The RedStar is at it again; two editorials on the same day worshipping at the feet of the education unions. One of them lauds the stifling of competition in Florida schools with a statewide voucher system being quashed by their Supreme(ly Silly) Court. Notice that their solution to a bad school is to close it and bus those students to another public school. Now wouldn’t the resultant increase at that school cause overcrowding? Don’t they tell us time and time again how large classes are the death of excellent schools? They finish with this paragraph: “This ruling underscores the bedrock American notion that universal public schooling has an equalizing, unifying effect that is well worth preserving. Though public systems clearly need to improve, they should not be abandoned or diluted”. In the previous paragraph, they tell us how 700 students have taken advantage of this program. Wow! Out of 2.5 MILLION. Is that their definition of abandonment and dilution? Just exactly how is 1/3rd of one percent abandonment of the public school system? This makes Chicken Little seem like a wise old prognosticator. As for that “bedrock notion” line, about 1.5 % of students are homeschooled and about about 11% of students go to private schools. Those 13% of parents feel so strongly against this “bedrock notion” they are willing to pay for their child’s schooling TWICE to get out of that “bedrock notion”. I would say 13% is a major statement against this “bedrock notion”, as we are willing to grant a political party “major” status if they get only 5% of the vote. How many more would quit this “bedrock notion” if they only had to pay for education for their children once to get out?

The second editorial lauds a proposal to extend K-12 to K-14 at three local private universities (although how they would still be private after accepting funding from the MPLS and ST. Paul school districts is a little fuzzy). They then propose that this be expanded to all students in Minnesota. If the public school system as it is has such huge dropout rates and is so badly preparing our kids for life in the 21^st century, why would you propose expanding a failing system to more years to improve it? Only a fool keeps trying the same experiment over and over again and expecting to get different results. It is precisely because the schools spend so much time “equalizing and unifying” students into their Humanistic, Socialistic, non-violent, Pacifistic, greenie-weenie religion that our kids have no idea how to compete or get ahead in the real world. Teach them how to read and write and do math and let them run with it.