The Education Black Hole

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/us/politics/in-romneys-voucher-education-policy-a-return-to-gop-roots.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp&gwh=9DF88BEF89F75A2FBC7D6A28E15921E6

Education really is turning into a black hole...and every Tom, Dick and Harry has their own solution. There was No Child Left Behind- which had some good ideas, and some really shitty ones too. Obama has sort of taken a hodgepodge approach- a little bit of testing, little bit of charter schools, little bit of helping struggling schools get better, etc. Romney wants to do quite an overhaul- essentially turning education into a voucher system- because he claims it will foster competition and make schools better overall. When you take it at face value, Romney's plan sounds great, seems simple and seems like it would succeed. And I can't say it would be a complete failure. But in further reading about it, about how kids will get to choose whatever school they want- public, private, charter- how will success be deemed? I haven't heard much from him about that. And if Romney decided to get rid of the Dept of Education- who will oversee to make sure that schools are spending the money wisely...who will provide oversight?
Would marketplace dynamics help education? Because it's failing. We all know that. And floundering is not helping. What went wrong? Everyone has an answer to that question as well. I personally like Obama's approach of trying to fix schools but also change our views towards education. I don't agree with every aspect of his education policy, but if we fail to look at how our society views education, nothing will change. We need to get people to care about school again, we need to groom parents who are involved in their child's education, we need to groom students who take their education seriously. Ok, now I'm grandstanding a little.