Stupid in America: How We Are Cheating Our Kids:
Education reformers like Kevin Chavous have a message for these parents: If you only knew.
Even though people in the suburbs might think their schools are great, Chavous says, “They’re not. That’s the thing and the test scores show that.”
Chavous and many other education professionals say Americans don’t know that their public schools, on the whole, just aren’t that good. Because without competition, parents don’t know what their kids might have had.
And while many people say, “We need to spend more money on our schools,” there actually isn’t a link between spending and student achievement.
John Stossel, the effervescent investigative journalist, put together yet another one of his trademark exposés -- this time on public schools. Reminiscent to Penn & Teller’s exploits on their hit Showtime show, Stossel peppers his findings with interviews from all the players involved in the schooling industry, including teacher’s unions, administrators and both foreign and domestic students. Have a question regarding international test scores? Well, his uncanny “as-a-matter-of-fact” approach not only provides various metrics comparing scores, but also the often overlooked monetary aspects involved in operating schools and financing teachers. Readers of Mises.org will never guess what he discovered.
(Video clips: 1 2 3 - ABC’s message board)
Addendum: a number of the comments have mentioned that Stossel did in fact promote “vouchers.” Unfortunately behind the smoke-and-mirrors, behind the rhetoric of independence and of choice - vouchers are yet another welfare entitlement scheme shrouded behind a rubric of free-market principles.
