Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.
There is no doubt. The oxygen supply to America’s brain has been cut off. We have, in this country, what I call a NASAL (Nobody absolutely serious about learning) crowd.
Who would believe that a country that has landed men on the moon, invented the automobile, airplane, telephone, the internet and founded almost every other major breakthrough in society can’t educate its children.
Well, now I know why. A while back, I heard an educator, a professor from a major university, discussing a new math—constructivist math. It’s based on a reasonable answer theory – not right or wrong- but reasonable. I swear it’s true. Nobody could make this stuff up.
With a straight face, this man discussed the merits of the reasonable or viable answer theory. He said we mustn’t tell the little ones that their wrong answer is wrong, or should we relay to them that there is only one right answer. It’s important that the child feel good about his answer, he said. Can you believe this psychobabble?
Goals 2000, which was signed into law in 1994 by President Clinton, was supposed to be the catalyst to finally fix our education system. None of the original eight goals were met. American schools fell far short of the two most important goals, for the U.S. students to be first in the world in Math and Science and for students in the 4th, 8th and 12th grades to demonstrate competence in core subjects.
It’s hard to underestimate the importance of students’ education. The economic stakes are very high. Thirty countries outperform the United States in Math in high school. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, our young people tied for dead last on tests of mathematics and problem solving among millennials in the workforces of all the industrial countries that did testing.
So let’s see if we have this right. We have the worst educated workforce in the entire industrialized world. Our workers are among the highest paid in the world and that makes us uncompetitive in a global market.
Of course, competency tests have also been a disappointment. When students have failed to pass, the usual happens. Attack the test as unfair and underfunded and sue. New York and Massachusetts established absurdly low passing grades for students. Lawsuits were filed in Texas and Florida because too few students passed the tests. In California, an exam committee recommended that the high school graduation requirement be based on the 7th grade curriculum. Hawaii eliminated altogether the requirement to pass an exam in order to graduate.
Our political leaders have no answers. We are now at least attempting to do national testing. It will be hard to reach consensus on this issue, because the Republicans oppose anything with the word “national” in front (and rightly so) and the Democrats oppose any kind of “test”.
Our students may not know much academically and may not be able to compete with other countries, but their self-esteem is intact. No problem here. Their sex education is probably ranked near the top as well.
Of course, the reasons we hear are, the class size is too big and not enough funding. That’s pure dribble and if you believe it, you must have been inhaling. Class sizes are smaller than in the past (I remember 33 in my 3rd grade class) and funding has been increasing dramatically since the 1983 report, “Nation at Risk.”
The only answer to improving our education system, I am convinced, is to break up the education monopoly, give parents a choice in where to send their kids to school, and hold educators accountable. Why is school choice to the education establishment like a red flag to a bull? What are they afraid of? If they’re doing a good job, they have nothing to fear. Why is choice sacrosanct when it comes to abortion, but not when it comes to choosing the schools our children attend? If the goal is, as it should be, educating children, then they should be willing to try anything to change the trend of the downward spiral in education.
Some of the inner-city schools in this country have become nothing more than a jobs program for educators. This is appalling. The priority for everyone should be educating our children.
Thank Heavens, Goals 2000 is behind us. Then we moved to No Child Left Behind. No single child was left behind. It appears that they have all been left behind.
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Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.