• About Us
  • Activity
  • Advertising
  • Books
  • Business
  • Contact
  • Dashboard
  • EB5
  • Entertainment
  • feedback
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Government
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • Login
  • Members
  • Meme generator
  • National
  • Nevada
  • Nevada News and Views
  • Newsmax
  • NN&V Ads
  • Opinion
  • Pick a New Password
  • Politics
  • Polls
  • Privacy Policy
  • Profile
  • Recent comments by me
  • Recent comments on my posts
  • Register
  • Submit post
  • Subscribe
  • Subscription Confirmation
  • Survey
  • Survey
  • Terms of Service
  • Today’s Top 10
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Welcome!
  • Yop Poll Archive
Nevada News and Views
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • More
    • Nevada
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Travel
    • News
    • Sports
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Pinterest

  • RSS

Opinion

Money Thrown at a Brick Wall

Money Thrown at a Brick Wall
N&V Staff
October 7, 2010

(Neal McCluskey/Cato Institute) – Lots of things could render Mark Zuckerberg’s gift to Newark ineffectual, but ultimately no matter how many dollars you throw against a brick wall, it just won’t fall down. It’s the lesson of seemingly endless public-school reforms.

Consider the No Child Left Behind Act, which uses tens of billions of dollars annually to try to force states to make yearly progress toward universal math and reading “proficiency.”

It sounds great, but states have mainly defined “proficiency” at rock-bottom levels rather than actually improve schools. And No Child Left Behind came after decades — and hundreds of billions of dollars — of states and districts failing in efforts to impose tough standards and accountability.

Neal P. McCluskey is the associate director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute. He is the author of Feds in the Classroom: So why can’t real reform be either bought or forced on public schools? Political reality. Because their very livelihoods come from the system, public schooling employees have the greatest motivation to be involved in education politics. That gives them outsized political power, which they naturally use to get as much money, and as little accountability as possible.

In light of this, is there any hope for Zuckerberg’s gift? There certainly isn’t in trying to force reforms directly on Newark’s public schools. Even if Mayor Booker or Governor Christie can impose, say, merit pay grounded in tough standards and tests, it won’t last. Unions and administrator groups have far more staying power than elected officials or one-time donations, and they’ll eventually gut reforms they don’t like.

How about charter schools? In theory they are independent and must compete for students, giving them both the ability and incentive to adopt tough policies. But they are still public schools subject to political control, and they are often hamstrung by regulations.

The best hope would be to fund scholarships with Zuckerberg’s money, giving parents the ability to send their kids to institutions that have to earn their business. Not only would that be best for kids now, but it would help to launch competition, which is the key to innovation and sustained improvement.

Unfortunately, Mayor Booker has said he won’t use the money for that. Which means, sadly, that Zuckerberg’s gift is almost certainly doomed to be dollars heaved against a wall.

Prev postNext post

Related Items
Opinion
October 7, 2010
N&V Staff

Related Items

More in Opinion

Question 1 on Nevada Ballot is Not What It Seems

N&V StaffNovember 1, 2022
Read More

Roadmap To Saving Nevada

Troy La ManaOctober 21, 2022
Read More

The Lil Governor That Couldn’t

Troy La ManaOctober 10, 2022
Read More

Nevada Continues To Fail Our Students

Troy La ManaOctober 9, 2022
Read More

This Failed Policy Needs To End

Troy La ManaOctober 8, 2022
Read More

Viguerie: If We Stand Up for Parents’ Rights Now, We Will Win!

N&V StaffOctober 7, 2022
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Subscribe Free By Email

Looking for the best in breaking news and conservative views? Let Chuck do all the work for you! Subscribe to his FREE "Muth's Truths" e-newsletter.

* indicates required
Nevada News and Views
Nevada News & Views is an educational project of Citizen Outreach Foundation, a non-partisan IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization. It is not associated or affiliated with any political party or group. Nevada News & Views is accessible by the public at no cost. It funds its operations through tax-deductible contributions from donors and supporters and does not accept government money or grants.

TAGS

Featured Article Nevada Politics business Muth's Truths government Opinion Government Muth’s Truths Obama Ron Knecht News Donald Trump GOP Republicans

Copyright © 2022 Citizen Outreach | Maintained by VirtualAlly

Democrat Supporters Exploit Rape Victims in AD 5 Race
Reid Supporters Show Bias Against Women, Religion