On the Money Trail
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Education in America: No Dollar Left Behind
by Al Jacobs, author of Nobody's Fool
January 2008

Here in my state of California, as in much of the nation, education continues to spark controversy.  Our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, proclaimed 2008 the “year of education” with his Committee on Education Excellence drafting a school-reform program.  Meanwhile several foundations, headed by Stanford University, are conducting a 23-part study of the state’s 6 million-student public-school system.  Not to be outdone, our state Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell, recently assembled 4,000 educators in Sacramento to focus on chronic achievement gaps between various ethnic and racial groups.  The purpose of all this inquiry is to determine why, over the past 30 years, public school student performance continues to decline despite massive increases in school financing.

Let me level a few charges on the subject that will never be acknowledged in any studies.  I contend that the educational establishment concentrates on things of no particular consequence, such as class size, quality of textbooks, credentials of the teachers, testing techniques, and a variety of extraneous issues.  However, factors that actually determine performance relate to students as individuals: native intelligence, attitude, English language proficiency, and outside factors such as parental encouragement, student nutrition, and troublesome distractions.  Learning is not a collective endeavor imposed upon recipients, but rather a singular achievement embraced by a willing participant.

In early America education meant learning, but no longer.  With the coming of age of professional education the emphasis changed.  Rather than providing instruction to the student, the primary aim is enhancing the prestige and financial status of the educator.  Schooling is big business that seeks to stuff warm bodies into classrooms, many which do not belong there.

Admittedly, my attitude will not receive the National Education Association’s ringing endorsement.  Neither will proponents of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 use my logic in support of their goals.  Nonetheless, there are experienced educators who understand the futility of perpetual schooling to students that cannot or will not be educated.   One such person is Jake Schwartzberg, a mathematics teacher at Dana Hills High School in Orange County, California, whose article titled “Let them go” recently appeared in the local newspaper.  His article, printed below, effectively verbalizes a stark reality—that many students perform no useful function in the classroom.

Let them go

By Jake Schwartzberg

Every educational journal that I read seems to have an article that bemoans the student dropout rates in our high schools.  I’ve developed a slightly different outlook on the dropout rate.  I don’t think it is high enough.  I wish it were higher.

I wish all of the students who don’t want to be there would drop out.

Unfortunately, they can’t.  The law won’t allow it.  Well, I think it’s time for a change in the law.  I’m calling for the end of mandatory education.  I’m calling for education as an opportunity, not a requirement.

Maybe I’m the exception to the rule, but when I’m told I have to do something, I rarely put forth my best effort.  My best efforts are reserved for the things I choose to do.  I’m also kind of a jerk when I’m told what I have to do, and I don’t think I’m the only one.  I remember when the seat belt law came out.  I remember not wearing my seat belt for a few weeks because “you can’t tell me what to do.”  There is something in my psyche that when I’m ordered to do something I instinctively try to resist.  Our students are the same.  We have to develop a system where kids choose to be there.

How stupid do we look trying to teach kids who don’t want to learn?We have to have hall monitors to hustle kids into class after the late bell has rung.  We have to control kids daily from disrupting the educational opportunities of the others.  We have to beg and plead and threaten and implore and encourage many of our kids to put forth any kind of effort.  How stupid do we look trying to teach kids who don’t want to learn?  I don’t think you can teach anyone anything who doesn’t really want to learn.

I would like to work in a school where all who walk through the doors are making education a choice, not a requirement.  When that day occurs, when the level of desire to become more knowledgeable is paired with good teaching, we will have something special.  As long as we force all of our kids to go to school, we’re going to have to deal with all the cheeseballs too.

Let them drop out.  Let them have parents with the guts to let them fail.  Go to work for a year.  Like it?  Stay out there.  But if you figure out that with a good education comes better employment opportunities, come on back.  We won’t turn anyone away.  We just won’t make anyone stay.  When students choose to be educated instead of being forced to be educated, our schools will become what they can be: institutions of higher learning.

Despite Mr. Schwartzberg’s urgings, there’s not much chance that dead wood will be stripped from the classroom.  It’s not the ABCs that motivate modern education, but rather ADA—average daily attendance—which serves as the criterion for funneling money into the educational labyrinth.  If there is a common and recurring refrain from most participants in the school system, it is that there are insufficient financial resources for education, and only with increased monetary contributions can America achieve the educational superiority it deserves.  This message is the one unifying battle cry of diverse and often hostile elements that compete with one another for a share of those resources.  Whatever else varies, an incessant call for ever more revenue is the common thread in the scholastic fabric.  The Doctrine of the Faith is fundamental: Academic excellence results from the spending of money.

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Al Jacobs has been an entrepreneur for forty years. His business experience ranges from property management and securities investment to appraisal, civil engineering, and the operation of a private trust company. In his book, Nobody's Fool - A Skeptic's Guide to Prosperity, Al presents his Ten Ground Rules for Success for achieving wealth and a prosperous life by outlining a philosophy for spending, borrowing, making sound investments, and how to avoid being victimized by America's many intimidating institutions.