A Study In Failure-How Federal Regulation of Education Undermines Innovation
In an article published in this morning’s Wall Street Journal, Diane Ravitch, former assistant secretary of education to George H.W. Bush, complains of the failings of 2002′s No Child Left Behind Act which sought to provide national equality of education through mandated testing. Unfortunately, “Because the law demanded progress only in reading and math, schools were incentivized to show gains only on those subjects. Hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in test-preparation materials. Meanwhile, there was no incentive to teach the arts, science, history, literature, geography, civics, foreign languages or physical education.” Oddly enough, despite the heavy emphasis on testing, “students improved not at all on the federal test of reading even though they had been tested annually by their states in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.” Ravitch’s study demonstrates how little the modern world knows about education, and, accordingly, illustrates why centralization actually undermines innovation. Rather than force schools to comply with strict national standards and regulations, the federal government would do best to get out of the way and allow each individual state governments to run their own show. With fifty states experimenting with different ways to improve education, innovation will come.
Thou Shalt Attend-Obama on Education
In his speech yesterday, President Obama championed the cause of institutionalized education and decried the tragedy inherent in not finishing Highschool. “we know that we will need a highly educated workforce that is second to none. And we know that the success of every American will be tied more closely than ever before to the level of education that they achieve … Graduating from high school is an economic imperative …” And, if you don’t complete highschool, you might as well give up on life, “high school dropouts are more likely to be teen parents, more likely to commit crime, more likely to rely on public assistance, more likely to lead shattered lives. What’s more, they cost our economy hundreds of billions of dollars over the course of a lifetime in lower wages and higher public expenses.” So, you see, highschool is kind of a big deal. Because, of course, here in America, we require conformity. Unless you want to end up a criminal, welfare receiving, teenage parent, you must do your thirteen years of mandatory time in school. Unless, of course you’re one of the following individuals:
• Albert Einstein: Nobel Prize-winning physicist; “Time” magazine’s “Man of the Century” (20th century) (after dropping out of high school, he studied on his own and passed the entrance exam on his second try to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
• John D. Rockefeller Sr.: Self-made billionaire American businessman-philanthropist; co-founder of “The Standard Oil Company;” history’s first recorded billionaire (dropped out of high school two months before graduation; took business courses for ten weeks at Folsom Mercantile College [a chain business school])
• Henry Ford: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; assembly-line auto manufacturing pioneer; founder of the “Ford Motor Company”
• Walt Disney: Oscar-winning American film/TV producer; animation and theme park pioneer; self-made multimillionaire founder and spokesperson of “The Walt Disney Studios/Company; “Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; Congressional Gold Medal recipient; French Legion of Honor admittee/Medal recipient (received honorary high-school diploma from hometown high school at age 58)
• Abraham Lincoln: 16th President of the United States; (little formal education – Lincoln himself estimated approximately one year; home schooling/life experience; later earned a law degree through self study of books that he borrowed from friends)
• Carl Sandburg: Pulitzer Prize-winning American author (little formal education; later passed entrance exam to Lombard College and graduated)
• Diana, Princess of Wales
• George Burns: Oscar-winning actor/comedian (elementary school dropout)
• Dave Thomas: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder-spokesperson of the “Wendy’s” fast-food restaurant chain (equivalency diploma)
• Martin Van Buren: 8th President of the United States (little formal education; began studying law at age 14 while an apprentice at a law firm, later became a lawyer)
• Andrew Carnegie: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman and philanthropist (elementary school dropout)
• John Chancellor: American television journalist; evening news anchorman
• “Colonel” Harlan Sanders: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder-spokesperson of the “Kentucky Fried Chicken/KFC” fast-food restaurant chain (elementary school dropout; later earned a correspondence course law degree)
• Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain”): Best-selling American author and humorist (elementary school dropout)
• Christopher Columbus: Italian explor er (little formal education; home schooling/life experience; went to sea in his youth)
• Davy Crockett: Early American frontiersman; U.S. Congressman (Tennessee Representative); died at the battle of the Alamo (little formal education – less than six months; home schooling/life experience)
• Charles Dickens: Best-selling British author (elementary school dropout)
• Joe DiMaggio: National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
• Sir Francis Drake: British explorer; knighted in the United Kingdom (little formal education; home schooling/life experience; went to sea in his youth)
• George Eastman: Self-made multimillionaire American inventor; founder of the “Kodak” roll film camera, corporation, and chemical company
• Thomas Edison: Self-made multimillionaire, most famous and productive inventor of all time; invented the filament electric light bulb, phonograph, and motion picture camera; electrical power usage pioneer; Congressional Gold Medal recipient; knighted (France: bestowed the rank of Chevalier, (had no formal education – home schooled)
• Benjamin Franklin: American politician – diplomat – author – printer – publisher-scientist -inventor; co-author and co-signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence; one of the founders of The United States of America; face is pictured on the U.S. one-hundred dollar bill (little formal education [less than two years]; home schooling/life experience)
• Clark Gable: Oscar-winning actor
• George Gershwin: Oscar-nominated and most celebrated American songwriter-and classical composer; Congressional Gold Medal recipient
• Amadeo Peter Giannini: American-born founder of “Bank of America”
• Cary Grant: Oscar-winning actor
• W.T.Grant: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder of the “W.T. Grant Company” department store chain
• H.L. Hunt: Self-made billionaire American oil industrialist (elementary school dropout)
• John Huston: Oscar-winning American film director-actor (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen, etc.)
• Elton John: Oscar-winning songwriter-singer; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee; knighted by the United Kingdom
• Andrew Jackson: 7th President of the United States (no formal education; home schooling/life experience)
• John Paul Jones: Scottish-born American Revolutionary War U.S. navy commander; famous quote: “I have not yet begun to fight.” (little formal education; home schooling/life experience; went to sea in his youth)
• Henry J. Kaiser: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder of “Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation,” “Kaiser Steel,” etc.
• Kirk Kerkorian: Self-made billionaire American businessman
• Ray Kroc: Self-made billionaire American businessman; founder of the “McDonald’s” fast-food restaurant chain
• Jerry Lewis: Actor-comedian-singer-entertainer-humanitarian; knighted (France: Chevalier [or Chev.] Jerry Lewis)
• John Major: British Prime Minister 1990-1997
• William Shakespeare: British playwright; best-selling British author
• George Bernard Shaw: Nobel Prize-winning Irish-born British playwright; best-selling author
• Frank Sinatra: Oscar-winning actor-singer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; Congressional Gold Medal recipient
• John Philip Sousa: American composer-conductor (elementary school dropout)
• Zachary Taylor: 12th President of the United States (little formal education; home schooling/life experience)
• George Washington: 1st President of the United States; former general; Chairman of the Constitutional Convention; U.S. nickname: “The Father of Our Country”; face is pictured on the U.S. one dollar bill and twenty-five cent coin (quarter) (no formal education; home schooling/life experience; went to sea in his youth)
• William Faulkner: Nobel Prize-winning and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author; screenwriter (dropped out of high school in second year; later attended University of Mississippi but did not graduate)
• Herman Melville: Best-selling American author and writer of Moby Dick, arguably the greatest novel of all time.
• Liza Minnelli: Oscar-winning actress-singer
• Robert Mitchum: Oscar-nominated actor
• Claude Monet: French painter (elementary school dropout)
• Florence Nightingale: History’s most notable nurse; best-selling Italian-born British nursing book author (no formal education; home schooling/life experience)
• Thomas Paine: American Revolutionary War era political theorist; best-selling British-born American author; famous quote: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” (little formal education; home schooling/life experience)
• Millard Fillmore: 13th President of the United States (little formal education – six months; home schooling/life experience; studied law while serving as a legal clerk with a judge and law firm; later became a lawyer)
• Will Rogers: American author-humorist-lecturer-actor-entertainer; famous quote: “I never met a man I didn’t like.”
• Frederick Henry Royce: Self-made multimillionaire British businessman; co-founder-designer of the “Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Company”; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Frederick Henry Royce) (elementary school dropout)
• Edmond Safra: Lebanese-born billionaire banker-philanthropist
• David Sarnoff: Russian-born American radio and television pioneer; given the title “Father of American Television” by the Television Broadcasters Association
• William Saroyan: Oscar-winning screenwriter; Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright
• Vidal Sassoon: Self-made multimillionaire British businessman; founder of “Vidal Sassoon” hairstyling salons, academies, and hair-care products
• Walt Whitman: Best-selling American poet (elementary school dropout)
• Orville & Wilbur Wright: Aviation pioneers; Congressional Gold Medal recipients
• Grover Cleveland: 22nd and 24th President of the United States; face is pictured on the one-thousand dollar bill, which is no longer printed; (dropped out of school to help family earn income; studied law while serving as a clerk at a law firm, later became a lawyer)
• Irving Berlin: Oscar-winning American songwriter-composer; film story writer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; Congressional Gold Medal recipient
• H.G. Wells…….best-selling British author (dropped out to help family earn income; later returned and went on to college)
• Jim Clark……..self-made billionaire American businessman; founder of “Netscape”; first Internet billionaire (17, U.S. Navy)
• Jimmy Dean……….singer-songwriter-actor; self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder of the “Jimmy Dean Foods” brand sausage business (16, U.S. Merchant Marines; 18, U.S. Air Force)
• Andrew Jackson……7th U.S. President; face is pictured on the U.S. twenty dollar bill (13, U.S. Continental Army; orphaned at 14; little formal education; home schooling/life experience; studied law in his late teens and became a lawyer)
• Leon Uris……….best-selling American author (Exodus, etc.) (17, U.S. Marines)
• Walter L. Smith…..former president of Florida A&M University (equivalency diploma, at age 23)
• W. Clement Stone….self-made multimillionaire (some sources indicate billionaire) American businessman-author; founder of “Success” magazine (elementary school dropout; later attended high-school night courses and then some college)
• Jack London…….best-selling American author (dropped out at 14 to work; later gained admission to the University of California; left after one semester)
• Arthur Ernest Morgan….American flood-control engineer; college president-author; appointed by President Roosevelt to be director of the Tennessee Valley Authority public works project (left high school after three years; later attended the University of Colorado for six weeks)
• Ray Charles………singer-pianist; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
• Cher……Oscar-winning actress-singer
• Maurice Chevalier…. Oscar-winning actor-singer; French Legion of Honor inductee/Medal recipient (note: rank bestowed in 1938
• Pierce Brosnan……actor
• Ellen Burnstyn……Oscar-winning actress
• Raymond Burr…….actor
• Sammy Cahn………. Oscar-winning American songwriter-composer
• Michael Caine…….Oscar-winning actor; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Michael Caine)
• Glen Campbell…….country music star
• Daniel Gilbert……Harvard University psychology professor (equivalency diploma)
• Dizzy Gillespie…..musician-composer (received honorary diploma from high school he attended)
• Patrick Henry…….American Revolutionary War era politician; Virginia’s first governor; famous quote: “Give me liberty, or give me death!” (little formal education; home schooling/life experience; later studied on his own and earned a law degree)
• Julie Andrews…….Oscar-winning actress-singer
• Louis Armstrong…..singer-musician
• Brooke Astor……..wealthy American socialite-philanthropist-author; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
• Pearl Bailey……..singer-actress; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
• Lucille Ball……..actress-comedienne-producer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
• Bill Bartman……..self-made billionaire American businessman
• Count Basie………bandleader-pianist
• Jack Benny………. comedian-actor-violinist
• Humphrey Bogart…..Oscar-winning actor
• Philip Emeagwali….supercomputer scientist; one of the pioneers of the Internet (high-IQ high-school dropout; left school in native Nigeria due to war conditions and lack of tuition money; continued to study on his own and earned an equivalency diploma; later won a scholarship to Oregon College of Education in the United States; transferred after one year to Oregon State University)
• Danny Thomas……..actor-producer-humanitarian (actor: Make Room for Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show; co-producer: The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, etc.); Congressional Gold Medal recipient
• Kemmons Wilson…….self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder of the “Holiday Inn” hotel chain
• Kjell Inge Rokke…..self-made billionaire Norwegian businessman
• Anthony Quinn…….Oscar-winning actor
• Roy Rogers……….actor-singer-guitarist
• Mary Pickford……Oscar-winning actress; early Hollywood pioneer; co-founder of “United Artists Corporation” (little formal education [six months]; home schooling/life experience)
• Sydney Poitier…..Oscar-winning actor (elementary school dropout)
• Frederick “Freddy” Laker…. self-made multimillionaire British businessman; airline entrepreneur; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Frederick [or Freddy] Laker)
• Tommy Lasorda…… baseball team manager; National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee
• David Lean………Oscar-winning British film director (Lawrence of Arabia, Dr .Zhivago, etc.); knighted (United Kingdom: Sir David Lean)
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek….Dutch microscope maker; world’s first microbiologist; discoverer of bacteria, blood cells, and sperm cells)
• Richard Branson…..self-made billionaire British businessman; founder of “Virgin Atlantic Airways,” “Virgin Records,” etc.; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Richard Branson)
• Isaac Merrit Singer….American sewing machine inventor; self-made multimillionaire founder of “Singer Industries,” “I.M. Singer and Company,” etc. (elementary school dropout)
• Alfred E. Smith…..New York Governor; 1928 Democratic U.S. Presidential candidate (elementary school dropout)
• Charles Chaplin…..Oscar-winning actor-writer-director-producer; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Charles [or Charlie] Chaplin) (elementary school dropout)
• Sean Connery……..Oscar-winning actor; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Sean Connery)
• Jack Kent Cooke…..self-made billionaire Canadian-born American media businessman
• Noel Coward………Oscar-winning actor-director-producer-playwright-composer; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Noel Coward) (elementary school dropout)
• Joan Crawford……. Oscar-winning actress; former dancer
• Charles E. Culpeper….self-made multimillionaire American businessman; early 1900s’ owner and head of “The Coca Cola Bottling Company”
• Robert De Niro……Oscar-winning actor-producer; knighted (France: Chevalier [Knight] of the Legion of Honor; Chevalier [or Chev.] Robert De Niro)
• Gerard Depardieu….Oscar-nominated actor; knighted (France: Chevalier [or Chev.] Gerard Depardieu) (elementary school dropout)
• Richard Desmond…..self-made billionaire British publisher
• Thomas Dolby…….. musician-composer; music producer
• Joe Lewis……..self-made billionaire British businessman
• Carl Lindner…….self-made billionaire American businessman
• John Llewellyn…..U.S. Labor leader pioneer; for 40 years until his retirement, president of the United Mine Workers’ Union
• Marcus Loew……..self-made multimillionaire American businessman; early Hollywood pioneer; founder of the “Loews” movie-theater chain; co-founder of “MGM” studios (elementary school dropout)
• Mary Lyon………American women’s education pioneer; early American teacher; founder of Mount Holyoke College (America’s first women’s college)
• Sonny Bono………..singer-songwriter-actor; U.S. Congressman (California U.S. Representative)
• Duke Ellington……Oscar-nominated American composer-bandleader; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
• Ella Fitzgerald…..singer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
• Aretha Franklin….singer; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
• Horace Greeley…. American newspaper publisher-editor; U.S. Congressman; 1872 U.S. Presidential candidate; co-founder of the Republican party in the United States
• Thomas Haffa……self-made double-digit billionaire German media businessman
• J.R. Simplot…….self-made billionaire American agricultural businessman
• Robert Maxwell…..self-made billionaire British publisher
• Rod McKuen………best-selling American poet (elementary school dropout)
all of whom committed the unpardonable offense of abandoning, or never starting their highschool education.
*Source: www.education-reform.net
A Big Yawn
So apparently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said yet another racial comment- after comparing Republicans opposed to Democratic health care reform to supporters of slavery- and the political world is hung up on every word. Questions like the following dominate the arena:
1. Should he resign like former Senator Trent Lott did? (No, he shouldn’t.)
2. Are Reid’s remarks similar to Lott’s? (No, they aren’t. Lott’s were insensitive to the public’s eye, but meant to compliment a public servant. Reid’s were analytical but insensitive. Reid’s were definitely about race, Lott’s probably were not.)
3. What does President Obama think? (He doesn’t care.)
4. Will this hurt Reid’s already tough re-election campaign? (Duh.)
5. What does Reverend Al Sharpton (or some other race-baiter) think? (Sharpton defended Reid.)
So, this leads me to two questions, one important and one not so much. The less important one is this: why is Sharpton now coming out against former president Bill Clinton’s remark last year that “A few years ago, this guy [then-Senator Obama] would have been getting us coffee,” when he is defending Reid? After all, let’s say “a few years ago” was a reference to President Obama’s age, not race, and remember that sometimes “a few years ago” can mean as much as a decade, especially to older people such as Clinton and former senator Ted Kennedy (to whom Clinton made the remark). Perhaps the former president was merely remarking on the presidential candidate’s youth and inexperience? If he really wants to help black Americans, Sharpton should ignore these minor, attention-grabbing comments by public figures and concentrate on helping young blacks get a better education. Or, better yat, perhaps he could join Star Parker in helping diminish the number of black abortions.
My second question is more important, however, and more timely than the age-old complaint about Sharpton’s priorities. Namely, it is this: why are Republicans wasting their time on attacking Reid? This issue will have a minimal effect on the health care debate, it won’t help change the public’s view on the party one iota and few outside of politics remember Trent Lott’s comments. Republicans should release a statement or two, let Reid’s general election opponents use this comment and his slavery one to his or her advantage, and concentrate on the larger issues facing America and her citizens. If we are to win past November 2010, conservatives and Republicans must be viewed as the movement and party that can prioritize. The Bush years were incredibly harmful to the Republican and conservative brands, and Democrats have taken full advantage. We have to show the public that we deserve their trust yet again, and hammering Reid over a really stupid and insensitive comment won’t do it. In fact, it may very well hurt us in the long run.
