When Govt. helps us Beware!

[ronuva]

I am sure that many of you have noticed that the trend toward decline in education has correlated with the increase in involvement of the Federal government in Education. Federal mandates create new bureaucracies that don't want to solve problems, because if they do, they will be out of a job! Think of the places totally controlled by the Federal Government: Washington DC(particularly the schools), the Post Office, and the Indian Reservations. All are disaster areas. Surely we can learn from this!

[fjccommish]

When the government sees failure, its conclusion is that more of the same is needed.

When public schools fail, it's because they need more money.

Failure leads to more, not less government failure.

[stepbystep]

Ronuva,

It's interesting to me that the government is increasingly trying to gain more and more control over education. But this trend is a relatively recent phenomenon. For many years, the right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children has been recognized and upheld. Yet the current battle to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child seems like it could be a dangerous step in granting federal government more power in the educational realm. In my opinion, we have to start with the fundamentals of society. Some people are pushing to insure that families--parents specifically--have the primary right to "direct the upbringing and education of their children." These people are attempting to do this by passing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I've found their website (www.parentalrights.org (http://www.parentalrights.org)) interesting. Thoughts?

[ronuva]

I am in favor of any legal means to limit the power of the Federal Government. This is especially true of education. Parents are the mainstay of a good education. Students who have involved parents do well. The problem we have is there are too many children without involved parents. I refer to this as the Springerization of the country. Too many people are too concerned with their pleasure and not with the responsibility of raising a child. As far as the UN is concerned I don't trust any organization that would put leading terrorist and communist nations on human rights commissions. I would not be displeased if we left the UN which would save money and rid us of a nest of corrupt spies and bureaucrats. They should move to Bangladesh, where they would see real suffering and perhaps be moved to do something about it!

[chris13]

It's like President Reagan said. The worst words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."