United Liberty

For those who went to public school, did you ever wonder what that 13 years of education cost the people who were shelling the dough? (By that I mean your parents, your neighbors, and anyone paying taxes.) For those who didn’t go to public school, this still applies to you. Because you subsidized my education. Thanks! (Suckers…)

Anyway, this so-called free schooling actually did cost something. But how much? Well it turns out it probably cost more than the administrators were letting on. My Cato colleague Adam Schaeffer, an education policy expert, examined some of the largest school districts and found that they have been underreporting the actual costs.

And as the title of his new study (“They Spend WHAT?”) lets on, we’re not just talking a few nickels and dimes on pencil expenses. This is some serious taxpayer cash. Before I let him explain it all in the video below, here’s the money quote:

It is impossible to have a public debate about education policy if public schools can’t be straight forward about their spending.

Exactly. Watch:

A judge in New Hampshire is forcing a child to attend a government school because she needs to be exposed to what he deems are appropriate social settings:

The mother Brenda Kurowski Voydatch seems to be a Christian who is instructing her daughter Amanda in her faith, as good parents should. The father Martin Kurowski, however, seems ambivalent at best toward the Christian faith, and also seems unwilling to participate in Amanda’s homeschooling when he has custody of her.

The disagreement has led to the court getting involved, and Judge Lucinda V. Sadler has ordered Amanda to attend public school full time.

The judge’s opinion makes it clear on Page 7 that academic performance is not an issue: “it is clear that the home schooling Ms. Voydatch has provided has more than kept up with the academic requirements of the Meredith public school system.”

It goes on, on the same page, to make it clear that the agenda is not the student Amanda’s education, but her “socialization.” Apparently our education system has the dual role of social engineering: in the minds of elitists like this judge, one must have their heads properly filled with socialist mush before the job of educating a child can be considered complete.

The article points out that the child had already been attending some classes at a local government school, things that can’t be done in the homeschooling setting.

I really doubt a higher court will hold this ruling up (you can read the judge’s order here), but you never know. No government should tell a parent how to educate their child, especially when the judge acknowledge that her education isn’t the problem. So what if she isn’t being exposed certain social settings?

Excellent job, Reason Magazine!! Yes, the Obama administration is effectively kicking low income black children out of private schools and putting them back into shitty inner city public schools. All the while, Obama is sending his own kids to an elite private school. This is by far the worst policy aspect of the Obama administration, in my personal view.

Another unfortunate aspect of this is that the Obama supporters in this video who have been stabbed in the back don’t really have another place to go. The Republican Party knows how to communicate to homeschoolers and those who send their kids to Christian private schools but has almost no one in its party who would be able to seriously communicate with the people in this video.

After the latest school shooting in Germany, I think we all need to get together and decide to get serious about ending school violence – by banning schools!

Something goes on in modern schools that lead more and more young people to grab guns and blow away their teachers and classmates.

School shootings are even more numerous than shootings at Post Offices or other Government buildings. So, we need to take drastic measures and ban all schools.

Who’s with me?

Anyone participating in the public school system as a student, parent or teacher is aware that slashes in the budget have affected supplies and resources for the classroom.  I’ve heard local parents complaining that the yearly “school supplies” list contains things like toilet paper, which used to be provided by the school system. And many teachers are having to reach into their own wallets to make up the difference.

But one San Diego calculus teacher took a more creative approach to filling in the gap-

It’s not news that the nation’s public school districts need serious overhauling.

One woman is trying to do something. Michelle Rhee, the superintendent of Washington D.C.’s public school district, is, according to an article at Slate, attempting to bring new teachers into the schools and cut down on the number of ineffective tenured teachers. This, of course, puts her in confrontation with the teacher’s unions (who are usually the villains in these scenarios). Instead of cowtowing to them, she apparently has a plan to bypass them:

As most schools in the Atlanta area are beginning their ‘08-‘09 school year and summer vacation ends, I am reminded once again about the money pit that is public/government education. As we dump our tax dollars into it, we are getting less of a return on our investment with each successive year of unacceptable results.

A local school system, which will remain nameless, averaged spending over $13,000 per student in 2004 (the most recent year I could find information). Their academic reputation is certainly not one that would influence me to send my child there. In fact, the superintendent’s focal point for the 2007-2008 school year was identifying gang members and prohibiting their freedom of expression through symbols, gestures, and colors. It is not a focus on ensuring the best education for the students in the county’s educational system. It is not a focus on teaching methods to reach the students. It is not a focus on achieving something, but rather a focus on something that can be easily eliminated in a school choice scenario.