In "Liberalism's Great Failures, Part I", Mark Noonan gives his thoughts on education. The problems he addresses with public schools are indeed major problems with the system. When I left my high school I felt unprepared for college. My math levels were poor. My world history was lacking, and worse, so was my US History. I was missing basic details of social events such as the difference between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, or even knowledge of such people as Gandhi. The list goes on and on. Noonan is right when he says one size does not fit all. It is by far the major reason for the "crack" which students fall through.

Again though, I come up against the major dividing line between the right and the left. Noonan assumes that since the Government is using our tax dollars to pay for the school system, that itself is the problem to fix. Take the government out of it, naturally. The government can do no right. Of course, I disagree with this.

Mark Noonan says:

"The whole thing needs to be chucked aside and replaced with a non-public system of education; entirely voluntary in participation with government funding only coming in to help those who genuinely lack the financial means to pay for schooling of their children. Keeping in mind that an elimination of the public schools would allow a massive reduction in taxation, most people would find themselves with the resources to pay for whatever private education seems most likely to educate their children."

It is another good idea that won't work. I can just see how it will be. I imagine it similar to higher-education these days. The government gives aid to those who lack the financial means to pay for it. My aid for college has been cut every year since I started, and then cut in half this year. That works really well for me and my family. Can you imagine the aid children receive to go to lower-education classes being reduced every year? Every presidential candidate would say, "I will raise aid to school children" and then like Bush and Pell Grants, cut that aid again and again.

So basically Noonan says the system doesn't work, throw it out and get a new one. Take it out of the government's hands, reduce the tax expenses, and give students private schools. There is really nothing better than taking the elitist system of higher-education and putting it in the lower-education realm. We already have the richer students going to private schools in this nation. Now you'll be making the poor go to lousy private schools because that's the only ones they can afford on government money.

Look, an equal and "free" education is what makes this system great. Pump more private funds into the community schools to help the government funds spread further. They can always use the extra cash. Keep parents involved in the school system. Public schools are just babysitters now. Continue to encourage the training of more teachers and give financial aid relief if they teach in their own state. Raise a teacher's pay so that more people can survive on a teaching salary. More teachers will mean smaller class sizes, and more hands on work. This will fix the problems Noonan speaks of. Privatization is a bad idea.