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Accountability education and schooling

Graduation Without Testing

schools, education, testing

The problem with all government activity is the difficulty of establishing accountability. 

“As colleges across the country are reinstating standardized tests,” writes Meagan O’Rourke at Reason, “New York [government] high schools are taking another approach: eliminating the state’s longstanding Regents exam requirements.”

Thankfully, the tests are not to be completely junked: “This week, the New York Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s public schools, voted to make the standardized exams optional going forward. They are currently required for most high schoolers to graduate,” explains Ms. O’Rourke.

They want the exams to be “opt-in.”

While we’ve grown used to public school educators fiddling with grades, exams like those currently required — even if far from perfect — constitute an even better way to glean how well (or badly) teachers and students are doing.

Government schools suffer, of course, from “increased spending and mediocre results,” as Reason puts it. (I covered Michigan’s problems yesterday, for example.) The avoidance of “metrics” — in business lingo — is just the kind of evasion that one might expect from under-performing institutions. New York’s opt-in downgrade is comparable to a failing student doctoring his report card or forging a parent’s signature.

But what do they really hope to accomplish? The New York Times quotes officials admitting they are trying to “eliminate barriers to graduation for some students.”

Ignorance and lack of skills are the barriers educators should be seeking to remove. 

Through teaching stuff like math, reading, and science. And inculcating basic skills.

Graduation “magically” follows.

It is interesting — in a bad way — that education bureaucrats think their job is, instead, merely pushing the biggest number of students through the system. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Thought

John Taylor

The more a nation depends for its liberty on the qualities of individuals, the less likely it is to retain it. By expecting publick good from private virtue, we expose ourselves to publick evils from private vices.

John Taylor of Caroline, as quoted by Forrest McDonald, in turn quoted by Donald Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek.
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Today

Capitol Cornerstone

On September 18, 1793, George Washington laid the cornerstone of the Capitol building.

On September 18, 1838, Richard Cobden established the Anti-Corn Law League, which eventually brought free trade to Britain.

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education and schooling

New Employees for the Bloc

Low teachers’ pay: a common complaint. We do not hear about it much from non-government school teachers, however. Private and church school salaries fall outside public awareness, for the public doesn’t contribute to them. Taxpayers hearing about public school teacher salaries, specifically, makes some sense.

This is cleverly addressed at the outset of a recent article in the Michigan Capitol Confidential.

“The superintendent of Port Huron’s public school system said that every year he must replace teachers who leave his district. He blames low teacher salaries,” we read. “But the superintendent was Harlan Davis, and he made his statement more than 100 years ago.” 

For over a century we’ve been told “teaching does not offer a career.”

This is all a preface to the current situation, where “several Michigan newspapers” now report “that teacher pay is down 29% since 1995 after inflation is accounted for. . . .”

Thankfully, the Michigan Capitol Confidential, which the Mackinac Center for Public Policy publishes, provides context in addition to long-term inflation. “One reason why less money goes to teacher salaries may be that the state’s public school districts are hiring more and more people despite enrolling fewer and fewer students.” Michigan schools added 35,000 full-time positions while losing 113,000 students.

Now, taxpayers and parents might hope that it’s new teachers who constitute the bulk of that growth, but hopes aren’t realities. During the pandemic, for example, the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, pushed to hire “560 more school psychologists, school social workers, school counselors, and school nurses.” 

If politicians thought teachers’ salaries were all-important, they’d forsake their schemes to hire more non-teaching employees. But it’s obvious: creating a pro-spending voting bloc is what they care about, not teachers.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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George Jean Nathan

I have no patriotism, for patriotism, as I see it, is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.

George Jean Nathan, Testament of a Critic (1931), p. 16.
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Today

Protozoa

On September 17, 1683, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek wrote a letter to the Royal Society describing “animalcules,” later known as protozoa.

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incumbents representation

To Be a Rock and Not to Roll

John Kennedy, Mitch McConnell term limits, gerontocracy, Congress

Call him “The Rock.”

That’s what John Kennedy, Louisiana’s wittiest U.S. senator, dubbed Mitch McConnell, yesterday.

Why? From the Wall Street Journal’s write-up, it must be the Kentucky’s senator’s fortitude and resilience that qualify him as hard and stony. The 84-year-old lame duck solon was rolled into the Capitol after a three-month absence, and it appears that everyone was nice to the wheelchair-bound octogenarian.

“Time to get back to work,” he said.

“His words,” explains the Journal, “weren’t clearly enunciated and at times were hard to make out.” Which probably explains why his staff wouldn’t allow reporters to video-record the senator’s short remarks — less evidence to share on social media, audio alone possessing so much less viral cachet.

“McConnell’s absence, which was unusual but not unprecedented, again prompted questions about whether lawmakers with significant health issues should remain in office or step aside,” we are told. 

Sure. We talk about age limits, too. But term limits would generally rein such abuses in. The less time in office, the less likely one is to die in office.

Or suffer a stroke. Or experience a debilitating fall, as in the official story regarding McConnell.

Of course, neither term limits nor age limits directly deal with the illness issue. Which may be a good thing. Senator John Fetterman (D.-Penn.) suffered a stroke on the campaign trail, making his election later in 2022 seem . . . imprudent. He has since recovered impressively, going on to become one of the more independent voices in Washington.

Sure, McConnell should step . . . roll . . . aside. Let someone else do the job. But, as it is, he serves as a stark reminder of the gerontocracy.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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John Taylor

Great power often corrupts virtue; it invariably renders vice more malignant. Is human nature made worse, a good corrector of human nature? Is vice cured by the strongest temptations? History every where contributes evidence, distinctly replying to these questions. In proportion as the powers of governments increase, both its own character and that of the people becomes worse.

John Taylor of Caroline, An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States (Fredericksburg, VA.: Green and Cady, 1814).
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Today

Hong Kong Liberation

On September 16, 1945, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong came to an end.

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education and schooling insider corruption

Patronage Over Pupils

George Will, schools, education, spending, government

Frederick Douglass was a great man, so one might expect that a school named after him would also be great. But Chicago’s Frederick Douglass Academy High School, sporting a nifty web page, falls short. 

In students.

The Illinois Policy Institute’s Chicago Policy Center reports that, “Frederick Douglass Academy, with a capacity of 1,008, had just 27 students in 2025-2026.” 

Yet supporters and employees boast online how “loud and proud” they are about the school — while demanding more funding.

We’re not supposed to notice that 981 shortfall in enrolled students. 

Last year, according to columnist George F. Will, the school had more paid staff members than students! The year previous, taxpayers had funded “education” there to the tune of $93,000 per pupil!

“But Douglass is not entirely an outlier,” explains Mr. Will. “At more than 50 Chicago schools, the percent of students who achieve math proficiency is 0.” 

And the average over all the schools, last year, adds another clue: “43 percent of the city’s teachers were absent 10 or more school days. Students similarly negligent produce the phenomenon called ‘chronic absenteeism.’ A quarter of Chicago high-school students missed more than a month of school, and 100 percent of Douglass’s seniors were chronically absent. Yet the graduation rate remains high, at about 83 percent.”

Will blames the teachers’ union, which he calls “wicked.”

Corruption festers up and down Chicago’s K-12 hierarchy. There has been a moratorium on closing under-utilized schools, with near-empty schools better serving as union pork than as an efficient way to educate the young. 

The Illinois Policy Institute insists that the first step out of this mess is to close failing schools.

We cannot keep passing along those who flunk out. Students and schools, both.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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