A recent Star Tribune article highlighted the amount of money that is being spent on education and the lack of progress in bridging the gap between those who continue to succeed in school and those who continue to fail. Namely the rich and the poor or whites and people of color. Each year the call goes out to legislators that we need more money to close this gap and yet there remains too little progress.
No one can disagree that a good education is the pathway to success in this country. Where the disagreement comes in, is in how to achieve that. To some educators, school boards and teachers unions who don’t want to believe that the main recipe for a good education begins in the home, you’re not fooling anyone. If parents and guardians can’t motivate their children to believe in a good education, you’re not going to do that in school either. After all who has the most influence with these kids? My point is, this attitude is not going to be changed by spending more money. Not unless you pay the parents and guardians to do their job.
When we talk about the “law of diminishing returns,” it explains that the benefits gained are becoming less then the amount of money and energy being invested and this is a problem. I’m not chastising the educators, I just want them to acknowledge that parental cooperation, in the education of these children, is a must. It often seems to outsiders that the schools are getting out of the education process and into the process of raising people’s kids. Teaching is a big enough challenge without cooperation from home. Not everything can be fixed by throwing more money at it.
Mike Holst
Crosslake
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