Education

Last Updated 25 November 2000

A vision for our nation is:

Basic literacy % rate in the top 5 of nations - in the mechanisms of reading, writing, arithmetic, and computer usage.

Cultural literacy % rate in the top 10 of nations - the nderstanding of political, economic, geographic, scientific, and historical language in news media.

Mastery of lifetime learning skills - high capability in self-teaching skills; and successful experiences, leading to self-confidence and the loss of fear of change.

Actions we should take include:

Acceptance that radical, fundamental changes in our educational systems are likely to be required.

Raise the per-student budget for education in the USA drastically, doubling the current levels in some states.

Experiment with a variety of approaches simultaneously, in both school organization and teaching methods.

The overall approach is:

The best, individualized education for each child and young adult is most important, more important than any other related consideration: government budgets, existing school organizations, teachers' unions, and so on.

For our society to survive and prosper, every citizen in our society must be fully educated, to understand the issues in business and government, and to choose products, government representatives, and life options wisely.

Such universal education becomes every more crucial, as our world grows closer, with more access for everyone to technologies that benefit and those that destroy.

Our next generation of parents must be culturally literate with high self-esteem, to raise in turn the next generation of highly functional people.

Learning is an ultimately individual experience, very poorly suited to being supplied by a government bureaucracy.

Begin formal education early, to leverage the eager youngest minds, perhaps as early as 2 years.

Consider several alternatives to current school organization and practices. Charter schools, which enable experimentation within some level of review by school districts, is the best method to allow such alternatives. Alternatives could include many of the following.

Organization and Funding

State governments provide funding through school “districts”, often smaller and perhaps organized differently than currently, thus separating school funding from local property taxes

$ 8,000 to $ 14,000 per year (in 2000 US dollars), for ages 2 through 17, based on state, age, location, and local cost-of-living.

Districts contract with private enterprises to supply educational experience, with multiple educational opportunities per district.

Modes of Education

Parents and private enterprise foster alternative educational modes. Examples include:

12 four-week modules per year, rather than semesters, to encourages a "series of small successes", with frequent opportunities to restart.

A / B / C / no credit grading, to encourage experimentation without the fear of failure.

The short modules also enables spreading family vacations or alternative educational experiences throughout the year.

Ungraded classrooms, to enable and encourage older students to mentor younger.

The Other Roles of Government

Our smaller, leaner governmental educational bureaucracy would supply minimal but necessary direction and regulation.

Standards for diplomas.

Protection against discrimination.

Detection and prosecution of fraud.

Additional Resources

Publications, consultants, and non-profits would provide advice and high-quality learning materials to districts, parents and students.