Public education gets an F
To the editor:
The public school system in the United States is an abysmal failure. The best case scenario is getting the federal government out of the picture along with all teacher unions. The entire education infrastructure is nothing more than a cash cow for the ones it employs. I am sick of hearing how under funded the school system is or how education dollars are “for the children” — it for the pockets of the teachers and administrators. The United States spends more per student than any other industrialized country in the world with pathetic results.
International rankings
The three-yearly OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics
School vouchers should be a no brainer! A little competition goes a long way. Private schools are controlled locally and answer only to the parents of the students. School vouchers would allow parents to pick a school that will actually teach students and not strive to crank out mindless, conformist, group think clones with a herd mentality who have been instructed what to think instead of how to think. Instructing students how to think critically just might produce free thinking independent individuals. The elected aristocracy in the United States loath educated, independent individuals because they don’t just accept what the power elite say as the gospel truth, making them more difficult to govern.
Brian Cassatt
Lehigh Acres