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Not all Republicans are Democrats in disguise
October 27th, 2009, 3:22 pm · 14 Comments · posted by Mark Landsbaum
Sen. Jim Demint, one of the last (apparently) republican republicans left standing, had some encouraging words about public education, which you might guess pleases yours truly just fine.
Asked by Marvin Olasky of World Magazine what he thinks about the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind boondoggle, Demint had this to say:
“It’s a good idea to try ;to measure what you do, but it’s more of the centralized planning idea from Washington. School choice is the most important issue we face today because if freedom is based on the character, skills and capability of the individual, then education becomes first and foremost.”
We like that. But there was more:
“Our political and economic system does not work unless you have people who do the right thing when no one is looking, and you can’t get that from a government system.”
We really like that. It reminds us of what R.C. Hoiles said about government schools:
“They dare not teach the spirit of the Constitution as set forth in the first official document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence. They dare not teach it because it says that all men, not just the majority, are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A man isn’t free to pursue happiness when the majority in any school district, state or nation can coerce him to pay for a school that he believes violates the principles upon which this government was formed. The school teachers dare not emphasize this part of the Declaration of Independence. They dare not explain the true meaning of this statement. If they were successful in explaining and teaching the true meaning of these ideologies, there would be no gun-run schools.”
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“Our political and economic system does not work unless you have people who do the right thing when no one is looking, and you can’t get that from a government system.”
========================
Sweet!
” . . . you CAN’T get that from a government system” ?? (my emphasi
Sorry, folks - especially those who love to bash “government” schools - but that sort of categorical comment is so dumb it only shows DeMint (and those who would quote him approvingly) to be blinded by their ideology to the point of caricature.
rlh-your comment about gov schools puzzles me.
Have you ever worked in public education in CA???
I have, and it is not the best.
While there is a much higher % of dedicated and talented employees at the top, compared to the private sector, there are 3-5 times as many incompetent employees at the bottom, compared to the private sector (because you cannot fire a teacher for incompetence), doing substandard work and just don’t care.
I have had a valid teachig license for over 20 years, and I can tell you first hand 1/3, at least, of pulic education teachers and administrators should be canned.
Johnny, if 1/3 need canned, how will that ever come to pass when:
“Our political and economic system does not work unless you have people who do the right thing when no one is looking, and you can’t get that from a government system.”
I guess no one was looking when Jim DeMint went to Honduras and publicly backed the coup leader cuz, you know, democracy is important.
Hardly a coup when the Supreme Court of that nation saw the then president violating the nation’s constitution, so the court told the troops to get out of the barracks and remove the man from power. After that they went back to the barracks and the civilians reasserted control.
In coups the military, on their own volition, seizes countrol and then does not give it up.
This much I do know: coups need guns. I don’t know much about the Honduran constitution and neither do you. But here’s a summary of the facts:
Earlier this year, the unpopular president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, introduced a referendum as a first step toward drafting a new constitution.
Opposition to the referendum was strong, with the Honduran Congress, Supreme Court and military all declaring it illegal.
Zelaya fired the head of the military for not providing support for the referendum - but was thwarted by the Supreme Court, who deemed the firing illegal, and reinstated General Romeo Velasquez to his post.
On Sunday, June 28th, the Honduran Army, under orders from the Supreme Court, stormed the presidential residence, arrested president Zelaya and put him on a plane to Costa Rica, then took possession of the residence.
Several natural questions. Why can’t the head of the executive branch remove the head of the military? If opposition is so strong then why not let the people vote it down? If you want to impeach a president, why not do it publicly with a trial.
Needless to say the State Department didn’t like this nor did any of Honduras’ neighbors. But Jim DeMint did. He sure did.
The point, Johnny, is not that some teachers, or even some schools overall, asre or are not failures - I’m sure there are. DeMint, and Mr. Landabaum, and Mr. Hoiles, all claim as a matter of universal fact that NO “government school” can - not is likely to, but physically is capable of - teasing the “lessons” they desire or promote.
That presumes a lot: first, that those lessons (especially the nonsensical Hoiles depiction of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as essentially charters for individualism to the point of anarchy) are lessons that ought to be taught in the first place; and second, that “government schools” are incapable of inculcating “proper” (be their political standards) moral or civic values as a matter of law. Neither notion has any validity.
There are many many fantastic teachers in education and they can, and do, inspire and motivate our children to be the most highly innovative and creative people in the world.
We have the BEST minds in the world in America-because of our culture.
American education is a strange creature because of the unions-and the fact that many teachers view their jobs not as jobs, but as a mission in life, while others view it as nothing more than a meal ticket.
From my personally observations in education and as a teacher-here is how I woudl describe CA today;
Private Sector workforce;
The best= 15-20%
The middle= 75%-80%
The bottom of the barrel= 5% or less (they get fired)
Public Education;
The best= 35%
The middle= 30%
The bottom of the barrel= 30%-35% (they cannot be fired)
As you can see, in the private sector you have most of the workforce in the middle, average employees. Very few at the bottom because they are fired.
In public education you have more extremes, more top notch teachers at the top, more incompetents at the bottom because they cannot get fired, and not that many in between.
These are just my personal observations from working in both public educstion and a very competitive private sector.
If there was no centralized planning and school systems were left to develop their own systems of teaching, the end result would be disparities of results among the different school systems but, it would also result in some school systems developing really great methods of teaching that the other systems could incorporate.
“Our political and economic system does not work unless you have people who do the right thing when no one is looking, and you can’t get that from a government system.”
What’s a non-governmental political system?
There’s this place called Libertaria where everyone does the right thing or perhaps they do the Right thing. It’s described in detail in some bad Ayn Rand novels. You first go to Shangri-La and then you take a Right turn. Can’t miss it.
I should have added that they use a non-governmental political system in Libertaria. And a non-legal judicial system. ….
I was raised in Minnesota, back in the days when you had to
walk ten miles uphill both ways through 6 feet of snow…
Anyway, the Minnesota schools routinely won prizes for excellence, and it was all done with local money. We didn’t use a _PENNY_ of federal funds, or even state or county for
that matter. The members of the local school district paid to
educate their own children.
But that was before the teachers unionized, and before the government got its tentacles into the system and turned the
schools into propaganda mills. They used to teach Reading,
Writing, and Arithmetic. Now they teach “self-esteem.” “Duh,
I dunno how to add two plus two, but I feel _real good_ about myself, yup, yup, yup, yup!”
Feh.