60 Comments

After residency, I opened up a medical practice in my home town, and though I had no children yet, managed to get myself elected to the county school board in the very same district where I had attended high school and what was then called primary school. I was hoping to bring some experience and perspective - even help to make some changes. Boy was I naïve.

The school system, which as a child I'd always perceived as orderly and goal-oriented, had become chaos. Make educational changes? You have to be kidding. We spent our time refereeing grievances brought by the teachers' union, the service personnel union, the parents, students - just about everybody - against the system. One local newspaperman had it perfect: The school system had become a giant school bus, with a driver who had an accelerator and a brake pedal. The rest of the seats were filled with students, teachers, supervisors, union hacks, cafeteria workers, janitors - and of course, lawyers for all the above. At each of their seats was a giant brake pedal. The moment any one of them got his panties in a twist, he could stand on his brake with both feet and bring the entire system to a grinding halt.

Which, of course, they did. The school board was powerless to perform a single act that made learning simpler, faster, more organized, less expensive to the taxpayer. We were powerless to cut costs; as a child, we'd had one bus - full - make a morning and afternoon run through our valley. Now, I watched three buses - nearly empty - make the same runs. The costs were staggering. The school board office had grown from four people to over a hundred in the intervening years. The Board itself? We were limited de facto to lobbying the public at election time for more, new, fancier, brighter schools - at exorbitant cost. I earned the hatred of the entire system by a) being the first board member in that county's history to publicly oppose tax increases for new school construction and b) when the union president testified at a board meeting in favor of demolishing and rebuilding our "old" school buildings, I simply asked her how old were the buildings at Oxford. (She had to look "Oxford" up, by the way.)

Don't think for a minute that the school administration and teachers' unions are natural enemies or that they balance each others' interests for the public good. They are natural allies and behave that way - against the public and the children they purport to educate. The entire system is a bloated mess - a full-employment scheme in which education, when it occurs - and that is very rare - is merely collateral damage.

I believe there is one possible way to get our children well and truly educated: school choice. Now, neither the system nor the unions give a tinker's damn about what you think. A man with a gun (the sheriff - the county taxing authority in my state) comes and takes your money in the form of taxes and gives it to the "system." The system's goal is not education - it is to prevent you from taking your complaints to the newspaper. Period. Give the parents back their own money and let them choose their schools and old-fashioned competition will do the rest. This pandemic/lockdown is the perfect trigger for universal school choice. As the Democrats say, let's not let this crisis go to waste.

Expand full comment

Look at those university admission numbers (and the graduation numbers are even more bleak - men are less likely than women to graduate), and it's clear that 20 years from now, we'll be talking about the plight of men in our culture. For now, though, we just continue to blindly pile on, blaming masculinity for all of our cultural problems.

Expand full comment

We homeschooled 3 for 13 years (I've been "retired" for 9. Public school was never an option, even then, because the only thing new here is that they don't even care to hide it anymore. YES, we've known dedicated teachers. YES, I went to public school and "turned out fine." YES, we paid property taxes for schools that wouldn't even let my kids use their library. And it was all worth it because I have 3 educated, responsible, hard-working, entrepreneurial adults who can think, read with comprehension, write extremely well, pay for their own lives, don't have student loan debt, own their cars outright, and have traveled enough of the world to understand how things are and what's really important. There is NO WAY I would entrust my child to a public school in any state these days.

Expand full comment

Anyone else notice that progressive policies and authoritarian mandates cause the exact opposite? Rather than saving vulnerable elderly people the US, far more than ANY other country, sacrificed an entire generation in the name of political science, not public health.

Expand full comment

I read that article about shemar and it broke my heart. Clearly teachers, albeit a very very few, don’t care a whit about the students. But it’s not confined to Baltimore, I’ve seen the same stories written about Jackson MS, LA and elsewhere.

We are sacrificing our children and thus our future. Shameful.

And the unions are to blame period.

Expand full comment

Wishing you the best High Holy Days ever, Ms. Weiss.

(25-year homeschooler. "What educational disruption?")

Expand full comment
founding

I’m so excited for this series. I learned so much about education during the pandemic and homeschooling my 3 kids last year. we are now trying a private school that we like so far. I cannot believe how different my kids feel about school than they did I’m public school. I’m the daughter of a wonderful public educator and sister to 3 siblings who also taught in public education. In a million years I would not have believed that I would take my kids out of our local district to give them something better. My oldest was in third grade when he said to me, “Mom, it feels like my teacher doesn’t like boys.” I brushed it off at the time and have since acknowledged how I admittedly passed over that way too quickly. He really felt it, the agenda. At that time “Me Too” was full storm. He was 9. One dimensional conversations have these kids bored as hell and I know I am lucky I could choose between continuing to homeschool or send my kids to private. I will say though, if you can homeschool and that’s your only financial option, or your preferred option….do it! There are so many ways to find support. Give back your kids the gift of wonder, reading great books and open discussion! Thanks Bari. Your timing is always spot on and Happy New Year to you!

Expand full comment

You are amazing. Common sense is so uncommon these days that its a paradox. Thankful to hear a voice of reason that hasn't been silenced. Happy new year!

Expand full comment

Brings to mind the Forbes/Fox story of Baltimore Schools, a 0.13GPA student graduating highschool at 62 out of 120!

Is there hope?

Expand full comment

I started homeschooling back in 1996, loved it so much I began teaching Latin, history, writing, and literature to small groups of other homeschoolers. My dear friend taught the sciences to those same students. We formed a nice little community and when one of our students lost their father my friend and I waived our fees so their children could continue homeschooling while the Mom started back to work. Community where people know, love and care for one another is everything. Public school should be that but it most definitely is not.

Eventually we broadened to form a co-op which grew to become a Christian classical school. The classical school always looked to scholarship some students from less than ideal situations. We always felt an obligation to help others. I continued to teach both out of my home and at the school. Other than caring for my Mom it was the most rewarding of endeavors. By the way my own children have grown into successful critical thinking adults (one is a lawyer and the other in the military) with their own families. One of them will be homeschooling their own children.

I don’t know how to reach more disadvantaged communities? Is there a homeschooling outreach program? Perhaps one that can come alongside a parent or parents and provide some kind of financial and emotional support? I am looking forward to what you report.

Expand full comment

Cecily Myart-Cruz Is as corrupt and racist as the day is long. She is the perfect radical leftist teacher union leader to destroy LA’s public school system. Imagine the kickbacks she receives.

Expand full comment

L’shana Tova! I was just saying to my husband earlier today that if we had kids we would have to home school. I am encouraged that more and more adults have woken up to the fact that the schools no longer teach what kids need to learn, spending more time on gender and sexuality and race. At the start of this New Year, let us work on coming together to save our children.

Expand full comment

This is probably the wrong place, but I can't find anywhere else. I just saw an article on how Amazon Web Services threatens Websites like Substack. Please, God, tell me that Substack is not hosting its site on an Amazon Web Services. Say the wrong word - just any wrong word - and they will shut you down just like they did Parler. I just took off all my home security cameras from there and am trying to disengage from Amazon.com in general. Not that easy.

Expand full comment

Excellent article. I especially liked the linked article by MacGillis about the Baltimore Public Schools. The state of education in our country is very sad. The kids that need school the most are the ones whom the system is failing. What is worse: A case of covid or a lifetime of failure and ignorance? I feel very sorry for the children who are being denied a good education.

Expand full comment
founding

“It’s OK that our babies may not have learned all their times tables. . . They know the words insurrection and coup”

————————————

A coup has two doors and is more sporty.

Expand full comment

An article titled "A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’" appears in today's Wall Street Journal and is worth a read, see https://on.wsj.com/3yVBh4A. It might be behind a paywall.

Expand full comment