Jesse Jackson, Jr and Federalising Education

[Berzerker]

According to this man who put his hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution, if we have a constitutional right to own a gun, why not a constitutional right to an education? He wants the federal government to take control of education...

Jesse, you're mixing apples and oranges. Our right to keep and bear arms doesn't mean we have a right to compel others to buy us guns, and that's what you want the federal government to do wrt education - compel some people to buy educations for other people. Furthermore, the Bill of Rights constitutes limitations on federal power, not additional powers including involvement with education which doesn't appear anywhere in the Constitution.

And to top it all off, when we send our money to Washington, D.C. for "education", federal politicians and bureaucrats skim money from education taxes and then send the remainder back to the states where another layer of politicians and bureaucrats are waiting to skim money before sending the rest down to counties and states where yet another gang of politicians and bureaucrats are waiting with their hands out. Whatever is left over is then sent to school administrators before the money for "education" is actually spent educating children. Seems insane to me, wouldn't it make more sense to keep the money right there in your school district and cut out all these "middlemen"?

[MRT144]

i think federalising education is a terrible idea. but no worse than publicly subsidised private schools.

[Berzerker]

Agreed, let people keep their tax dollars and let them decide where their kids are educated - it's the "free" thing to do.

[MRT144]

but its never free in the pocket book

[Stefu]

Link would be nice. I didn't quite get the idea what the man, exactly, wants to do to education.

[Ramo]

I would like to see a more involved role of the feds in education. Demanding higher standards and a more advanced curriculum would be a good start. And there's reason to think that their administration wouldn't be too bad; after all, pretty much the only competently run public schools, those in the Magnet program, are run by the feds.

[Berzerker]

pretty much the only competently run public schools, those in the Magnet program, are run by the feds.

Yes, "public schools", not private schools.

Sorry Stefu, Jackson, Jr was on MSNBC, no link.

[Ramo]

Most people don't have that option.

[Berzerker]

They would if we didn't have such high taxes and government trying to drive people out of private forms of education.

[Dis]

I say do it. And then when it fails we can all say we told him so.

[Sikander]

The only advantage I can see to the Feds butting in any further into education is that perhaps they will set some standards so that schools in different parts of the country teach the same things at the same time. This would really help the children of our immensely mobile society to get a complete and orderly education, even if their parents move them to Tuba City Arizona in the middle of the year.

[Dis]

It could work for some states. Some states have no clue how to run their education system. Esp. the county where I live.


It couldn't get any worse could it?

[Sava]

Our country isn't commited to education or providing equal opprotunity to everyone, ideally, I want a universal education system; but if the American people don't consider education important enough, any proposed system will fail. I'm actually more for the current system because at least some local districts succeed because some communities are commited to education. This problem goes beyond the question of organization of funding. It encompasses a great deal of other socio-economic issues that require reform.

Education is a key component of Democracy. Whether or not selfish conservatives feel they should contribute to society is another question altogether. But that's why we have taxes... because people aren't willing to do things willingly, so in the interest of the greater good, government must fund education. Privatization means higher costs which means less can afford education which means an increase in un-educated workers, which means more poverty, which means more crime, more drugs, more problems.

I can't comment further because I don't know what Mr. Jackson proposes. If it's got the usual suspects up in arms, then it's probably good. But then again, I shouldn't speculate.

[Berzerker]

Our country isn't commited to education or providing equal opprotunity to everyone, ideally, I want a universal education system; but if the American people don't consider education important enough, any proposed system will fail.

So, if we don't send our money to Washington to be skimmed and wasted by politicians, it must mean we don't care about education?

Whether or not selfish conservatives feel they should contribute to society is another question altogether.

Yup, people who don't want others stealing their money are "selfish" and the people who are doing the stealing are really nice people.

But that's why we have taxes... because people aren't willing to do things willingly, so in the interest of the greater good, government must fund education.

We have taxes so one group of people can enrich themselves at the expense of others. I thought we had taxes to pay for the constitutional functions of government. Btw, slaveowners could argue that enslaving %5 of the population to serve the rest constitutes the "greater good".

Privatization means higher costs which means less can afford education which means an increase in un-educated workers, which means more poverty, which means more crime, more drugs, more problems.

Do you know why secondary eduation costs so much? Because government got into the business of subsidising college tuitions for so many people. If you want to see costs go up, just get government involved.

[Sava]

Sorry Berz, I really would like to agree with your libertarian "the government is bad and stuff" attitude... but I had the privilage of going through a very good public education system.

If you are concerned with government waste, education is hardly the most wasteful part of government. Why don't you look at military spending? Farm subsidies? Private contracted infrastructure projects?

Think of privatization this way... some of your money might be wasted now, but you'd be paying a lot more for the same education if we privatized. Or you wouldn't get an education at all because it wouldn't be affordable.