Here is the education story from Wisconsin this week that really matters:
only 39% of eighth graders in the public schools are proficient in math, and
only 34% in reading, despite a 65% increase in per-pupil spending over the past
decade.
While the attention of the nation is focused on what Wisconsin teachers earn, the question of what they do to
earn it has been largely ignored. What
they do not do is educate our
children.
Spare me the hate mail, teachers, as I will give you the
first round – I will stipulate that you are all terrific and it is the system
that prevents you from showing it. Now,
you give me the second round, and admit that you are fighting tooth and nail to
keep that awful system intact.
The public education system is operated under the work rules
that have been collectively bargained; that is reason enough to end collective
bargaining privileges. Education
Secretary Arne Duncan called Wisconsin’s
proficiency results “unacceptable”. He
must not be proficient either, because not only does he accept them, but he and
his boss have sent 25,000 shock troops to defend the system of forced
unionization and collective bargaining that produced them in the first place.
Proficiency is the only purpose of education – not spending,
not teachers’ pay, not union representation, not pensions, not benefits, not
political indoctrination, not PC speech, not stickers and stars for trying, not
outcome equality, and not coddling delinquent students, delinquent teachers,
delinquent administrators, or delinquent parents.
Green Bay Packer cornerback Charles Woodson supported the protesting
public union workers in Wisconsin,
citing his own players’ union as an example of how collective bargaining secures
good wages for workers. We all love him
in this state, but Mr. Woodson does not earn millions because he is a 34%
proficient cornerback with a strong union behind him.
Mr. Woodson earns millions because he is exceptionally proficient.
He got that way by working harder than his peers, by going the extra mile, by
developing is distinctly unequal talent, by refusing to conform to the common
denominator, by rejecting equality of outcome, and by taking heat from coaches
who cared enough to push him to greatness.
He does not share his excess speed with those less speedy, and he does
not get paid on a seniority scale negotiated collectively by Mark Tauscher
based on averaging their times in the 40.
Proficiency is the common denominator for all high-income
earners; they are extremely proficient at what they do, whether it is Charles
Woodson, Oprah Winfrey, the Koch brothers, George Soros, or Lady Gaga. Their
compensation is determined by the value they add. Proficiency is how all compensation is
determined in the private sector, from the busboy up to the CEO. Imperfectly, to be certain.
Few, if any, of Wisconsin’s
eighth graders are going to grow up and win the Heisman Trophy, host their own
talk show, build a multi-billion dollar business, corner the markets on
currency derivatives, or sell millions of dance records. Most of them will try to find a decent job in
the private sector, where their earnings will be determined by their
proficiency, and where we do not grade on the curve.
The engineer’s calculations must be correct, not politically
correct. The proposal writer can not
thumb-type “OMG r u k w/price lol :-)” on company letterhead and expect that to
win his firm a multi-million dollar bid.
Nobody cares how the architect feels about her design that the client hated, the
salesman does not get a chance to come back and improve his presentation, and
your lawyer won’t win your patent case because it’s his turn. We don’t all
finish together in the real world.
Do the public schools prepare our children to survive and thrive
in this world where their earnings will be determined by their proficiency? Clearly not. Wisconsin’s
middle class is not disappearing because one party or another is in a majority;
it is disappearing because un-proficient people are not worth middle-class
wages. But it is a lot easier to curse at
capitalists and China
than it is to face the truth.
Anyone who has actually been to China comes back with a fuller
appreciation for the true nature of the economic threat posed by that rival nation. China is not a land of coulee labor
chained to benches in dingy sweatshops hunched slaving over pennies for hours
on end. China
is mile after mile of gleaming new factories full of new high-technology
equipment, clean as a clinic, efficient as all get-out, and full of energetic,
smiling, young faces proud of their productivity and their rapid climb up the
income scale.
Those factories were designed by Chinese industrial
architects, and built by Chinese skilled tradesmen operating Chinese-made
cranes and heavy equipment. The machines
and assembly lines were designed by Chinese engineers and built by Chinese
craftsmen. The skilled workers who
operate and maintain the machinery are Chinese, the trainers are Chinese, the
inspectors are Chinese, and the management is Chinese. The capital to invest in these productive
factories is Chinese, the surplus product of a 50% savings rate; the banks that
finance the development and working capital are Chinese.
All those smart, proficient Chinese people are the product
of Chinese schools. Children start
school at 7 years of age, and complete 9 years of compulsory education – 8
hours per day, 5 days a week, 10 months per year. 60% of curriculum is devoted to math and reading
(Chinese). At the end of each school
year, tests must be passed to advance to the next year. Teachers must have a
2-year certificate to teach, and local boards control local schools.
Students who do not grasp lessons stand in front of the
class to be tutored by the teachers and other students until they learn. Parents are required to come to school and
take notes when children are ill. The
expectation is that every single child will learn to be fully proficient, and
they are. A University of Michigan
study reported that Chinese students perceive the classroom as competitive and
teacher-controlled and they are happy about it.
Proficient people are happy people.
Our public education industry would – and do - say they are
doing it all wrong over in China. And when Chinese students placed 1st
in math and reading comprehension in last year’s standardized PISA testing,
while the U.S. ranked 31st in math and 17th in reading,
our educators scoffed at the very notion that their work could be measured by
testing. Arne Duncan told us that
teaching was not the cause of our dismal showing, admonishing us that “it’s
complicated.”
Yes, it is clearly too complicated for Secretary Duncan and
the public education industry, who have ruined our public school system by
turning it into a social science laboratory experiment gone horribly
wrong. That is exactly why they should
not be allowed to run it any more.
But it is apparently not too complicated for the Chinese, nor
was it too complicated for our parents and grandparents and several previous
generations of Americans who managed to do make us proficient at a fraction of
the cost, without the benefit of our modern technology, and without collective
bargaining for benefits and work rules.
We are Americans; and we can beat the Chinese,
because freedom was invented here and only copied there. Choice and
competition will save our schools, and saving our
schools will save our kids, and saving our kids will save our state and
our
nation so that generations of Americans can all live free and prosper. That’s why Wisconsin matters.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian
writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment and
order his new book, “Tooth Fairy Government.”