Republicans must attack Dems on Education

The number of people identifying themselves as Republicans continues to shrink. Many people think this is due to Obama's magic or because the Democrats have better ideas.

Not so. It's because Liberals have spent the past century gaining control of what is said, thought and done in the public schools. For the Left, the long march through the institutions started with the public schools. The goal was to replace all ordinary school content with agitprop. Let's be fair, these guys are good. I write a lot about education. Here's my summary of the past 100 years: virtually no ideas concocted by the Education Establishment improved education in America. Nor were they intended to!

My concern now is that Republicans, even the smartest ones, don't seem to realize what happened to the country, and to them. Wouldn't you think a thorough beating might leave some impression on the mind?

The Republican Senatorial Committee sent me a "strategy ballot" with issues to check; education was not among them. I got a survey from the Heritage Foundation; they wanted me to check the main issues but education wasn't listed. I received an e-mail from Newt Gingrich; the only mention of education is that there should be more emphasis on science. Review the last 50 hours of Hannity, Rush, Beck or O'Reilly to find out if education is mentioned. Not much, I bet. Not nearly enough, that's the point.

I admire these people. But I have to plead: please, somebody wake up all these people. Saving the schools is Job One. If we don't reclaim the public schools, we can't reclaim the country.

It always seemed to me that any campaign to improve our schools must be an intellectual war. When the Education Establishment puts up one of their counterproductive little sophistries, it has to be attacked, laughed at, dismembered, and buried. A good idea has to be put in its place.

This response rarely occurred, and that's why American education is today crippled and encumbered by scores of deeply stupid ideas.

The Education Establishment is brilliant at inventing marketing slogans that turn out to have no intellectual content. Here, let's savor a century of dumbing down: look-say, life adjustment, new math, constructivism, active learner, cooperative learning, self-esteem, bilingual education, no memorization, multiculturalism, open classroom, reform math, child-centered education, invented spelling, higher level thinking, outcome based education, creativity curriculum, critical thinking, alternative assessment techniques, whole language, and a hundred more.

All of these things purport to be about teaching in general, but are designed so that nothing in particular is taught.

My immodest proposal is that all these gimmicks must be systematically DECONSTRUCTED and DISCARDED.

Note: the monster paradigm of dumb ed is Whole Word (a/k/a Sight Words, etc.). In broad daylight, the public schools rejected phonics and pushed a drug named Whole Word, thereby creating 50,000,000 functional illiterates over a period of 75 years. Rudolf Flesch explained the hoax in 1955, but the educators never relented.

I urge everyone to study Whole Word, really understand it, and really grapple with the implications. This is darkness visible. The evidence suggests that people calling themselves "educators" knowingly made children functionally illiterate and dyslexic. Understanding this scam can give you a better sense of the desperadoes you are up against. (For a quick review, Google my "37: Whole Word versus Phonics.")

Let me shift gears and explain the Republican malaise another way: fifty years ago these were good things, good words: PATRIOTISM, COUNTRY, VICTORY, SUCCESS, RELIGION, ENTERPRISING, BRAVERY, RICH, MANLY, MILITARY, HISTORY, RESPONSIBILITY, MORALITY, TRADITION, INDEPENDENCE (to name a few).

Now these are all bad words. Why? Because teachers in public schools say they are. Keep in mind, many children learn very little of a factual nature. Their education consists of knowing that Bush is bad and Earth is good; the rest is little puddles of emotion. Don't those fifteen words pretty well define the Republican Party? If teenagers think they should fear and distrust those words, that's all she wrote.

What is to be done? Here, with a nod to Alinsky, are some Rules for Republicans:

1) More than anything else, grasp that the battlefield for the future is located in every public school. Launch an immediate attack. Retake lost ground.

2) Simply state the Truth. If education means reading, writing, arithmetic, etc.--as almost everyone assumes--then Republicans are the Party of Education. Liberals and Democrats are the party of dumbing-down, lying about their real goals, and then raising taxes to pay for the widespread destruction. Our elite educators are actually anti-educators.

3) Professor David Gelernter advised that public school should be shut down, and reopened as private institutions. I thought at the time it was unrealistic. Now I think it would be unrealistic not to push for this option. The broader strategy must be to reduce government involvement in education by encouraging charter schools, private schools, homeschooling, vouchers, anything whatsoever that prevents the Education Establishment from working its nihilistic voodoo on more millions of young minds.

4) One funny little joke is that when you criticize public schools, the NEA and such will say that you are "against public education." This is extremely comical in a sick way and has to be jumped on with both feet. Shouldn't EVERY American be against public education done badly, public education that is anti-intellectual, public education that is nothing more than indoctrination??? But of course.

Conversely, Republicans must be the people pushing for public schools that are smart and effective; produce good results on tight budgets; emphasize basics and academics; produce knowledgeable, independent students; and are not overwhelmed by goofy pedagogical nonsense or mismanaged by unneeded bureaucrats. Three cheers for such Republicans.

Indeed, the biggest ed con of all--and there are so many--is that Democrats have persuaded the public that "supporting education" means throwing more billions at it. On the contrary. I bet that real educators--the people running the typical private school, for example--could cut the budget 10% and raise standards 10%. Easily.

5) Public schools, as warped by liberal educators, turn out to be secular churches. Public schools every day violate the separation of church and state. They preach hourly. This is against the law. Where is the ACLU when it could be useful?

6) One good thing to kick out of the schools is Social Studies (read: Socialism Studies). This was one of the first and biggest gimmicks, whereby cheeky liberals seized control of History, Geography, Economics, Civics, and Government, and then turned them all into propaganda. (Maybe some conservative group could publish a weekly newspaper called American Studies, and start teaching all the things that our students never hear about.)

7) President Obama says he wants to spend a lot more money on education. This is really bad news if he intends to follow the same old liberal agenda. All he seems to want to do is to expand dumbing-down K-12 to dumbing-down K-college. Please! Students would be better off in trade schools or doing research on the internet.

The point of this column is to try to wake up Republican leaders. The most benign way to look at the situation is that these leaders are themselves smart and educated, and they can't imagine what it's like to be dumbed-down every day of their lives. From now on, empathize with children who are being brainwashed, stripped of their intellectual heritage, and taught to hate their country. Ride to their rescue! Save the children.

One way you know how bad things are is to reflect upon this question: who's the leading educator in the US? The obvious answer is Jay Leno, by virtue of his "Jaywalking" bits. He reminds the country that children are not learning very much. You would think "Jaywalking" would start a national stampede toward better schools. For sure, that's exactly what we need. A stampede toward better schools. The Republicans have to lead it, or it will never happen.

Please forward this column to your local party leaders. Start the pot boiling. As Mao would advise: let a thousand pots boil.

(Bruce Price is the author of "THE EDUCATION ENIGMA--What Happened To American Education" and the founder of Improve-Education.org; see the related article "38: Saving Public Schools" on that site.)