All is well!

All is well in public education if you visit your state education department’s propaganda web page or the U.S. Department of Education’s propaganda page. So many nice things are happening that reality won’t trample over their fiction as they proclaim “All is well!” Yeah right.



Looking at the Texas 8th grade social studies TAKS scores from 2009 will tell you all is not well. The subject that is a bed rock of teaching democracy, individual responsibility, and patriotism has a little secret. The secret is that in order to pass the 8th grade TAKS test, the state criterion referenced test that is supposed to validate mastery of 8th grade learning objectives for U.S. History up until reconstruction, a student only needs to answer 25 of 48 questions correctly or score a 52%. No wonder Texans have forgotten their heritage and parade into the arms of socialism.

But this information led an inquiring mind down another path. I am quite frankly sick of hearing about the various STEM initiatives throughout this country. STEM is science, technology, engineering and math. The initiatives are promoted by the federal and state governments, along with the do-gooder filthy rich guilty conscience foundations, such as; the Gates Foundation, who focus on command economy driven initiatives formulated by captains of big business and government in order to evolve the people into what they think they need to be prosperous. Don’t try to rationalize that this is any different than the Soviet’s old plans or red China’s, or any other totalitarian state’s plan to command the economy by controlling what people study in order to satisfy those in power. The only difference right now is that people who don’t agree with this policy aren’t disappearing, but their voices disappear in the silence. It is also another reason to spend billions of dollars more under a new category, thus confusing everyone with acronym soup and smoke screens. Accountability to reality is absent.

One indicator of STEM success or public education’s success in general would be some math test scores. In Texas a new end-of-course exam for Algebra I required a 62% to pass in 2009. And the older Math Exit Level Test for high school required a 57% score to pass. But you also could be labeled college ready by the state if you scored a 72%. Wow, Johnny’s ready for college with that big score! And Susie is labeled an emerging mathematician with a score of 89%. I bet with an 89% she’ll win the Nobel Peace Prize in mathematics, or some dubious other category like Gore and Obama. Beyond my sarcasm, the point should be clear that as long as people depend on government, now engulfed in the luxury of egalitarianism, to set personal standards for education, mediocrity will prevail for all.

Parents, be sure that you are in command of your child’s educational experience and expectations. When you read that a school has received a certain rating, remember that the rating is based upon the number of students PASSING, and you should ask; “What was the score required to pass?” Also, don’t forget to ask about the score required for Johnny and Susie to receive those accolades because it may not be such a big deal after all. All won’t be well if you don’t.