Education, Politics, and the Future of Our Republic - It's Serious, Let's Discuss Our Schools

It's difficult to change very much in education, especially on any
sort of short time table. Not long ago, I was discussing this topic
with an acquaintance of mine and he made a rather interesting
observation along this line, and he stated that there is quite a bit
of "cultural resistance" as well as a strong "desire to preserve the
status quo, which has resulted in more failed schools than ever" and
with that said, it reminded me of some of the challenges we have in
this great nation with real substantive change, that is to say changes
needed in our educational system.It's amazing, in CA our teachers
union rules the streets, both main and Wall Street it seems sometimes
CALPERS. This is indeed unfortunate that teachers unions have been
largely responsible for the stagnation that we've seen in education.
At least in the competitive marketplace, companies need to innovate in
order to survive. Then I thought of those who've tried to change the
way we teach in K-12.You see, one very upsetting case to me was how
the FTC went after "Hooked on Phonics" company and ran them out of
business because the teacher's lobby had their Senator go to the FTC
and tell them to investigate the company. They destroyed that man's
life, his company, and that's just the way this system works. It's
quite pathetic and the hypocrisy is so alarming.This is why I hold
short on condemning free-market competition from private sector
colleges. Have you read "Phoenix Risen" by John Sperling which is the
story of the University of Phoenix? You should, and then I recommend
treading Catherine Crier's book; The Case Against Lawyers - and how
lawyers have changed our education system sometimes for the worse.If
we over manage the classrooms we take away incentives. When the
incentive is taken away, all you have left is a political struggle
that generally gets nowhere. And, remember this as Congresses remains
deadlocked, and politicians and administrations change long before any
reforms have a chance to yield any measurable results. Still, I find
the whole "No Child Allowed to Advance" problematic in so many
regards, it's been a problem in CA, but I see the teachers in GA, AL
and other places say it's done a lot of good, as kids can now read and
write when they graduate.Education is paramount, because if we don't
pay attention now, we are dead in the water in 20-years when those
kids grow up and they start running things, do you see that point. So,
politics aside, education is the key to the future of our Republic.
So, please be thinking here.