How Many Times?

How many times can you write the same opinion piece? With the AJC public school advocate there seems no limit. The latest diatribe included jumping on the mis/dis-information bandwagon and it is good to do it now because hearing those chants from mainstream media, shown to shun veracity, is getting tiresome. Just hop right on before the wheels fall off. The author questions how anyone could believe what the author finds to be exaggerations and falsehoods (SAT word for "lies"). It is not because these things are in and of themselves believable, but because public schools have actually done so many things equally unbelievable. They make it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. 

There is also the juxtaposition of "send their own kids to their own public schools" with "public schools as a national source of commonality." So which is it? Are they local schools? Or, are they a national machine for homogeneity? Does this mean PTA's do not matter at all, but for being a possible source of money for a school? And just whose "commonality" is to be imposed from the national level? Is that the AFT?

One very noncontroversial point is made: it is all about the money. We're offered this interesting twist:

"It's never been the parents' money. The voucher represents the collective pooling of all the community's tax dollars, including those of residents without children." 

The word "collective" must have flown from the fingertips, but it makes you wonder which continent the author hails from or wishes us to emulate. Nonetheless, it is about money. Money being poured into a system that cannot self-correct, cannot self-improve, where incompetents cannot be fired even in places, like Georgia, without official union presence. Perhaps if the author exercised a bit of critical thinking we'd not be subjected to the same diatribe run thru the rinse-repeat cycle. 

Federal Money Runs Out

An AJC staffer recently published a political op-ed as a pre-emptive strike against upcoming legislation regarding money-follows-the-child vouchers dragging out all the usual objections cloaked in subjective comparisons. The problem with these pieces is they require a setup before the big pivot. The setup was far more revealing than the predictable "we hate vouchers" coming from a voice noted for chanting "public school, public school, uber alles."

In this case the setup was all the federal money, soon to run out, that was thrown at public schools...because CoVid. 

The federal bandaid on their self-inflicted crisis (assisted by AFT) is about to be ripped off, though Cardona prefers to present this as passing the baton to the states. This is predictable and has worked before. It is a common practice for the feds to dump in money to get local governments to start programs which then must be continued, at local expense. The feds have tried this with medicaid expansion that has been successfully resisted by only a few states. And this sell-off of local control happens at all levels. Dunwoody has been doing this through grant-grubbing since its inception.

It gets better. The tee-up includes the rationalization that this money was needed, and used, to address learning loss and mental health issues (how is that education?) caused not as much by CoVid but by the federal government's and teacher union's insistence on closing schools. This has been proven, throughout the world, to be an unnecessary and harmful over-reaction. Unless you were a teacher holding online classes from a beach in the Caribbean. The schools ceded local control to the feds and now they want the money to continue. They have a point: it is all but impossible to shrink, let alone eliminate, a government program. Think: REA. 

But public schools are facing more than a loss of federal funds or parents who have pulled back the curtain in their Emerald City. They are facing the disruption of AI, good for parents and their children, but for public schools-not so much. What parent would not want an IEP for their child, especially the parents of high achievers whose potential is never fully addressed in "bring up the back end" public schools? Who wouldn't want an individual tutor, knowledgeable in all topics? A tutor who is constantly training, who is intimately familiar with your child's current standing and trajectory-long term and short term? And when taxpayers find out the bill for this is much, much lower than the system we have, a system we would not build if we had no system at all, these taxpayers will demand a revolution. Will there be a King Ludd to save public schools? Probably not.

Do The Math

Apparently math comes in handy sometimes and our cultural predisposition to be dismissive of innumeracy is coming home to roost. We've fallen behind and we're not catching up. We're not even trying. Our K-12 system, largely public schools, are to blame. The pandemic shutdown may have exacerbated the problem, certainly drew attention but wasn't the cause. This has been going on for a long time as public schools have pushed conceptual understanding over indepth comprehension. They favor labels and are putting out a product that doesn't live up to the credential. Colleges and universities across America are finding incoming students who've passed high school calculus who simply cannot handle algebra as demonstrated by placement tests. So what happens? Instead of starting ahead of the curve, these students are taking remedial courses in high school algebra, necessary to have any chance in a college level math course.

Maybe some teachers are trying, shrugging off the mantra that learning has to be fun (and games) and going old school. Learning is knowing things and acquiring skills. One teacher literally ditched the games and stated (out loud) that:

"You have to explicitly teach the content.”

It isn't clear if she's been fired [yet] or if the union knows about this departure from doctrine. Research indicates that students actually learn math when they are explicitly told the rules of the road rather than relying on serendipity and intuition. This debunks the trendy notion that Inquiry Based Learning is a silver bullet, a belief held even though research strongly suggests that IBL works best in graduate level courses where students have sufficient base knowledge to support curiosity. They know enough to know what they don't know. Your eight grader doesn't. 

There is a chance this whole "teaching and learning" thing will catch on as the path (ed: really?) is already paved with a return to phonics. For our children's sake let's hope it does.

How Could They Possibly Have Known?

 Known what? Well, perhaps that those student loans were not such a good idea, that's what. 

They could have used their prodigious interweb skills to research the ROI on the desired degree and make it a cut and dry financial decision. Let's pause for a working definition of financial, as clearly these debtors and soon-to-be debtors likely have no clue: pertaining to monetary receipts and expenditures; pertaining or relating to money matters; pecuniary. Yep. It's all about the money. And this has become increasingly and painfully important. A recent article (originally Fortune) posits 

"The government is poised to take a bath on its student loan portfolio over the long term, even as that portfolio expands in size every year as the higher education system sucks up more federal funding." 

And this is because the ignorant were allowed, nay encouraged, to take out very ill-advised loans. 

"What we’ve considered to be economic prosperity of the last 10 years, prior to the pandemic, was in fact economically punishing to younger cohorts forced through the wringer of increasingly costly higher education and into a labor market characterized by stagnant wages and deteriorating job ladders."

Then consider that in the before times borrowers were having trouble repaying loans. What is hard to imagine is parents suffering the burden of loan debt not recognizing their mistake and instead encouraging their children to go down the same path. 

And we know this how? 

Well, that darned interweb again. There is a rather interesting site with data on Student Loan Debt by age group. Turns out folks in their 30's and 40's (the latter most like of the newest debtors) are carrying an average of $40.5K in debt. To be fair, those in their forties represent less than half of the total debt held by those in their thirties and half of that held by those in their twenties, indicating that this debt has gone from being a useful tool for some to an addiction for many, many more. Simple math: there are well over two times as many debtors in the 30-39 age bracket as in the 40-49 as the average debt is virtually identical. For the 20 year olds it is even worse as their average debt is one half of the forty-somethings so there are four times as many debtors in this age group, hence the pandering to that voting demographic. 

As a parent you might want to encourage your budding debtor to research salaries based on college major, and make sure they look not just at the widely touted highest paying but at those majors they are most interested in or most likely to acquire. They might start by searching for lowest-paying majors. Acquire a real idea of what you are getting into. Look at the monthly cost of piling on $40K of debt. Online calculators will tell you that will set you back over $225/month for 20 years. And that is if you get a 3% rate. And it took you at least 4, most likely 6 years of no income to achieve this wonderful life. 

Then investigate the options, perhaps a skilled trade. Look into starting and average pay. Check out the cost of preparing yourself to be an electrician, plumber, welder, HVAC technician, auto technician, project manager, etc. You may be surprised at the economic viability of what seems to have become an alternative career. 

Unfortunately this would require that someone considered to be smart enough for college be smart enough to determine, for themselves, whether or not college is right for them.

Education: Florida Leads The Way?

This isn't about recent assaults on the tenure system in Florida (and other states') universities. This is about a new alternative to the (failed) Common Core curriculum for K-12. At least one organization is holding this up as an example for others to follow as well as defending the Florida curriculum from assault from the Fordham Institute. 

Fordham, lilting to the left, takes issue with Florida's B.E.S.T. not because of pedagogical weakness or probable educational outcomes but because B.E.S.T. does not follow the current trends toward non-objectivity and P.C. content of questionable value. In effect, Florida attempts to institute a meritocracy that runs afoul of the participation-award philosophy dominating schools throughout the country. 

The Independent Institute performed their own evaluation of B.E.S.T. as well as addressing Fordham's issues head on. This article is well worth a read in the hopes that such a curriculum might take hold in Georgia.

There Is Nothing More Unequal...

...than the equal treatment of unequal people. So sayeth Thomas Jefferson (ed: didn't he get cancelled?) thereby making the irony more poignant as this egregious mistreatment has been occurring, for years, at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. For the past few years the educational storm troopers running this otherwise highly ranked school have been withholding notification of National Merit scholar awards from the students and their parents, denying them access to scholarship opportunities. 

Why have they done this?

All in the name of equity. And this can only happen if you become dogmatically devoted to the appearance that excellent students are no different to the struggling stragglers. First must look like worst and to avoid hurt feelings these "educators" will not publicly announce these accomplishments. 

And yet...

How do they make this work with athletics? Do they throw football or basketball games so as not hurt an opponents feelings? Hurt feelings in sports appear to be OK at TJ. Those accomplishments are celebrated. 

So this is just a race to the bottom for academics but not for sports. These "educators" could not be any more clear about their priorities.

It's A Landslide!

Fast-forward to mid-term elections. Election upset. Democrat wins against incumbent Republican with the vote split 59 to 41. Wow! And the media crowd goes wild! Landslide! LANDSLIDE! They cannot say it often or loudly enough. 

Flash-back. To now. Same split: 59 to 41. Only now it is the percentage of math texts making the approved list in Florida. Somehow, rather than declaring a landslide, media seems obsessed with the 41. It is as if it were an election where the Democrat lost. Maybe it IS a proxy. Whatever it may be it is most certainly a disservice. If media retained any objectivity they would now (and always would have) examine the books ON THE LIST to see if they are anything more than the math equivalent of the comic book version of David Copperfield. You know. All pictures. Lots of distractions. Almost no math. 

After all, doesn't a landslide touch on just a little math? Shouldn't we ALL know how to compare those two numbers? Consistently?

Hackademics

How is your student doing? After all you are the parent and until recently everyone agreed it is also your student, though the education industry has leaked their deep seated disagreement with that proposition. This may be have you considering drastic measures. Private schools? Perhaps. Tutoring? Not a bad option, but it makes you wonder if you're encouraging government schools' bad behavior. Or maybe a bandaid on a bullet wound. 

You might be considering drastic, direct action. Taking the bull by the horns. Making learning a family activity and stepping away from a system telling your student what to think rather than how to think. If you follow this path there are lots of resources available, but we at The Other Dunwoody would like to suggest LibreTexts. Here you'll find freely available texts, course support and visualization tools. Of particular interest are the math resources, covering elementary skills, to algebra, calculus, data science, economics and even today's edu-industry trend: finance. But in this case your student will not be driven towards the collectives' group-think but instead will acquire the skills needed to make their own decision about their own finances. 

Embrace hackademics. You may well learn something too.

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me Your Views

Mainstream talk shows (they like to think of themselves as "news programs") like to characterize the un-vaccinated as ignorant, uneducated, mouth-breathing Trump acolytes as if anyone with a brain is certainly vaccinated. Or...not. As it turns out, when sorted by educational level the greatest vaccine hesitancy is found among those with a PhD. Kind of breaks the narrative, doesn't it? How's your narrative working for you?

They're Coming To Take You Away...

Artificial Intelligence is powering many aspects of our daily lives. Many, perhaps most, are good things. Cars that drive, or at least assist the driver, or merely watch the driver alerting her of distractions. A world of information is literally available for the asking. IVR hell is no longer escaped by a series of touch-tones. Instead you talk your way out. AI is solving math problems. Very. Difficult. Math. 

What could possibly be next? Education comes to mind, but it isn't exactly new. And for every research article on the uses of AI in education there is an article suggesting that technology will never replace the classroom teacher. Most early uses of AI were indeed guide by the side of a sage on the stage providing automated grading and evaluation as well as tailored lesson planning. Perhaps the irreplaceability is based on the computer being impersonal and detached. But that may not tell the proper story and in any event it is changing. 

We now have a small company with a very interesting product. A robo-tutor. 

In the brave new world of pandemic non-school schools where your child's education is delivered to den why not have a robo-tutor? Why stare at some flat screen classmate mosaic mashup when you can have a real tutor delivering real lessons crafted by certified teachers? At some point the guides-by-the-sides will be AI powered personal education robots and sages-on-stages will be significantly better and not very thick on the ground. 

Of course, this will never work in DeKalb County public schools.

For obvious reasons.

Brief Moment Of Clarity

A local teacher was recently quoted in the newspaper saying:

"Nobody has asked about curriculum this year. The purpose of a school used to be to educate children. I am not sure we can continue to say that is the purpose of schools today."

Yes, education is what schools were once all about, but unless this teacher is an octogenarian she has never actually experienced it in her work. She is a product of and (now reluctant) participant in a system that long ago pushed traditional education, teaching and learning, aside in favor of all manner of "wrap around services" with no rational alignment with learning. 

What this pandemic offers is a period of time for analysis and reflection. To question. How well is your child learning? What are they learning? More importantly, what are they NOT learning? Is it possible that learning, real learning, might actually be real work? Is it possible that the mantra of "make learning fun" is really more about fun at the expense of learning? Maybe bitmoji classrooms are far less important than educators would have us believe. 

Education seems to be all about distractors. In texts. In classroom theatrics. In school decor. Perhaps with parents now forced to monitor and supervise this educational buffet of pablum we will see parents who really care rising up and making positive changes.

Where Will The Good Ones Go?

And what will we do when they're gone?

You may be wondering why they are leaving. Well, it is because they, the really good ones, are being driven away. Soon we'll see the best doctors, lawyer, engineers and other professionals will no longer be the best we could have. Instead many of those that would be best will be displaced, sacrificed to the gods of diversity.

The epicenter of this of impending disaster lies at the intersection of two fault lines: STEM and diversity. It plays out within the education industry, at schools, colleges and universities across the country. And the tool of choice is grade inflation, long viewed with disdain it has become the best, the easiest way to guarantee desired demographic profiles in programs where the preferred among us are under-represented.

Brand management and other foundational practices in the business of education prevent merely expanding programs to allow the inferior a seat beside their betters. Instead, the betters must go, vacating slots to be filled by the less capable. But where do the betters go? If we are not there already we will soon be at a place where the best and brightest must flee the United States. Shortly, the impact of systemic suppression of excellence will be felt and we will no longer be cultivating the best minds in the world. They won't leave the United States because they will not be here in the first place. And we will have abandoned first place forever.

Managing Measurements

An old bromide states that "you cannot manage what you do not measure" but it is a palatable veneer over a deeper truth: "you willingly claim to manage that which you refuse to even attempt to measure." Yet the AJC's frenetic supporter of failed education wants to manage perceptions, daring to use the word "focus" in an opinion piece on education when every educator's first approach in dealing with a parent's concerns about their child's performance is obfuscation and deflection. But Mizz Downey has the answer, and yes, it involves deflection. Her plan is to stop obsessing with all that academic folderol and focus on family. Yep. Forget about that "learning" crap and think about family. This coming from the kind of folk who drone on and on about "it takes a village."

But the fact is (by any objective measure) your DeKalb County, Governor's Honors student is getting his ass handed to him by the rest of the developed world and much of the third world. And yet, we're told it is family income that makes the dream work, though we dare not discuss that an intact family might somehow have higher income than the average single parent family. Just. Don't. Go. There. But that's not your student, not your school. They're the best, right?

Well, let's go there.

Gather up some Dunwoody Cluster DCSD high school students and ask them to solve for a in the following: $$ -a = \frac{b}{c} $$ and make sure they first explain their thinking and then show the steps. Most, if not all, will explain that you must multiply both sides by minus one. Good on them. Then, in a frightening number of cases they will offer this solution: $$ -1 \times a = \frac{-1}{-1}\times \frac{b}{c} $$ et voila, everything gets a -1. Upon further simplification this yields: $$ a = \frac{b}{c} $$ which is pretty astounding, isn't it? You DO know this is not the right answer, don't you? And...you DO know how to do this correctly, right? Well, don't trust TOD, ask any college professor if they see these failures, and dozens more like them, in freshman Calc I.

Then, when you're thoroughly pissed, you cannot even consider going to a DCSD school because they're going to obfuscate, deflect and blame it on you. And they're right because you, as a parent and taxpayer have not demanded that they, the teachers and administrators, focus on education, develop meaningful metrics and manage towards a steady, deliberate return to competency in our schools. Bad on you.

Journalist, Heal Thyself

This week our collective school marm, Maureen Downey, asks us to ponder why we shame girls for their bodies. Perhaps Maureen should read the paper she writes for as once a week (at least) they publish a body-shaming article of their own. They print this under the title of "Success story" where folks brag about how much weight they've lost, how they did it and how long they've kept their weight under control. To complete the body shaming of readers unable to control their portly selves they include both before and after photos. This is just filled with micro (or given the "gravitas" of their targets, perhaps "macro") aggressions. And given that Maureen's domain is education, the home turf of safe spaces, trigger words and micro-aggressions, her insensitivity is appalling.

Is Distraction The Theme?

It is easy to bash DeKalb County Schools because they give you so many opportunities. But this time they are actually trying to do the right thing, provide an environment focused on learning, and they are getting trashed because that focus results in rules viewed by armchair critics as "insensitive". This case is about hair cuts/styling. So what is the problem?

In a sane world it would be a non-issue. The specific school is a DeKalb Theme school where enrolling requires application and a commitment by the parents and the child to follow certain rules including a strict conduct and dress code. If a student wants to distinguish themselves they have one option: learn. It is an environment where no distractions, even stylin' doos, are not allowed as permitting these distractions would be "insensitive" to those students and their parents who chose a theme school because it provides them the best education.

Being a theme school it is a choice school so no one MUST attend, and if participating in a program exclusively built around learning doesn't satisfy your need to be the center of attention then stay at your home school. 

Milestones Or Millstones

Milestone reports are in and the AJC is declaring "impressive" gains. Of course this is relative (and propaganda) since the absolute measure shows 58% of third graders scored below proficient in Language Arts (includes the first of the three "R"s : reading). Juxtapose this with the declaration that "reading well by third grade is essential for academic success" and one has to wonder what all the chest beating is about. After all well over half do not possess this "essential" skill.

Milestones is coming under attack from another direction as some districts in Georgia are banding together to create "student focused" tests they claim will remain nationally normed. The plan is to discard the "big bang" approach of Milestones replacing it with evaluations scattered throughout the year. This caters to the current pedagogical paradigm of "get it then forget it" where students are expected to retain knowledge only briefly. Their approach aligns with teacher provided grades while the Milestones test exposes grade inflation and lack of real, substantive learning. 

Mexican Standoff

Maureen Downey's recent opinion piece on "It's time to elevate teaching as a career" is in itself a case study on what is wrong with today's school system. There are so many problems with this failed ecosystem it is hard to figure out where to start. But start we must.

Perhaps it is best to recognized that "education" is an industry. An industry with lots of moving parts: colleges; graduate programs; online PhDs; consultants; politicians; bureaucrats; silver-bullet programs; wrap-around-services; and worst of all,  textbook publishers. The origins of this industry may well have been teaching and learning, the cultivation of knowledge and skill in the youth of America, but that is long gone having been reduced to little more than a marketing tool. If there is any learning going on in our schools it comes with minimal retention and at enormous monetary and societal costs.

Then there is the Goebbels-like drumbeat of the "teaching profession." But what is a "profession" and what are "professionals?" Since relativism is educators' lifeblood let's take that approach and define by comparison. Law is a profession and to practice lawyers must have a law degree and pass the bar exam. Admission to law school requires a bachelors degree and a decent score on the LSATs. Medical professionals spend four years in med school after their bachelor degree and passing the MCATs and then spend several years in residency at which point they can apply to the state for a license which requires a test. Professional Engineers* obtain their education, often considered quite rigorous, sit for a test, work under the supervision of licensed engineers for several years before they sit for the PE exam after which, should they pass, they will obtain their license. This is what "professional" looks like.

This is not what teaching looks like. Teaching requires a four year degree, weak on subject matter, like mathematics, to afford time for pedagogical training. So that sixth grade math teacher may know less math than the engineers' daughter** sitting in class. Is there a qualifying exam to teach? Well, sort of. It is called the GACE, and while teachers have to take the exam there are many with long standing in front of a "smart board" who've tried and failed, often multiple times. And teaching does not require an advanced degree or supervised, practical experience to get a license and in fact many classroom "teachers" are not licensed. How "professional" is that?

Sooner or later the conversation turns to money. It always does. And someone always trots out the old  "someone in industry with an equivalent degree and the same years of experience would be making over $100K and I only get $69K." Wow. And that gal in the real world would be working 47 weeks a year (15 days PTO, 10 holidays--maybe) and she wouldn't get annual raises for merely hanging on another 4 quarters. Multi-week, even monthlong breaks are de rigueur  in the edu-industry. Defined benefit retirement, AKA "pension?" You gotta be kidding. Then there are the Edu-industry STEP raises that are completely detached from performance with failing performers getting the same bump as those who struggle and improve. But industry-gal would actually have to produce. And industry-gal has no tenure, and in Georgia as in many other states she can be terminated without cause and without notice. The real kicker is that industry-gal may actually be a licensed Professional Engineer and while this may garner a higher salary it also makes her an easy target come layoff time.

But teachers and their representatives will argue that we should pay better so we get better teachers. OK. Let's run with that. When will these teachers show up? What do we do with the, kindly put, less capable teachers we now have on payroll and on the cheap? And this is the essence of the education Mexican Standoff. We'd prefer that you give us better teachers and then we'll pay more. You'd prefer we pay more, now and to all, and then we'll see about jacking up competence in the classroom.

Is there a way to break the impasse? Technically, yes but practically probably not. Several fairly straightforward, inexpensive steps could be taken.

Focus. If you claim the high ground, the devotion to our future thru the noble profession of "teaching," then teach. Stop with the all the other ancillary, smoke-screen activities often used to obscure that fact that learning was abandoned long ago.

Eliminate tenure. All the arguments in support of tenure are unfounded in reality but the harm, the fostering, the harboring of incompetence is real and destructive.

Reject relativism in all its manifestations. Doing "better" isn't the same as "doing well." It isn't even doing "good enough." Only in education will an organization get more money or an employee a raise simply because they suck less, or worse yet they managed to suck pretty much the same for another year.

Increase the rigor and preparedness of incoming teachers. Eliminate watered-down, hyphenated education degrees making education programs require graduate studies or at the very least a double-major. Improve the rigor of the GACE and make it an absolute minimal requirement. No exceptions.

And finally we must address the elephant in the room: corporate interests. No school in Georgia should buy another text book or any other teaching or training material from any textbook company or conglomerate. Hard stop. All these materials should come from programs in our public universities where tenure-track and tenured professors contribute their enormous knowledge and pedagogical talents to the greater good.

Give us a better system with better teachers. Put learning back into education. Then our public schools might be worth what we're already paying.

* Unlike law and medicine, Georgia's Secretary of State has long failed in enforcing laws around licensing of Professional Engineers allowing many companies and employees to use the title "Software Engineer" when in fact there is no such thing under Georgia law. 

** Engineers' kids are always forced to "do math."

French Ban Distracted Learning

The French recently passed a law prohibiting smartphones and tablets in the classroom ostensibly as a means of shielding children from addictive habits and to protect the sanctity of the classroom. At least they still have that. In DeKalb schools a teacher has a good day if they can just get the buggers to sit down and be quiet--even if it is only because they're facebooking.

Silly Season Upon Us

Tuesday marks the voter's chance to pick from a bouquet of single-issue pure-bred candidates. But. There is one issue that everyone lines up behind: government education. Politically it is like oxygen, without it a candidate quickly gasps their last breath. Non-negotiable. Non-partisan. Red and blue, both end up purple.

There is one problem and it is a big one. Education isn't what these folks and their constituents say that it is and most folks, especially those who actually have one of these educations know the truth. Most folks figure this out pretty early. You learn for the test, whether from the College Board or the teacher between you and the Smart Board. With few exceptions, most notably math, you can purge all such knowledge without consequence. THAT is what makes math hard--you actually need it for more than the quiz.

Got a college diploma? Been working for a while? And... Do you use much if any of what you studied in college in your average work day? Didn't think so. But don't feel bad, only the very few actually use what they learned in college and they have a special name: college professor. After all, what do you really expect to do with a degree in Medieval European History? That's right, teach Medieval European History--to a bunch of bored students who need this course to get a diploma to get a job. There are a lot of folks out there with history [and english and psychology and ...] degrees that are, based on content studied, worthless.

Or are they?

In "The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money" economics professor Bryan Caplan makes a compelling case citing a wealth of research--you can fact-check and second guess to your heart's content. You'll have a VERY difficult time countering his argument, partly because it is a conclusion based largely on the research of others, including those who'd not likely agree with his conclusion, and presented in the context of common sense. How can you nod knowing at "All I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten" and then tout the inestimable value of the college education offering no learnings that you now use?

More unsettling is Caplan's explanation, not necessarily original to him, that the value of education, particularly to the labor market is, in a word, signaling. You get a better job with a diploma not because you'll use anything you've learned, beyond basic literacy and numeracy, but because acquiring that diploma tells hiring companies something they can use to quickly, effectively and easily improve their hiring decision. The diploma signals some measure of intelligence, of conscientiousness and most importantly that you are compliant. You sat thru innumerable mind-numbing courses with arbitrary content and requirements and yet you did what the voice of authority at the head of the class told you to do. Because they were at the head of the class. Because they were in charge and you were not. What pointy-haired boss doesn't want that?

To be clear, Caplan is adamant, constantly repeating that education is not only signaling, but that it is mostly signaling with the rest being what politicians and others wax poetic about: human capital--ephemeral, unmeasurable, unquantifiable and yes, inestimable. Except when it isn't. Like in economics. Caplan reaches and supports all the logical conclusions. Signaling is important because it is effective. Credential inflation, well under way and proudly promoted by politicians, undercuts that effectiveness and therefore the signaling value of education. We don't need more worthless diplomas, we need vo-tech. We need separation of school and state, just like church and state.

We need to quash credential inflation. Soon janitors will need a college diploma. Politicians will see to it they get them. Once everyone has a diploma, at any level, the diploma signals nothing. So you move to the next one and the next until you run out. Yet politicians seem hellbent on fueling credential inflation given the slightest opportunity to do so. If they said they were going to invest your tax dollars in Venezuelan bolívars voters would run them out on a rail but when they say they're going to print diplomas at the Caracas Mint voters drool.

We don't need politicians bragging of bravery as a Ranger or a SEAL, or their gender, or poverty, or bad haircut. We need statesmen whose real courage lies in making difficult, necessary and unpopular decisions. We need leadership.

Education Imagination

You wanna know something funny? "Tar-baby" has a bad connotation. Something sticky that will get all over you and if you touch it you'll never be able to get loose. But there are "good" tar-babies. Ones that are big. Ones that come with huge amounts of public money. Money viewed by politicians as "free." If you can stick yourself or your program to one of these tar-babies you are made. And the biggest of these is public education.

Think about it. Never-ending stream of funding. Max out property tax? No problemo. You think it is hard to pass an ESPLOST? Really? So if you can hook up, in any way, shape or form, with public education it is like being besties with someone who prints money. And whatever it is you offer, product, service, program, it doesn't matter, does not really need to work. At least not any better than the education component and we all know how well that works. 

Problems arise when there are parts of the puzzle that cannot grow at metastatic rates. Social programs are easy. Free lunch not enough? Hey, let's wash their clothes---that'll learn 'em. But what happens when you run out of space? Buildings take too much time for the Silver Bullet Lifecycle and property only helps developers who for whatever reason aren't beholden to PS101. Maybe they have a real job. But the educrats have their bandaid ready: portable classrooms. These are what rednecks would call "trailers" but without all the fixin's. Like that washer/dryer combo. 

But it doesn't fix the "land is expensive" problem. Rednecks to the rescue once again.

All it needs is solar panels and a windmill

Here's where that Education Imagination comes in. You gotta git out yer crayons and construction paper and re-draw these here redneck trailers to be them thar school trailers. Now if you're clever, as some rednecks have been, you can rack and stack these bad boys AND leave all the parking spaces underneath. Here in daVille that would address the hysterical voices raised high and loud over the loss of parking spaces at the high school. Get the Boy Scouts involved and you've got a win-win. Find someone with a welding badge who lusts after Eagle status and have him weld up the frame. That'll work. 

All public education needs to thrive is a little more imagination. Oh, yeah. And more money.