Government Education Programs That Do Not Educate

The majority of kids in this country receive their education from government run and financed public schools. As reported previously in this blog, numerous, reputable sources have researched and analyzed the quality of public education in this country and have continually found it lacking despite the trillions of dollars we have spent on it over the decades. Two recent events suggest that we are no closer to fixing this problem even though the taxpayer money continues to flow.

Earlier this year, Obama's Department of Health and Human Services finally released a long term, comprehensive study that showed that the $150 billion that has been spent since the beginning of the Head Start program has resulted in "yielding zero lasting benefits for participating children." In other words, Head Start is nothing ore than an expensive government day care program. Anything the kids gain at age four from Head Start are largely absent by first grade. The Heritage Foundation's review of the material from HHS concluded: "Head Start has little to no effect on cognitive, socio-emotional, health and parenting outcomes of children participating in the program."

Now this study was not done by a tea party group, the Republicans, conservatives or others against large government. This was done for the government and released as fact by the Obama administration. The real question is whether or not the administration will stop the program, given that we now know it is ineffective. Consider President Obama's past statements on government programs in general and pre school programs in particular:

• "For every dollar we invest in these programs, we get nearly $10 back in reduced welfare rolls, fewer health care costs, and less crime." (pre school programs)
• His administration would "use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars. It's not whether the idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works." (any government program)

This is why the Obama administration is having more and more people tune it out. First of all, it makes up the numbers. Where did the ten to one, benefit to cost, number come from? It certainly did not come from Head Start since we now know that Head Start is worthless from an education perspective. Second, does anyone really think he will have the guts to shut down Head Start even though his own administration says it does not work. I doubt it, contributing to the growing body of hypocrisy this administration specializes in.

The sad part about all of this waste is that the Government Accounting Office reports that currently there are 69 Federal early education and child care programs that cost taxpayers more than $25 billion a year. If the flagship program, Head Start, does not work, do we really think that the other 68 programs are working and effective?

The second education event was a story in the March 26, 2010 issue of The Week magazine. This article summarized some of the facts and reactions to Obama's replacement program for the current No Child Left Behind Law that was pushed and approved during the Bush administration. Most people believe that this Bush bill was mostly a failure also since its goal of having all American children proficient in math and reading by 2014 will never be reached and that the law forced schools and teachers to educate to pass the mandatory proficiency tests and not focus on the wider process of learning. According to the article, on third of U.S. schools are still not reaching their progress benchmarks. A post we did in this blog in late 2009 cited a research study that proved that the $6 billion spent on increasing the reading skills of a set of students was a failure and thus, a waste of money.

What does the Obama replacement program do:

• It also would require proficiency in reading and math but pushes the deadline until 2020 (similar to the Bush plan, just a later date).
• It also would require standardized testing in math and reading every year (similar to the Bush plan).
• It also would get rid of bad teachers (similar to the Bush plan).
• It also would strive for common education standards (similar to the Bush plan).

Thus, how much of a difference is Obama's program going to make if four big components of his plan are the same as the failed Bush plan? The article does point out some differences which includes judging schools on additional criteria including graduation rates and individual progress in addition to test scores. However, which of the these common and additional requirements will survive the Congressional debate, and in what form, is yet to be determined. Given that the Obama plan is nothing revolutionary, how much better do we really think this plan will be once it gets through the lawyers in Congress and the associated lobbyists?

Thus, two major and very expensive government education programs do not work and there does not appear to be any hope that the current members of the political class know how to fix them or have the courage to fix them. Diane Ravitch of the LA Times was quoted in The Week article and she made some excellent points, namely that poor performing "teachers are only one of many factors that influence a student's education, including family support, the distractions that come with poverty, and student motivation." Thus, as Ms. Ravitch astutely observed, the political class again has not identified and quantified the root causes for failing education in this country. As with the health care fiasco, by not understanding what is causing bad public schooling, the root causes, the chances of curing the problem is nothing better than a shot in the dark.

This not understanding the problem comes back to Step 27 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" which proposes that an expert panel of education experts from various fields be convened to come up with fact based, root caused analyzed solutions. Twenty eight years after a government commission identified the problems and the causes of poor public education and forty five years or so after Head Start began, we are no closer to solving education shortcomings in this country using the politicians' approach. Maybe we should try something different. Waiting until 2020 (best case) and wishfully spending tens of billions of dollars in the hope the political class will some how get it right is way too risky.



Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.