Birth Certificate to Say Baby Has 2 Moms

Wait, wait a second -- your kids don't go to public/gubmint schools? Sorry, you've forfeited your right to enact change in them.

He's paying for them. Of course he has a right to enact change in them, just as he has a right to enact change in any government institution.

Moreover, we are our brother's keeper, and we have a duty to speak out against wrongs, whether or not we're contributing to these wrongs financially or otherwise.

People assume that a Mercedes is better than a Toyota, etc. etc. -- except when it comes to education. When it comes to education the rules no longer apply.

Because they don't. Spending and quality of education are largely unrelated.

There is no evidence that simply increasing spending improves education. If there is one lesson that should have been learned about education, it is that money does not cure the problems ailing America's schools. The most comprehensive survey of spending and performance was conducted by Professor Eric Hanushek, chairman of the Economics Department at the University of Rochester. After reviewing close to 400 studies of student achievement, Hanushek found no strong or consistent relationship between student performance and school resources, at least after variations in family inputs are taken into account. 1 The latest American Legislative Exchange Council Report Card on American Education underscores this conclusion. 2 Typical was New Jersey, which had the highest per-pupil expenditure ($10,241) in the 1996-1997 school year and the second smallest pupil-to-teacher ratio. New Jersey received nearly 50 percent of its public education funding from federal sources, yet its students ranked 39th on the 1998 Scholastic Aptitude Test. Conversely, Minnesota, which ranked 27th in per-pupil spending ($5,826), received the highest ranking in student achievement on the same test.
The Folly of an Education Spending Race

Also, don't make the mistake of equating schooling and education.

When government school teachers send their kids to private school you should wonder why.

For decades, government school teachers have sent their children to private schools at twice the rate of the general population.

It's the dirty little secret of government schooling.

Public schools no place for teachers' kids
By George Archibald
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
More than 25 percent of public school teachers in Washington and Baltimore send their children to private schools, a new study reports.
Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools.
In Washington (28 percent), Baltimore (35 percent) and 16 other major cities, the figure is more than 1 in 4. In some cities, nearly half of the children of public school teachers have abandoned public schools.
In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, 41 percent; Chicago, 39 percent; Rochester, N.Y., 38 percent. The same trends showed up in the San Francisco-Oakland area, where 34 percent of public school teachers chose private schools for their children; 33 percent in New York City and New Jersey suburbs; and 29 percent in Milwaukee and New Orleans.
Michael Pons, spokesman for the National Education Association, the 2.7-million-member public school union, declined a request for comment on the study's findings.

I disagree. It is precisely our social mores that make us who we are as a nation. If we no longer wish to form "a more perfect union" and strive for the ideals of our founding as enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Federalist Papers, et al, we will cease to be a nation at all.

Maybe this particular instance won't empty the sandbox but the sand is shifting under our feet...

You are correct. People who think that the juggernaut of moral decay taking place in this country won't bring it down, are people who have no understanding of the fabric that made this country what it is. Nor do they demonstrate any awareness of what has happened throughout history when this level of moral decay takes root. If it isn't checked--and there's less than zero evidence that it will be--this great nation will indeed destroy itself from within. It's inevitable.

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