You are so right, the word 'but' does negate the previous sentiment and I agree government has no place in education. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening anytime soon. (Did not say 'but', lol) Heck, we are having a hard time just keeping charter schools open, which still have government control. Although my children are grown, I see homeschooling as the best alternative for now, even though I believe the government has their boot on that issue also.

Absolutely. There is no doubt brainwashing is going on! The establishment will fight any alternatives. DeBlasio in New York has been quite open about that.

It would be nice if we could get the government out of education. The government is the most inefficient, most ineffectual way to teach our children. It is also a convenient way to brainwash our kids (do you know many conservatives amongst educators?). Promote Charter schools.

Following our current path, a tyrannical socialist system is inevitable. A collapse and a possible civil war is, in my opinion, the only hope for a chance to restore the Constitution and return to a sane, productive society.

A collapse I could handle. A transformation into a socialist or communist society I could not. A collapse would enable those prepared to survive and possibly prosper. A transformation only the privileged oligarchy would proper the rest would strive to make the Oligarchs richer and more comfortable will having nothing for themselves. I world not do that.
As the Borg state "Resistance is futile." I world resist anyway, as best I could for as long as I could.

it's not that I want to be an Ayn Rand idealist, but, seriously, I do not want to expand my business and produce any more than the minimum needed to feed my family. I have no desire to feed the parasites; the less they steal from me, the fewer that I employ, the better I feel. Since our economy and our society are unsustainable and failing, the sooner the collapse happens, the better. At least the older generation still has the skills to rebuild; if the collapse happens 20 years from now, the new generation will not have the skills and that will be the new Dark Age.

Well it sure ain't Hope and Change!

Really I know it's not just that puppet in charge now. He is just another pawn in another game. When you tax our small businesses to the point that it does not matter anymore people give up. But some try harder and those who consider themselves elites get angry because we have what they do not have. The will to succeed. Getting up at 5:00 am every morning, running down the road to get the next load off, opening that door so customers can buy or sell is that will. Something a person that was given to all their lives have no idea of. All they do is take and take more. One day that bank will run dry.

I think it is a piece to the puzzle. All of the other points made here have merit as well.

I agree and disagree with this article. I agree that you need talented and well educated individuals to make a company grow and prosper. That takes an education system worthy of the name. It must educate. That is a very long term issue, important but not immediate. The immediate issue is the amount of government regulatin, by government I mean Federal, state, county and local government. The tax code is Byzantine and unworkable. The regulations to be met for any manufacturing are horrendous.
The government(s) do everything they can to prevent job creation, not help it. They effectively limt business to 50 or less people (employees) by putting tax and ObamaCare rules on business with more employees (I’m mistake. SCOTUS says ObamaCare isa tax.)
People still start business in spite of the impediments raised by government and against all odds some succeed. It is those that create the jobs and save the economy, not the government, at any level. There is a immediate need for people in starting a business. The education system, or lack of one, impacts the continued growth of the business and the creation of future businesses.

Always hope. If we rebounded from the 70's we can rebound from this.

People taking on a "What am I to do?" attitude isn't helping matters much either. Mentioned to a retired gent last night about restarting the lumber mills, starting our own industries, etc, and was told "Never gonna happen - it's over".

All that was missing was for him to ask me the infamous question... yes, you know it...
"Who is John Galt?".
Seriously, I was waiting for it. But you want to know where Job Creation went? We lost it when people gave up, threw in the towel, got twisted around from producers to purchasers. And others saying "we'll never get it back"...

I say BullPucky. If we wanted to get it back, we would HAVE it back. Nothing says "we can't" loud enough to kill the voices of few of us who say, no, who KNOW "We CAN".

I now know what Galt felt when he said to the moochers-at-large, the ne'er-do-much, the discreditors and nay-sayers "Get the hell out of my way".

And then... a co-worker (and 5 mile neighbor) stops by, wants to talk about starting a small scale mill to do custom lumber. Out of the blue. So maybe, just maybe, there IS hope!

I had a good giggle over that one. It never will work. The problem is that during all of this the arrogance of individuals out weighed their intelligence. They actually did not think they had competition. The leaders of others countries were smarter than given due credit. Don't you think that they knew if you weakened the economic strength of America she would fall out of her leaders own arrogance?

You got that right! I'm laughing and crying at the same time. I couldn't believe when she said "Economists agree that unemployment benefits remain one of the best ways to grow the economy in a very immediate way,"
Good grief...
Regards,
O.A.

The new world order crowd thought we would be safer if we all depended on each other. Doesn't seem to be working out so well.

Good point OA. It is growing faster than ever. I seem to remember Nancy Pelosi said that was good for the economy. Hard to combat that level of stupidity.

Hello richrobinson,
One more fly in the ointment for sure. I believe the government sapping the private sector of revenue and vigor as it grows itself is perhaps the most oppressive and dangerous.
Regards,
O.A.

The weakness in this [and many] arguments about schooling - in fact, about anything that government has a finger in is the word "but. In most arguments, it negates what has been said before it. So you belittle your [valid] point about government control of public schools, and stand in favor of "schools of choice". Great. Who defines what a school is?
And absolutely, competition breeds excellence. But competition between different heads of the same hydra breeds more hydras.

Get any government involvement in education out. That's right, ANY. No government-trained teachers, no government-indoctrinated administrators, no government buildings, no government books, no government supplies, NO GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT.

Oh, GHB, what a mess. Right. Birth is usually messy. But you usually have something worthwhile at the end.

Governmental welfare has weakened the backbone of America. Welfare is another form of control. Done through corporate tax breaks not given in your own country is a game that should not be played. The players are all at fault. The defense should have had the insight to see that once the complacent factors have been set into motion that the end game is one they cannot win. Should we end up in a world war and your business is not on your mother soil, how safe is your business.

Absolutely!

I am not in favor of the government's hijacking of the public school system, but if taxes must be assessed to provide public education, then the money should follow the child, not the school district. If each child had a certain amount of revenue that was allocated to education, and that education could be obtained at a school of choice, then the schools and teachers would be competing for the student's money. Competition breeds excellence.

Corporate welfare of any kind should be ended in my opinion. You are right that many of the solutions are easy. Shows how corrupt Washington has become when they claim there are no easy answers.

The more tax breaks given corps to manufacture overseas the fewer jobs in America. We do not make anything anymore. Cut those ridiculous tax breaks, provide the same or higher tax breaks in America. Bring back manufacturing to our own soil and you create jobs for Americans. They cannot seem to see how simple that would be. They did this decades ago, making promises to other countries whom now would not stand up for us if they had to. Bring business back to America and let those countries find their own way to increase on their own.

The problem is education. From it grows government. When kids in school are taught they have rights, but are not reminded rights cannot exist without the responsibilities that make them possible, they vote for all the wrong politicians. When they are encouraged to be entitlement babies, they vote for big government. When they find they cannot start with no skills for $100,000 per year, they look for government to support them, more big government.
Honda has a plant outside our town. There are many older workers retiring this year. They cannot find workers who have the skills, nor the work ethics to fill those jobs. An electrician in the area would grow his business, but for the lack of qualified hires - even after he approached the tech schools about the poor quality of applicants he sees. Even minimum wages jobs go unfilled because of a lack of work ethics in the workers. Many IT depts have unfilled jobs, because the applicants have no communication skills, making it impossible for them to do the job correctly. Only in America do we hire teachers who know no subject but "education" but feel free to teach any subject.
Common Core will only make it all worse. Don't even mention Bill Gates! His analyses of education was right, but his millions for Common Core development are misguided - unless he happens to favor a dumbed down society ripe for picking by one world socialists.
Our schools have become like those Mao put in place, get them young, keep them from parental values, and train them to love government.

For the most part, our educational system is the biggest problem - mostly in the form of teachers' unions. This is why you should contact me about your or your kids' attendance to Florida Tech, a private, non-tenure-granting university that just made it into the top 200 in the world. Florida Tech (also called Florida Institute of Technology or FIT) is about as close to the Patrick Henry University as you will find. I have found the ideal "shrug job".

Best wishes,
Prof. Jim Brenner
Florida Tech Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Nanotechnology Program Chair
321-749-3437
jbrenner@fit.edu
http://my.fit.edu/~jbrenner