[iowamark]

Mr. Murdoch is chairman and CEO of News Corporation, which owns The Wall Street Journal. This article is adapted from his remarks this week to the Media Institute in Washington, D.C.

[Doogle]

"who say's they ain't?"

[Objective Scrutator]

Fundamentally, the problem is that we have public schools. Public schools have little motivation to increase their standards, as they are not really in competition with other schools (going to any private school costs significantly more than a public school). It doesn't help that teachers' unions are greatly in favor of retaining some of the most worthless members of our society to deal with our children. It's a small miracle our average child can even answer four questions on the ACT. Furthermore, the ACLU has made it its personal mission to slap a felony on any child which appeals to the LORD for assistance and to glorify Him. They may not have succeeded with this plan yet, but our pious children are well aware that their personal faith is under assault; as a result, their performance in school plummets. The amount of money which should be allotted to families for their children is open to debate. What empirical evidence howls for us to implement, however, is for all schools to be privately owned, and to cater to private standards without allowing the federal government to intervene. In this way, competition and Christ will be commonplace in our schools, and our children will no longer have to deal with scurrilous ruffian classmates and mentally incompetent but sexually unrestrained teachers.

[pnh102]

If someone wants to drop out of school that is that person’s own problem. Instead of wasting resources on motivating people who do not want to be in school to be in school, why not focus on students who want to work hard and make something of themselves? Even if it is a small number of students, they could excel greatly if only the resources being wasted on dropouts were instead invested in these students.

[Nea Wood]

American Idol has no problem saying that not everyone can sing equally well; that someone like Carrie Underwood deserves to continue in the competition and win, while a William Hung does not. American Idol would never give trophies to everybody in the competition so that nobody’s “self-esteem” would be hurt. When Simon was on the show, he had no problem telling people they were untalented and should go into a different line of work. Maybe schools SHOULD take a lesson from the show!