The Fraud of Government Indoctrination

From KYTV, Springfield, MO

The Arkansas Department of Education says 58 public high schools inflated Algebra I and geometry grades last year.

The action means graduates of those schools face additional requirements to qualify for the new Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship. The scholarship is funded by the lottery and could be worth up to $5,000 a year.

Graduates of the 58 schools will have to earn more than the minimum 2.5 grade point average or earn more than the minimum 19 on the ACT college entrance exam.

The inflation report compares the grades of students who made an A or B in Algebra I and geometry in the 2008-09 school year - but scored at below-proficient levels on state exams.

The way I read this it sounds like some local schools bumped up their students math scores. B's became A's and C's became B's. Even more likely, the students were given grades for showing up and "completing" work rather mastering the material. The standardized, state-wide test exposed the problem.

But I'm sure all those students have high self-esteem, and they probably aced the plays-well-with-others, social entrepreneurship, and sex education sections.

I would estimate that Arkansas has somewhere between 250 and 300 high schools -- not counting junior highs. I will hazard a wild guess that most if not all of the 58 offending schools have a higher than average number of minority students. I'm not a racist -- but the teachers and, especially, the loathsome administrators who perpetrated this fraud on their students are quite possibly racist. Again, it will be a case of government educrats failing, and students, forced into unionized government schools, suffering.

Whether my suspicion about the racial aspect is true or not, these schools have denigrated excellence and achievement while doing their collectivist best to sentence those in their charge to a life of mediocrity, if not failure. Mediocrity is, after all, the monopolists' standard.

There are two easy steps that would go a long way toward reversing the downward spiral of America. One is simply to require a photo ID for voting. The other is to allow school choice through vouchers.

Achievement is not a zero-sum game.