The Department of Education?????

There is no constitutional authority for the federal government to be involved in education. And the DOE makes things worse.

Mayor Bloomberg laying off teachers

Mayor Bloomberg is just one of many politicians and school boards that are laying off teachers across the country.

In today’s government-controlled education system, the primary tool for controlling costs is the layoff. If your only tool is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail.

If elementary and high school education was chiefly performed by the private sector (even if it was funded via a voucher system paid for by government) we would have a much bigger variety of responses to financial difficulties. If we had thousands of different schools each with slightly different business models and all competing for students, we would have adaption in thousands of different ways that did not always come down to layoffs (although that would sure be one arrow in the quiver). This experimentation and adaption would lead to a better product.
One school might simply meet with the teachers and get broad agreement for a 10% across-the-board pay cut. Another school might ask the teachers to take on 10% more students. Another might ask each teacher to teach 10% more hours for the same pay.

But more importantly we would also see some fundamental experimentation that we rarely see in the public sector. One school might rely seriously on computer-assisted learning for more of the curriculum. Another might use master teachers to lecture (yes there still might be some of this) to thousands of students at a time via video links. Another might use non-credentialed seniors (that could provide grandmotherly encouragement) to the kind of love and attention that pays off in learning.

Some schools might limit their curriculum and leave important subjects like music, dance, and physical exercise to other institutions rather trying to bundle them into their school experience.

But our current union-led education system has one huge problem: It is poor at adapting. In a Darwinian world where schools and teaching methods that were not keeping pace would close, the problem would solve itself over time. That is why we need to turn back elementary and high school education to a competitive private sector. Our children would learn more and learn it faster. And even though government would still be footing the bill, the taxpayer would also save.

College grad lauded for graduating without working hard!

A very funny piece in The Onion.

"This month the University of Minnesota senior will become the first member of his family to graduate from college without ever having to work hard, apply himself, or expend more than a bare minimum of effort." Very funny piece if it was not so true.

" 'I don't think Daniel is taking his studies seriously,' Peterson's father says. 'When he comes home, I never see him crack a book. He's always out with his friends or on the Xbox. And now he's talking about maybe going to grad school. This is everything a father could want for his son,' he adds. 'I am so proud.' "

Proposed 28th Amendment

Received this via an email and have modified and edited ever so slightly.

No one has been able to explain to me why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay during retirement. While Politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense.

Staffers of Congress and family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. Is there work so noble, that they get to walk away?

Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. But it only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention. So can we enlist 3 more states?

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.

Here is a proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."