My esteemed colleague Kathryn Baron, co-writer of Top-Ed blog of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, posts on her blog today the proclamation by John F. Kennedy designating American Education week to mark the importance of education -- not just by those who can afford it.
"Let us not think of education only terms of its costs, but rather in terms of the infinite potential of the human mind that can be realized through education. Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation."
Interesting post only a few hours after Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has been quoted criticizing the role of the federal government in education, calling for what can arguably be described as massive roll backs or even the disappearance altogether of the federal role in education. He wants parents to be in charge of education, not the federal government.
Sounds reasonable, right? There's already a program for that. It's called home school. And thousands of families already avail themselves to that. More power to them. Do we actually need a mandate?
People love to criticize education in this country, say that it's "broken," etc, etc. Yes, there's a lot that's wrong, but there's a lot more that's right. California has a 25 percent drop out rate. Which means 75 percent of students graduate from high school. Three out of four. Yes, more should be done, but does a 75 percent passing rate (more than needed to approve parcel taxes) translate into a broken system? Hardly.
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