The ongoing PSS tragedy

Can there be any doubt that the Public School System has utterly failed us? By every objective standard available, the Public School System has failed in its primary mission: to educate children.

School kids from private schools have consistently outperformed public school pupils on virtually every standardized test. Public school teachers themselves even send their own children to private schools.

Compared to the likes of Mount Carmel School, Grace Christian Academy and the Marianas Baptist Academy, our Public School System is one sick and cruel joke. The system simply does not work. Government cannot perform.
Yet, in response to its colossal failures, public school officials–entrenched bureaucrats–continue to demand more public funding. They demand more of our tax dollars despite their repeated failure to produce superior academic performance.

PSS hacks and their bureaucratic cronies demand more of our money–despite the fact that the PSS budget has been raised virtually every year. As a fixed percentage of overall public expenditures, public school funding has ballooned along with our general budget.

Public school officials, of course, will adamantly deny any such failures.

When presented with their students’ appalling performance on standardized tests, they will be quick to point out that standardized tests really do not matter, that academic ability cannot be properly measured, or that feelings and “emotional intelligence” should really be our primary focus. They will say anything to avoid direct responsibility for their atrocious performance.

Perhaps most egregious of all, when push comes to shove, the PSS hack will often rely on the most cowardly and vile act of all: blaming the victim– blaming the patron or the ultimate public consumer.

In other words, when kids cannot learn, when they are illiterate and uneducated, the parents are almost always to blame. It is the parents’ fault. The family has failed the child–never the public school institution itself, which is sacred and beyond reproach.

Imagine bringing your car to a government mechanic. You tell the government purveyor of automobile repair services that your car needs attention. Imagine being chided and blamed for failing to take proper care of your automobile.

Imagine the government mechanic charging you more whenever he fails to fix your car. “If you only pay me more,” he says, “I might be able to fix your car.” But he fails to fix it, and then repeats the demand anew, while blaming you for the problem as well.

That’s government education for you.