The Only Home-school Dad on a Modern-Day Presidential Ticket Lambasts Obama For Policies That Condemn Minority Students to Failing Public Schools.
Root Calls Public School System “a Public Embarassment.”
Studies Prove That Home-schooled Students are Almost TWICE As Smart as Public School Students.
Will Teachers Unions Allow Honest Questions to Be Asked of President Obama?
By Wayne Allyn Root, Author
The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts
Government fails at virtually everything it does. As a Nevadan, I often tell the story of the federal government taking over a legal brothel in Nevada- a $100,000,000 business- and managing it into bankruptcy in a year. Just days ago, the State of New York announced that OTB- government run gambling parlors- was filing for bankruptcy. Amazing. The two businesses where no one on earth has ever lost money- sex and gambling- and government runs them both into bankruptcy.
Is it any wonder that our public education system is a disaster? That after spending tens of billions, SAT scores are going down? That the performance gap between white/Asian and minority students is widening? That minority student drop-out rates in major cities approaches or exceeds 50%? That the more we spend on public education, the worse the results? That a recent study proves that home-schooled students are almost twice as smart aspublic school students (scoring 89 versus 50 on a scale of 1 to 100)? Yet in the face of these shocking and depressing facts, President Obama and the Democratic Congress chose to kill a charter school program that was working for minority students in Washington D.C.
It has just been announced that President Obama will address public school students across the USA on Tuesday. I’ll bet the topics I just described above won’t be on the agenda. Instead what we’ll see is an attempt to brainwash young minds into hero worship of Barack Obama and his big government agenda.
But I have a great idea. We can turn lemons into lemonade. Instead of asking students how they can help President Obama (thereby becoming his deputies, allies, and fans), how about we use this opportunity to ask some serious questions that need to be answered by the President. Here is the Q&A with President Obama (and the homework assignment) that I’d suggest for America’s public school students:
Q: President Obama, why did you allow the Democratic Congress to kill school choice in Washington DC, even though studies proved that charter schools were dramatically improving the education results of minority students?
Q: President Obama, do you care about teachers unions (your campaign contributors) more than the educational and economic future of minority students?
Q: President Obama, why do your daughters Sasha and Malia deserve school choice (a private school education costing $40,000 a year each), when other minority students in Washington D.C. don’t get a choice?
Q: Mr. President, if public school education is so fantastic that you don’t believe choice or competition is necessary, why don’t you send your precious daughters to Washington D.C. public schools?
Q: Mr. President, if other parents don’t have the money for private school, like you and Michelle do, should their children be condemned to a lifetime of inferior education?
Q: Mr. President, did you see the latest SAT test scores which show that after a 25 year effort to improve scores, we have failed miserably? We’ve spent tens of billions per year, yet SAT scores went down again. What do you think this means? Why would taxpayers be forced to spend more on the same failing public education system? Shouldn’t competition be encouraged to improve the system?
Q: Mr. President, those same just-released SAT test scores showed that despite spending tens of billions of dollars to help minority students improve test scores, the SAT performance gap between minority students and white/Asian students just widened again. So do you think public school education is a failure? Knowing this, why would you and the Democratic Congress choose to kill charter school programs in Washington DC that are helping minority students? Doesn’t this appear racist?
Q: Mr. President, is it true that Chicago cooked the books? Studies show that Chicago’s public schools are terrible, among the worst in America, and prior studies showing improvement were greatly exaggerated. So why is your friend Arnie Duncan, who ran the Chicago School System, now running America’s school system?
Q: Mr. President, recent studies proved that home-school educated children are almost TWICE as smart as public school educated children. Why do you think that is Mr. President? With results like this, shouldn’t home-schooling be encouraged by our educators, instead of denigrated and discouraged?
Q: Mr. President, we spend more money on public school children than any country in the world, yet get among the worst results. Why do you think that is? Could it be because teachers unions are doing the same damage to public education that auto unions did to the U.S. auto industry?
Q: Mr. President, how come California pays the highest teacher salaries in America, but their test results are 49th out of 50 states? Is it therefore possible that spending more on education, and paying teachers more, does not add up to better results? If so, why did you just spend another $125 billion of the stimulus package on public education? If $60 billion per year spent by the Department of Education has produced failing results, why would you spend another $125 billion?
Q: Mr. President, how come private and parochial school teachers are paid far less than public school teachers, without gigantic pensions and free healthcare for life (paid on the taxpayers’ dime), but produce far better results?
Q: Mr. President, how come the rankings of America’s students have gone consistently and dramatically down since the day government took over education?
Q: Mr. President, how come we don’t fire poorly performing teachers? Why should a teacher doing a poor job be guaranteed a job and pension for life?
Q: Mr. President, in the private sector, employees are losing jobs by the millions. Almost everyone else in the private sector is seeing major cuts in hours and pay. Virtually no employees in the private sector are seeing any increase in pay. So why should government employees union members- like teachers- be protected from firings and receive large pay increases? Are they a privileged class?
Q: Mr. President, is it true that public school districts around the country claim to be severely underfunded, yet they are spending millions of dollars on public relations and advertising campaigns to increase enrollment (because parents are leaving failing public schools in droves)?
Q: How come you’re so concerned with rising health care costs in the private sector, but rising government-run education costs don’t seem to bother you? And how can government-run healthcare save money for taxpayers, when government-run education keeps rising and at the same time produces inferior results?
Those are just a few of the questions I’d have our publicschool students ask President Obama. I think the President of the United States addressing our youth is a good idea. But only if he’ll choose to honestly allow and answer the serious questions above. Only if the questions and questioners aren’t “pre-screened.” Only if he’s willing to admit that our national education crisis is just as important as our national healthcare crisis.
Only if President Obama is willing to question the role of teachers unions in the destruction of public education. Only if he is willing to explain what appears to be either indifference, or racism on his part towards the plight of minority students in this country (who don’t have the money required to attend fancy private schools like Sasha and Malia). The President should have this discussion with America’s public school students.
I’m a betting man. My gut instincts tell me the smart money is on America’s liberal-biased teachers never allowing the questions above. I’m betting that as long as teachers unions are in control, there will never be an open or honest discussion between our President and America’s public school students. I’m betting this event on Tuesday will be used to indoctrinate our children into hero worship for the President, big government, big unions, and public education. Anyone want to take my bet?
Wayne Allyn Root was the 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate. His new book is entitled, “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts.” For more of Wayne’s views, commentaries, or to watch his many national media appearances, please visit his web site at: www.ROOTforAmerica.com.
