The failure of government schools to provide poor kids with a
basic education is a handicap that few are ever able overcome. Rather than a social leveler, government
schools are the driving force for inequality in America.
In Baltimore
there are 23 elementary schools in which not a single student is proficient in
math. No one student in the entire
school. In the entire city, only seven
percent—one in fourteen students—is proficient in math.
In one
Baltimore school, a GPA of 0.13 places a student in the top half of the
class.
To call Baltimore schools a public school is a
misnomer. They don’t serve the
public. Instead, they serve the teachers
unions, administrators with lifetime appointments, and the craven politicians
who benefit from a captive voting block of government dependents.
Here’s a story from the Baltimore Fox affiliate on the
failure of government schools in that city.
If the Fox Project Baltimore story doesn’t make you mad,
check your pulse to make sure that your heart is still beating.
The same story plays out in government schools throughout
the United States.
In Milwaukee,
just 11 percent of fourth graders are proficient in math.
In California
statewide, only 27 percent of eleventh graders met or exceeded statewide
standards for math.
Just 30 percent of Boston
public school students—less than one in three--are proficient in math.
The primary reason for inequality in America is not racism
or the police. It is the government
school system.
Consider what life is like for the students in these 23
Baltimore schools. They’ve been robbed
of the opportunity to have an education, to develop their minds. And when you don’t have educational
opportunity, you don’t have life opportunity either.
It’s not just that they’ve been victimized by the Baltimore
school system today. They’ll continue to
be victims for the rest of their lives.
So many important decisions in life require quantitative reasoning
skills. Managing your finances requires
quantitative reasoning skills. Weighing
risk against reward requires quantitative reasoning skills. Running a business requires quantitative
reasoning skills.
Those who can manage their finances, understand risk, and
run a business get ahead in life. Those
who can’t find themselves falling victim to scammers, loan sharks and flim-flam
artists throughout their lifetime.
