The Times Picayune’ s Robert Mann wrote an editorial this weekend linking educational outcomes to poverty. His goal was to create a vision under which he could discredit the powerful education reforms that Louisiana has enacted by basing his arguments on a worldview in which students are victims of a failed economic system. This is sad because to accept his arguments one would have to conclude that effective education of poor students is not possible and that no effort on the part of the state nor its educators would have any impact. Of course, reading between the lines, his real agenda was to promote the big government social vision that he shares with the Democrat Party. Under this scenario students are victims of a failed American economic system and, no matter how effective they might be, those that work to educate our youth can do nothing to stem the tide of failure. The usual solution to the evils that he and his peers perceive to have been bestowed upon the poor by our Country, is to trust in massive government social programs and to blame the successful in society for the shortfalls of the poor. The problem that Mr. Mann and his peers have in defending this argument is that we, as a nation, since the time of FDR, have followed the lead of the Democrat Party in accepting this philosophy with the result an explosion of societal ills; expanding poverty, broken families, crime, and educational failure. To paraphrase a quote attributed to Einstein “the measure of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and to expect a different outcome”. Incredibly, his entire body of work suggests that this is exactly what Mr. Mann is subtly suggesting we continue to do. In perfect contrast to the Republican philosophy, he promotes that we do not trust that all students can learn, that we should not hold teachers and administrators accountable for positive performance growth trends, and that we trust in big government to somehow turn the failed ship of state around! I doubt anyone who supports education reform would dispute the relationship between poverty and poor educational outcomes. Equally, I doubt that anyone who supports educational reform will ever accept the notion as promoted by Mr. Mann and his peers that we should not try in every way we can, to give the children of Louisiana an opportunity to say no, to the victimization strategy of the Democrats and yes, to an opportunity for a great future! Conrad Appel Senate District 9
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 23:28:03 +0000
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