APS Cheating Scandal Predictable

The teachers and administrators who changed test answers are guilty of lacking character.  They succumbed to the pressure to increase student’s test scores so they changed the answers on the test sheets.  They knew the students would not do well on the tests and they didn’t want to be blamed.  Education laws demanding “accountability” contributed to this debacle.  The parents and the students are equally responsible for their lack of effort to ensure that the students study and learn enough to pass these tests.  Why weren’t they on trial.  The addition of “bonuses” in “Race to the Top” ensured that this kind of scandal would occur.

In the days before public schools were government controlled Marxist propaganda factories, the U.S. enjoyed the highest literacy rates on the planet.  In those days, parents and students were the only ones responsible for educating themselves and even the poorest families fared better than they do today, because many of these families took responsibility.

Whoever decided that it was “against the law” for students to “drop out” is responsible for this predictable, wasteful and expensive failed bureaucracy.  Whenever the Law violates our freedom, bad things happen.

Whoever decided that the states should over-fund and hammer on public education contributed to this folly.

Employers are only interested in the availability of the kinds of employees they need to hire. Having them focus on graduation rates and test scores on “everybody” is not relevant as long as they can find the few employees they need.

The availability of good schools for the children of these employees is necessary. This requires closing HUD to ensure that these schools would exist.

Public education is not one of the enumerated powers granted to the federal government in the US Constitution, so they need to close the US Department of Education and get out of the business of education.

Under the 10^th Amendment, public education would fall to the states. States who have wise leaders would reposition control of education back to parents and students with maximum flexibility. We need to take advantage of our open internet-based resources to allow more forms of hybrid homeschooling. This would remove the propaganda from education and allow students to pursue their education without being subjected to Marxist-inspired brainwashing. Students need to be able to identify their best skills and learn to do what they love and they are all different.  It’s time to end the failed “one size fits all” mandated approach to education.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader