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POINT/COUNTERPOINT: EDUCATION "QUAGMIRE"
 Larry Brewster, Ph. D., M. Sc., Hot Dog Vendor Near Department of Education Building, Washington DC We are losing the war on illiteracy. Spending for public education has continually increased at the state and local level in the last twenty years. The National Center for Education Statistics indicates that expenditures increased by approximately 47% (in real dollars) from 1987 through 2001, with expected increased averaging more than an additional 30% before 2012. The results of this spending increase? Only 70% of all students in public high schools graduate; only 32% of all students leave high school qualified to attend four-year colleges. More than half of the students who do manage to graduate from high school do not possess even the minimal requirements needed to apply to a four-year college or university. Source: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_03.htm. Large increases in spending are not increasing literacy or graduation rates. It is time that we admit defeat and pull out of education. Spending more and more money in a losing effort - a quagmire, if you will - simply makes no sense. COUNTERPOINT: KIDS THINK THAT 32% PASS RATE IS OVER HALF, ISN'T THAT GOOD ENOUGH?
 Stan Fielding, Teacher 5th grade, PS 142 in New Jersey, prepares lesson plan on "Beowulf" despite small arms fire from gym. Comparing the current education system to Viet Nam is over the top and completely undeserved. For one thing, English and math scores from students in Viet Nam are much higher than most U.S. high schools. For another, the vast majority of kids under 10th grade in the United States are not nearly as well armed as the average Viet Cong was in the 60's. Knives, small arms, and the occasional shotgun are much more prevalent than fully automatic weapons, at least outside of California. Simply put, calling the present system a "sucking vortex that - without any substantive oversight - voraciously devours our money without showing any real returns" is unfair, especially since the people that this criticism is aimed at have no idea what many oif those words mean. |
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