Post by Origanalist on Nov 1, 2014 20:31:20 GMT -8
By Jack Curtis
As education follows retail out of brick-and-mortar buildings onto the internet, consumers widening choices clearly threaten government’s control of what the public’s kids are taught and what they are not taught. Hence the current "Common Core" mandate, by which the federal government has enlisted the states to federalize the U.S. school curriculum, cutting off traditional local control. Once you control what is taught, you needn’t care where, by whom, or how that is done, you have eliminated all competitors.
While the Common Core program is overtly directed at public, private and home elementary and secondary education, it quietly captures higher education as well, since control of the high school exits provides control of the college entrances. Additionally, a bill now in Congress carries the Obama administration proposal to regulate private colleges that provide career training; that plus Common Core represents a fair start toward total federal control of U.S. education. It seems telling that so comprehensive and far-reaching a shift in a democracy is not seen as newsworthy.
It’s obvious that some hundred and thirty thousand public K-12 campuses and their staffs are no longer cost-effective when the internet is an available replacement. It is equally obvious that all those teachers and their unions and their Democratic lobbyists will not go quietly into that good net. Taxpayer interests in a major reduction of school taxes will likely be ignored so long as those taxpayers remain quiescent. Facing today’s economic uncertainties, the dissolution of public campuses seems unpredictable. But no matter how it comes about, the replacement of physical schools by internet-delivered courses seems likely at some point, if only when government becomes unable to provide financing any longer.
Time will be needed to replace the other service now school-provided: the weekday incarceration of children, freeing parents (if "freeing" fits) to work. In-home babysitters might once have been an affordable alternative, but states have been bringing home service providers under minimum wage/overtime protection and pushing them into unions. The Obama administration has announced a six-month delay for similar federal rules. This economic change plus workplace regulation seems likely to prevent daycares from offering significantly cheaper services than schools now provide. A recent report said that in 31 states, day care already costs more than college attendance. This increase in what was once a low-cost service is the direct result of government licensing, regulation, and wage controls, so the internet replacement of physical schools may be delayed even further.
From here on, we will be increasingly paying expensive teachers for what amounts to babysitting services for younger kids while the internet educates them. The process is under way; internet content is already showing up in public schools. It seems likely to expand faster than teachers’ rosters are likely to diminish.
High schools may be a different matter; kids of those ages should be able to be instructed at home, alone if necessary, although we should expect a fuss over "socializing" and sports. Those can be provided much cheaper for home-schooled kids by the private sector. A more legitimate issue will be the provision of hands-on shop training, though that too can be privatized. In a return to yesteryear, perhaps high-schoolers could be employed part-time outside the home in addition to their schoolwork. Not only would that help sustain the home; it would provide valuable, presently missing work experience for the students and perhaps allow more small businessmen to forego illegal employees. Democrats and unions, however, will not like the idea...
continued
Read more: www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/11/common_core_seizes_control_of_future_internet_education.html#ixzz3HslV1olo
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As education follows retail out of brick-and-mortar buildings onto the internet, consumers widening choices clearly threaten government’s control of what the public’s kids are taught and what they are not taught. Hence the current "Common Core" mandate, by which the federal government has enlisted the states to federalize the U.S. school curriculum, cutting off traditional local control. Once you control what is taught, you needn’t care where, by whom, or how that is done, you have eliminated all competitors.
While the Common Core program is overtly directed at public, private and home elementary and secondary education, it quietly captures higher education as well, since control of the high school exits provides control of the college entrances. Additionally, a bill now in Congress carries the Obama administration proposal to regulate private colleges that provide career training; that plus Common Core represents a fair start toward total federal control of U.S. education. It seems telling that so comprehensive and far-reaching a shift in a democracy is not seen as newsworthy.
It’s obvious that some hundred and thirty thousand public K-12 campuses and their staffs are no longer cost-effective when the internet is an available replacement. It is equally obvious that all those teachers and their unions and their Democratic lobbyists will not go quietly into that good net. Taxpayer interests in a major reduction of school taxes will likely be ignored so long as those taxpayers remain quiescent. Facing today’s economic uncertainties, the dissolution of public campuses seems unpredictable. But no matter how it comes about, the replacement of physical schools by internet-delivered courses seems likely at some point, if only when government becomes unable to provide financing any longer.
Time will be needed to replace the other service now school-provided: the weekday incarceration of children, freeing parents (if "freeing" fits) to work. In-home babysitters might once have been an affordable alternative, but states have been bringing home service providers under minimum wage/overtime protection and pushing them into unions. The Obama administration has announced a six-month delay for similar federal rules. This economic change plus workplace regulation seems likely to prevent daycares from offering significantly cheaper services than schools now provide. A recent report said that in 31 states, day care already costs more than college attendance. This increase in what was once a low-cost service is the direct result of government licensing, regulation, and wage controls, so the internet replacement of physical schools may be delayed even further.
From here on, we will be increasingly paying expensive teachers for what amounts to babysitting services for younger kids while the internet educates them. The process is under way; internet content is already showing up in public schools. It seems likely to expand faster than teachers’ rosters are likely to diminish.
High schools may be a different matter; kids of those ages should be able to be instructed at home, alone if necessary, although we should expect a fuss over "socializing" and sports. Those can be provided much cheaper for home-schooled kids by the private sector. A more legitimate issue will be the provision of hands-on shop training, though that too can be privatized. In a return to yesteryear, perhaps high-schoolers could be employed part-time outside the home in addition to their schoolwork. Not only would that help sustain the home; it would provide valuable, presently missing work experience for the students and perhaps allow more small businessmen to forego illegal employees. Democrats and unions, however, will not like the idea...
continued
Read more: www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/11/common_core_seizes_control_of_future_internet_education.html#ixzz3HslV1olo
Follow us: @americanthinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook