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The Future of Public Education
By Joe Cadrain, Winsted
Presently our students’ ranking in international testing of industrialized nations is appalling. Our high-tech industries cannot find enough well educated students to fill their needs, and therefore they are forced to search the world for qualified employees or move the industry to another country. The educational cost per student is increasing at an alarming rate everywhere, including in the Town of Winchester. In 2000-01 the cost per pupil was approximately $10,300. The cost increased by $1,000 per student in 2001-02, boosting the cost to approximately $11,500 per student. Our 2002-03 budget would have us spending over $12,000 per student in our system. Without accountability, the only benefit is higher pay for educators.
The power of education unions is enormous, and a taxpayer-funded union called CABE (Connecticut Association of Boards of Education) is their political leader. From hiring and firing to curriculum, and from money to testing, the teachers unions wield incredible power over how and by whom the schools are run. The National Education Association (NEA) is not only the largest teachers union in the country, but also the largest labor union in the world, period! At over 2.2 million members, it is nearly three times as large as the 850,000-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
Together these two teachers unions create a network of influence that reaches into every state, city and school district in the nation. Nearly 70% of the nation's public school teachers are members of either the NEA or the AFT. These groups are highly organized with highly active national political organizations that can muster unprecedented grass-roots access—neither the Republican nor the Democratic national party can compare in political muscle. Boasts the NEA, "We are the only organization in the United States with a nationwide, broad-based pool of education advocates in every precinct."
The only hope for our students to become better educated would be to have a "student voucher" system, allowing school choice that would bring competition to the school system. Should this not happen, the State of Connecticut will be forced to mandate and pay the cost of education. To many this may sound very good, until you realize you would be helping to pay school costs in all the major cities—plus you would have little say in your local education system. Of course this would mean all schools must be equally funded. Well now! That means all school systems would have to be given as much money as the highest spending school system in the state. Do I hear $20,000 per student? Hey! Socialism is wonderful.
Have a nice day.
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