, they don’t. It expects them to test what they’ve learned in the same way, they can’t. If public schools really cared about education, that should seem odd too shouldn’t it? Can teachers and ‘educators’ not look at the kids and see how wonderfully different they are or do they choose to ignore their diversity because that would require real effort and concern for student education which would eat into the budget. Political budgets are fixed pies, every institution getting their slice with which to make do. If public school bureaucrats waste money on education, they might not have enough money left for themselves and we can’t have that.
So what is primary education, what does it even mean, the problem has to be defined before it can be solved. What do children need to learn and what’s the best way for them to learn it? It seems reasonable that children need to learn some basic skills like reading, writing and arithmetic in order to equip themselves with the tools to learn more advanced topics. Since every child is an individual and learns differently, the learning needs of each student need to be evaluated and a method designed to meet those needs. Who knows these kids better than their parents? Who better to teach their kids the simplest things like reading, writing and arithmetic, how hard is that really?
After they’ve learned those basic skills it seems reasonable they should learn whatever they want, whatever they’re interested in and the parents can foster interest by providing opportunities. Before public schools, parents would pay mentors and artisans to teach their kids similar to what parents do today with after school music, art and sports activities. Why can’t they do the same thing with any academic or trade skill from engineering to automotive mechanics?
Why must children learn history if they’re not interested in history? If they want to know something about history they can Google it. Why must children learn geography if they’re not interested in geography? If they want to know something about geography they can Google it. Why must children learn anything they’re not interested in? If they want to know something they can Google it or watch online educational videos like Khan Academy or any number of others and then ask their parents for clarification if needed.
The truth is that public education is a failed experiment which consumes scarce resources and provides no benefit to the students or the community. Just another one of many government institutions that redistributes wealth from those who produced it to those who didn’t. But it does provide ostensibly free babysitting for parents too busy living the ‘American Dream’ to be bothered with their kids’ education.