Many parents might think it a bit farfetched to compare our public schools to schools in socialist or communist countries. However, if we look closer, we will see striking similarities between the two systems.
In the former socialist-communist Soviet Union, for example, the government owned all property and all the schools. In America, public schools are also government property, controlled by local government officials. In Soviet Russia, the government forced all parents to send their children to government-controlled schools. In America, compulsory-attendance laws in all fifty states force parents to send their children to public schools.
The Soviet rulers taxed all their subjects to pay for their schools. Here, all taxpayers pay compulsory school taxes to support public schools, whether or not the homeowner has children or thinks the schools are incompetent. In the Soviet Union, all teachers were government employees, and these officials controlled and managed the schools. In America, teachers, principals, administrators, and school janitors are also government employees, paid, trained, and pensioned through government taxes.
In the Soviet Union, most government employees could not be fired they had a "right" to their jobs. Public-school employees in America also believe they have an alleged right to their jobs, enforced through tenure laws. As we will see later, in America, it's almost impossible to fire tenured teachers. In communist Russia, competence and working hard didn't matter very much - the government paid most workers regardless of their performance on the job.
In America, public-school teachers' salaries depend on length of service competence is irrelevant. In communist Russia, the elite ruling class had estates in the countryside while peasants starved. Here, public-school authorities get fat salaries, pensions, and benefits while our children starve for a real education.
In communist Russia, government control of food supplies created eighty years of chronic famine. In America, one hundred and fifty years of public schools has created an educational famine. Millions of public-school children can barely read while the system wastes twelve years of our children's lives.
Still think the comparison to communist schools is too farfetched? Albert Shanker, former President of the American Federation of Teachers, the second largest teacher's union, once said: "It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everyone's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve. It more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy."
Finally, schools in some communist countries like China seem to give a better, more disciplined education in the basics of reading, writing, and math than our public schools. International math and reading test-score comparisons often find American kids lagging far behind children from China.
But what values do Chinese communist schools teach their children? Here is another apt comparison between communist schools and our public schools. In both cases, either a central or local government controls the curriculum and the values it chooses to teach its students. The Chinese government can and does indoctrinate all school children with its communist ideology and loyalty to the communist leaders.
Similarly, in our public schools, left-leaning school authorities control the curriculum and the values they teach our children. In many public schools, values-clarification programs and distorted American history courses in many public schools now indoctrinate our children with anti-parent, anti-religion, and anti-American values. In both communist schools and our government-controlled public schools, parents cannot (with a few exceptions) stop school authorities from teaching harmful or immoral values to their children.
Question --- Do socialist, compulsory, government-controlled public schools belong in America, the land of the free?
Joel Turtel is the author of "Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children."
Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com,
Email: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com,
Phone: 718-447-7348.
Article Copyrighted ? 2005 by Joel Turtel.
NOTE: You may post this Article on another website only if you set up a hyperlink to Joel Turtel's email address and website URL, http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com
How can any human being today, anywhere in this world,... Read More
The resignation from cabinet yesterday, Sunday, by the Israeli minister... Read More
The gun control debate in America is a battle between... Read More
After 9-11 insurance rates on Independent Truck Drivers and smaller... Read More
Due to the bizarre weather patterns this winter California got... Read More
THE ROSICRUCIAN COUNCIL OF THREE:A Thelema/OTO leader who became a... Read More
Hitler received a legacy from his Rothschild relations in Vienna... Read More
1) IS HAVING A DEMOCRACY MORE EFFECTIVE IN ADDRESSING POLITICAL... Read More
It cities across America water is an issue, the flow... Read More
Sodomy is against the law, yet goes on every day... Read More
Businesses advertising alcohol either in TV or non-broadcast format need... Read More
An American soldier is taken behind enemy lines and brainwashed... Read More
We are currently seeing a build up in China of... Read More
In the future when we decide to help nations vote... Read More
Sizing up North Korea is important for a war there.... Read More
This is the third in a short series of four... Read More
The devastating loss in case of Elliot Spitzer for NY... Read More
Recently in Professional Builder a cover article discussed how the... Read More
We are told by out leadership that we risk loss... Read More
ADOLF HITLER:The common perception of Hitler being large and in... Read More
I, too, am saddened by the disaster in New Orleans... Read More
After the dance the piper must be paid. To help... Read More
I watch the TV news and I get angry. I... Read More
SYNOD OF DRUM CEATT (494 - 5):It is interesting to... Read More
Many of the problems that the members of the European... Read More
home sanitizing services Lake Forest ...Societies have always had a problem of what to do... Read More
Aren't you glad you purchased Alaska? You got a bargain,... Read More
What depth of blind insanity has inflicted itself upon Israel's... Read More
With pain rocking through my whole body today, I cast... Read More
Kudos goes out to the George Walker Bush's Administration and... Read More
The problem of poverty in America comes as a surprise.... Read More
There is a connection between economic growth and unemployment. There... Read More
For the business community 9-11 changed everything. In our company,... Read More
Pierre Dupont de Nemours:After arranging the Armistice that ended or... Read More
Unions are angry at the high salary of the executives... Read More
Currently the US Army is having trouble recruiting. These problems... Read More
Despite their signature on the Biological Weapons Convention of 1975,... Read More
Is it just me or are you concerned that illegal... Read More
Blessed with Chinese GDP growth rates (7-8% annually in each... Read More
If slavery has not worked well, then cloning if it... Read More
I applaud Monsanto for their R and D. I would... Read More
MUD ? Much Unnecessary DisclosureThe Federal Trade Commission recently asserted... Read More
Rational, sober, logical citizens wonder what exactly the terrorists want.... Read More
Proposed changes to the Sex Discrimination Act ("SDA") 1975 and... Read More
The United States has enemies, which call the country the... Read More
I. WARS ARE BASIC CONFLICTS OVER LAND. II. BOUNDARIES. THE... Read More
Most politicians are completely out to lunch and totally Machiavellian... Read More
In Belarus parliament is going to struggle with degeneration of... Read More
An idea to defend oil infrastructure in the Middle East... Read More
Our Hydro-electricity accounts for some 20% of our current needs.... Read More
Political |