The Key to Our Future

Current debt ceiling issues aside, probably THE most important issue facing our country for our long term future is education. Since we are busy enslaving our children for the next century, we had better make sure they learn how to think. Currently, we have an ever increasing indoctrination system which is failing our children miserably.

President Obama's Race to the Top boondoggle is a $4.35 billion competitive grant program for States, that seeks to encourage public schools to develop new ways to raise standards and measure achievement for both teachers and students in elementary and secondary schools. What it seems to have accomplished, in typical liberal “unintended consequences style” is to encourage teachers and administrators to cheat. Recently it was discovered that in 80% of Atlanta Georgia's schools, teachers and administrators were falsifying standardized tests in order to meet Race to the Top standards and qualify for grants. That was followed by the revelation that 40 school districts and 9 charter schools in Pennsylvania are being investigated for cheating. In addition more than 1,000 school districts are suspect nationwide.

In 2004 the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program came into being. It provided $7,500.00 scholarships to 3300 impoverished students in the DC area so they could attend private schools. This highly successful program increased graduation rates among its students by at least 21%. When the program came up for re-authorization in 2009, it passed the Congress but was defeated in the Senate along mostly partisan lines. The Washington Examiner said of Mr. Obama's opposition to the program;

“Many parents of children in troubled schools have already chosen the same option that Obama chose for his own children. They've enrolled them in the best private schools in the country.

Not every American parent, though, has the financial resources that the President and members of Congress have. And in places like the District of Columbia, where less than half of public school students ever graduate, the need for immediate assistance and a radically new paradigm is urgent. Yet, many D.C. parents and their children have grown disillusioned by the President's refusal to honor promises already made.

In the spring of 2009, 216 students received letters stating they had been selected to receive the opportunity scholarship. Within weeks, however, the administration rescinded those offers. Republicans tried to allow for the ongoing enrollment of new students.

Democrats, however, opposed the measure and established an effective sunset for the program once the existing awards ran out. And this despite overwhelming evidence of the scholarship's success.”

So much for “Racing to the Top”. Obama's strong support for the National Education Association would not allow him to support a highly successful school choice program, and instead forced the children he claims to want to help back into the hell holes of the DC school system. If it is so good, why don't his children go there?

This is the same NEA that voted down merit pay for teachers on July 6th of this year. What we hear from the NEA and from the Democrats in Washington is that what is needed to fix education is more money, less sugary desserts and no chocolate milk. Hogwash! Utah, one of the few states in the union with a real school choice program, has above average scores in math, science and reading, even though they spend less per student than any other state in the country, $6,612.00 in 2009. Washington DC third only to New York and New Jersey, spends $16,582.00 per student and has scores well below the national average in all categories. Money alone is not the answer. (figures from the National Center for Educational Statistics)

Who then, shall we choose to lead on educational issues in 2012? We need a person who can think outside the big national education union box when it comes to teaching our children. We need someone who knows the value of education, and who knows that the best opportunities come when control is local and incentive is provided to educators. Our next President must understand how absolutely VITAL it is for our future as a country, that our children learn to read, write, understand mathematics and science!

Herman Cain is that man. Mr. Cain understands the need to weaken the Department of Education, and push control back to the States and local school boards where it belongs. He knows that huge one size fits all programs like No Child Left Behind, and Race to the Top simply do not work, because one size fits all, doesn't. It is always too large.

Herman Cain understands that when concerned parents are given a choice, they will choose the best education they can for their children and that when schools have to compete for students, the quality of all schools is elevated. He knows that when parents can choose what school their child attends, they tend to be more involved in the school itself, and in their children's education. That benefits everyone.

He believes that most teachers have a genuine passion for educating their students, and should be rewarded for their efforts, based on their merit rather than their seniority. He understands the bureaucracies that overburden teachers with paperwork and restrictions which hamper their ability to shine in the school environment. By unbundling the school system from the National Department of Education, he seeks to set educators free to use their skills and innovation to educate the leaders of tomorrow, our children. He also knows that the schools and teachers need to be held accountable, and that this is better done on a local and State level than by a leviathan in Washington DC.

For the long term, for the future of our country, and for the future of our children, we need a leader who knows what it takes to provide a world class education for our youth, to once again bring our nation to the forefront of science, technology and the arts, and to once again have the best educated high school and college graduates in the world!

That man is Herman Cain!