Throwing Money at Idaho Schools Won’t Make Kids Smarter

Spending more money on public schools may not be the answer.  While the teacher union/newspaper editorial complex continues arguing we throw money down a bottomless pit, test scores aren’t seriously improving.

Responding to the drumbeat of “Do something!” Idaho Governor Brad Little admits the next year is going to be a tight one for state spending, however.  He wants legislators to maintain promises made to school systems.  Maybe it’s not the time to keep feeding the system.

This morning I came across an essay at something called pjmedia.com.  You can read it by clicking here.  The writer says many people are mystified at the cause of stagnant scores nationwide.  Students in other countries continue doing well but not in the good ole USA.

Let’s suggest some of this is related to parenting.  Or lack thereof.  A lack of two parent homes.  Too many video games and screens.  But the writer hints at another issue.  American kids just don’t feel the pressure to do better.  At least not in any great wave of ambition.

While opportunity may be harder for our kids to find than it was for us, they may be living the most comfortable lives in human history.  Comfortable homes, plenty of entertainment and screens everywhere they turn.  This was the criticism of my generation, the first to grow up without knowing what life was like before television.  And now the distractions are legion.

Is adversity the answer?  You don’t want a Great Depression to befall anybody and, yet.  Can we create more artificial adversity?  Something our kids could push against.  “I’m going to toughen you up,” is what Fred Trump told son Donald when he sent him off to military school.  The father was concerned the boy wouldn’t be competitive simply growing up a child of privilege.

It’s not the lessons the young ones aren’t learning.  It’s the lessons we’re not putting into practice for ourselves.