Submitted by Randy Caldwell, Jan 21, 2008 22:25

Let's face it our educational system is broken in many cities all over this country. And educators haven't a clue to the solutions for the decay in education, but throw more money at the problems. There is no correlation to the amount of money spent per student and educational out come. But now, our brightest educators want to lower the academic standards so it will appear that public education is performing better.
Competition works. Measurement works. The only problem with public education is so administratively constipated it can't or won't compete. It has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Phonics reading methods are superior to Whole Word reading methods. So what reading do we teach in our troubled inner city school systems, Whole word! There are countless examples of these poor curriculum decisions that it is astounding. and yet it must be the parents falt. Once public education learns to compete, public education will improve.

Just another note on competition, PISA program for international student achievement tested 15 year old students from 32 country and the United States placed 17 in math and 18 in science. But we were second in the world on the amount of money spent per pupil. Nationally Charter schools make up less than 2% of the total number of high schools in the country and yet made up for 11% of the list of top 100 best high schools in the United States. By the way, in Ohio charter schools educate students for 46% of the cost of public schools, and that is competition whether you want it or not.

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