Waiting On a $2500 Check from the DOE and NEA

The federal and state takeovers of local education are abject failures. And really, how surprising should it be that an education system that demands that most decisions be made hundreds or thousands of miles outside of the classroom would ultimately prove to be a disaster?

Spending on education at both the state and national levels has skyrocketed over the past few decades. As taxpayer money flowed to Lansing and Washington, the respective Departments of Education grew more and more bloated.

Studies were commissioned. Well meaning constituencies were rewarded for their votes. Advocates were given an ear.

Yet, despite all the bounty provided to distant classroom puppet masters and their minions, American children fell farther and farther behind those of other countries. Well intentioned bureaucrats set curricula, crowned instructors as qualified or unqualified, set nutritional standards, enacted one size fits all disciplinary regimens, and then elevated environmentalism and self-esteem to classroom worthy subjects. All that just scratches the surface.

We are in a different age now; an age where American children are expected to lag behind and where attempts to correct the problem come with target dates years into the future. A child entering middle school this year in many of our nation's struggling school districts has already been all but written off.

It is an odd circumstance (with a dash of unfortunate irony) that two of the most egregious pilfering organizations within our educational disaster are now asking locals for advice on assistance within the classroom.

WASH. D.C. — The U.S. Department of Education and the National Education Association want to continue tapping the brains of local educators to help solve classroom-based problems.

If the NEA Foundation finds that solution as the most responsive, that educator could land $2,500 in his or her wallet.

One wonders if these esteemed bureaucracies will award $2500 to each of those who will rightly suggest that the substantive solution to current educational problems could be found if the DOE and NEA (and other ineffectual collectives) would voluntarily cease to exist.

You know, take one FOR THE CHILDREN!

I predict that the battle cry of putting education back under local control will not garner much attention from those who have managed to stake their careers on a reverse flow of money.

I'm going to keep sounding my horn. Really, what else can a local guy be expected to do, that is, other than check the mailbox on a daily basis? I doubt they are listening, but I could sure use the $2500.