Should We Shut Down Failing Schools?

The CEO of AT&T says that his company is having trouble finding qualified U.S. workers and that failing school systems that can’t graduate educated future workers should meet the fate of businesses that can’t compete.

(Randall) Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.

“If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn’t put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down,” he said.

Is it time to shut down failing school systems for the good of our communities and the United States?

Should schools be allowed to continue to pump out uneducated and unskilled citizens who aren’t able to compete in the global workforce where Indian workers with graduate degrees and PhDs are willing to take on assignments via email for American companies for prices that are significantly lower than those charged by American workers with less education?

Is the greatest danger to America not external threats that can be defeated by our superior military forces, but internal threats exacerbated by the failure of the American educational system to teach students so that every one can become a productive citizen?

Should system administrators who are creating whole cohorts of citizens who are so miseducated that they are likely to become the next generation of government dependents or the drones of the underground economy be stripped of their offices?

What’s the best way to solve our educational system’s failures?

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Comments

8 Responses to “Should We Shut Down Failing Schools?”

Aaron on March 27th, 2008 7:56 pm

Hi Chris,
Milton Friedman wrote in his book “Free Choice” the only way to improve the schools is choice through vouchers.
Chris on March 28th, 2008 5:09 pm

Hi Aaron,

That might be the only way to really improve education. Competition always gets people working at their best.
Aaron on March 30th, 2008 7:51 am

Hi Chris,

There was a thread on the Times forum a few years ago regarding vouchers. There was a lot of anger from the anti voucher crowd but I couldnt figure out the objection.

Like the new background.
Chris on March 30th, 2008 1:17 pm

Thanks Aaron — I’ve always liked green — my mom’s side is Irish :).

People who don’t like vouchers are afraid giving people educational choice would mean people voting with their feet. Of course, people are already doing that now — bot too long ago there were stories in the Post-Tribune about the Merrillville schools checking to make sure all of the students in their schools were really from that town.

When people are willing to sneak their children into another school system (or move into a better system, if they can afford to do so), it is a sign that prohibiting vouchers doesn’t work.

People who care, will figure out ways to make sure that their kids are educated.
Buzzcut on March 31st, 2008 8:36 am

Guys, shutting down failing schools will change nothing.

Schools of education are where the problem lies. They’re bastions of Marxism and other discredited ideas (for example, Obama supporter and former Weather Underground henchman William Ayers is a professor at the University of Chicago school of education).
Chris on March 31st, 2008 7:52 pm

Hi Buzz,

What’s the best way to solve the problem of the schools of education? Should conservatives try to create their own schools of education to teach the teachers?
Aaron on April 1st, 2008 6:33 pm

Anybody see the article about East Chicago fighting to keep the charter school out? Amazing, someone wants to fill a need that will give more kids a better chance and every comment by a politician centered on how much revenue would be lost.
Chris on April 1st, 2008 10:07 pm

Hi Aaron,

That shows why the system is so messed up — it’s centered on keeping power and money under the control of the school administrators, instead of being spend in the best interests of the children and the community.