December 21, 2005

Recently, the Democrat Party came out with a ‘new agenda,’ which they claim helps to address the U.S.’s declining lead in the high-tech industry. Much of their agenda is the typical political stuff, basically attempts to lure high-tech companies into funneling money into their party. Parts of their agenda are no different than the agenda of Republicans in that it attempts to coerce businesses to function in specific ways, rather than allowing the free market to influence business behavior.

However, there was one part of their ‘initiative’ that really caught my eye. Democrats claim that since there aren’t enough students excelling in science and math, an incentive needs to be put in place. Some ‘genius’ came up with the brilliant idea, as part of the overall effort to influence people’s actions and get more folks into high-tech industry, to offer tuition assistance and raise the salaries of math and science teachers.

There are several things wrong with this short sighted ‘solution.’ First, providing tuition assistance for specific studies will unduly influence people to enter these fields. I know that’s what Democrats want to do, but the odds are that people who really shouldn’t be in the fields of science and math will gravitate towards those studies just to get the money. We could see growth in the number of students and teachers in these areas, but they likely will have less than the desired abilities for math and science, thus giving us a large supply of unqualified math and science teachers. This won’t address the concerns of the high-tech industry.

Second, giving raises to the math and science teachers who are currently not producing the improvements in student performance that are desired is beyond idiotic. What company could stay in business if it kept giving raises and bonuses to employees who didn’t produce the desired results? Why reward failure?

As is so often the case, politicians want to apply a band-aid to an injury that requires major surgery. Throwing money at people won’t solve the problem of American students performing poorly in math and science compared to other industrialized nations. If we want to see solid results, a major overhaul is needed.

For starters, the feds have got to get out of the way. This means abolishing the Department of Education, which is nothing more than a boat anchor around the neck of state and local educators, not to mention an unconstitutional federal agency spending billions they shouldn’t have access to. Once the federal bureaucrats are out of the way, then it will be up to the states to take on their own entrenched PC administrators who are more interested in ‘teaching to the test’ to look good, rather than producing true results.

You want kids that excel at math and science? How about setting strict standards and enforcing them? Not just PC testing goals, but strict standards on classroom behavior, demands for homework, lots of it, and aggressive pursuit of the basics in math and science. Throw calculators out of the classroom and demand the kids actually memorize addition and multiplication tables, as well as all the formulas needed in geometry, trig, etc.

Set expectations high for teachers engaging students and students complying, and quit cutting students slack concerning their performance. Don’t worry about their precious self-esteem. True self-esteem is born out of taking on a challenge, working hard, and achieving a level of success. False self-esteem is this ‘2 plus 2 equals 5 if it makes you feel good’ stuff. That’s what our educational systems have been doing for years, and look where it’s gotten us. The U.S. put men on the moon with math and science experts that grew up doing the basics and learning self-esteem from doing a challenging job well. What have we gotten since embracing the PC approach to education?

Instead of doing the same dumb thing over and over (throwing money at the problem), how about taking a look at the countries that are leading the way, educationally, in math and science? Look at South Korea, Japan, and other industrialized nations that rank at or near the top in educating their kids in math and science. What are their techniques? We should analyze and borrow what we can in how they approach education in these areas. This should appeal to the multiculturalists; embracing the methodologies of other cultures. This should also appeal to people who really care about our kids getting a good education: the results!

If the Democrats get their way, they’ll be doing what government always does: throwing good money after bad down a pit. Government (at all levels) needs to get off the backs of teachers and let them teach their subjects, not taking up all their time with PC clap-trap. Administrators need to set clear, legitimate expectations on the qualifications of teachers and then back their teachers up in the performance of their duties, which is to educate students. That education should be in math, science, history, literature, and maybe one or two other topics. Teaching tolerance, diversity, use of a condom, and all the other non-academic things schools waste their time on should be reserved to parents, churches, and other outside sources.

Financial incentives are not in themselves a bad thing, but they should be paid out on the back end. Enticements given to lure people into teaching have proven to not draw the best and brightest to teaching, and have a track record of failure in bringing about the desired results. Quality teaching and longevity in the career field, in combination, should be rewarded. Let someone prove they are worthy of the financial incentive first.

Jeff Adams

(Editor's Note: History proves that it is impossible to "reform" government this way in the long run. We had high hopes that Russia had thrown off communism and adopted the free market, but close scrutiny reveals that the few "reforms" attempted were short lived and that the totalitarian state is rapidly wiping out any real progress toward liberty.

Those who think they can indulge in giving government some authority for specific ends and maintain tight control are fooling themselves. It's all in the (real) history of the world. )

Published originally at EtherZone.com

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