Salesmen and Quitters
Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2009
by Walter Rhett
Charleston Perlo
Few things make me see crimson like lies. Small or large, once you distort the truth, stretch it in ways that it can no longer be recognized, or shape it to suit your purposes, you lose my support.
There's an old Southern adage that says, "if you lie, you'll steal." Put another way, Moral Corruption was thought to be a slippery road paved with good intentions, with few distinctions about the behavior choices made along the way. I grew up believing a lie was a bad thing. And a liar was likely to be a thief.
Now I like colorful quotes, stinging analogies, stake-driven comparisons-the kind Lee Atwater was merciless at. (Remember Lee's quote about a SC gubernational candidate who had been treated for depression by electric shock? "We don't need a governor whose been hooked up to jumper cables.") I like rough and tumble politics, the verbal joust. It's lies that get my goat. And don't mess with my common sense.
My junior senator has taken to speaking regularly of socialism-and I see "red!" First of all, big government isn't socialism, it's just big government. Lyndon Johnson was an exponent of big government, and the wily old Texan was no socialist.
Yes, big government should be debated. As New York Times writer David Brooks says, in an astonishing phrase, big government is "the greed of doing good." But let's not lie. It's not socialism.
By the measure of Obama's agenda of government services for citizens, Canada, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, and other nations could be described and classed as "socialist." ( If the term describes countries that do not own resources and factories, but take a governmentrather than an private sector approach to providing citizen services.) Yet these nations are well stable, long-term democracies, highly efficient, with rights of free assembly, speech, a high quality of life by measures of education, income, health, life span, and consumer confidence.
To support his cry of socialism/big government, during a speech at the CPAC conference (Feb. 26-28), Mr. DeMint asserted. "We spend more on education as a nation than any other government program, more per child than any other nation in the world."
The facts indicate that he is trying to run off with my common sense.
As a measure of the total US economy, called the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), US spending on education ranks 39 th among 132 nations of the world. (See www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_edu_spe-education-spending-of-gdp ). Kenya, Obama's ancentral home, ranks 20 th , at 7% of GDP. Israel is 17 th. St. Vincent, the Caribbean island, ranks 4 th , spending 10% of its GNP on education. Denmark, Guyana, Malaysia, Norway, Namibia, Finland, and Estonia all rank above the US.
Even DeMint's claim of America dominating per pupil spending differs irrefutably from the statistics as measured by GDP. Where does the US rank in funding for primary students? The US places 36 th among 126 nations. Poland, Burkina Faso, Japan, Italy, Kuwait, Spain, and France rank higher.
Analyzing education fundings as a percentage of national GDP levels the difference in budget size and tax levels among nations. This way, the numbers are accurately compared between large and small, developed and undeveloped nations, in varying geo-regions. Seen by these measures, Mr. DeMint's claims are even more egregious.
By the way, at the secondary level, for pupil spending, the US ranks: 51st ! India,Cuba, and Sweden are ahead.
The US rankings improve to 9 th among countries with adults at a high literacy rank. (Canada is 5 th .) The US stands 14 th in math, 15 th in science.
By statistical measures, when compared to other nations, the US is actually doing good job of providing quality education at a lower cost than many nations. But nowhere is the US, in results or spending, number one!
But Mr. DeMint has more to say: Obama "has failed to point out who has been running the nation's schools for the last 40 years. "It's really the federal government and our courts," DeMint points out.
Really? Like the thousands of citizens who recently attended Charleston County School District (CCSD) Board public sessions to protest school closings, I honestly thought locally duly elected school boards chartered by state legislation, hire administrators, build, close, and fix schools, approve budgets, set policy, review student performance data, approve contracts, and develop strategic plans, greenlight transfers, and control district schools. When CCSD built and opened a new school for the arts, improved primary performance in a model school in the inner city, transferred a downtown campus to a community charter school (against the wishes of many in the community), and hired a superindent without public review-the federal government or the courts were no where in sight.
The wolf ticket Mr. DeMint offers about federal strings being the problem is a red herring.
As Marx did with Hegel's idealism, with a loudly misdirected slieght-of-hand, Mr. DeMint stands socialism on its head. Apparently he does so to shake the money out, since he openly encourages states and communities to take the very money from the very large government appropriation whose attached authority he says is the source of community failure! He co-introduced legislation in the Senate that embraces the very "socialism" (big government solution) that he roundly condemns.
While Mr. DeMint speaks as if federal funding is the problem and the culprit that has limited public education gains, Mr. DeMint offered a bill, the Academic Partnerships Leads Us to Success (A-Plus) Act, that enables states "to accept NCLB (no child left behind) funding while opting out of its requirements."
But under Mr. DeMint's bill, states would still be required to "use targeted funds to assist disadvantaged children, conduct regular state-testing," and publicly release school performance results-all federal mandates.
In a line right out of the Democratic liberal/socialism/big government/Euro-styled playbook, Mr. DeMint writes in a recent Washington Times op-ed article: "We believe that the best path to improving public education in America is to empower local leaders with the freedom to innovate and hold schools acccountable to parents and taxpayers for results." Visiting Sumter High in SC, he noted, " As we educate the next generation, we must make sure that success in school translates into success in life."
Maybe I'm stupid, but this sounds like the Democratic plan whose funding Mr. DeMint has widely hailed as "socialist" and the source of failure.
In fact, compare Mr. DeMint's goal statement to those posted on the Obama's campaig n website last fall: " Obama and Biden believe teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. [They] will double funding for the Federal Charter School Program to support the creation of more successful charter schools. [They] will recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession and will support efforts to help these teachers learn from professionals in the field, and make math and science eduation a national priority. [They] will call on parents, families, and schools to work together and take responsibility for instilling in young people our best shared values like honesty, hard work. " It sounds like a bullet list, bi-patisan agreement on DeMint-declared socialism--as a means of success.
Well maybe not. Mr. DeMint spoke of the President as a great salesman of socialism, but one wonders what is Mr, DeMint selling? He seems to be the salesman of no. So far, he has been unable to fix the school or rebuild the 1912 building-a direct government responsiblity-not the private sector's-of the 8 th grade student from Dillion (Fed Chair Ben Barnenke's hometown). She's the sudent who went to the public library, another government institution, and borrowed the money for a stamp from her principal, another public official, to write the Congress, the august body of national elected public officials, to petition for the redress of her grievance, the need for a place suitable for teaching and learning. "Dear Congress of the United States," she began.
What moved her to write the letter? "All I know is that the Congress might not agree that we need help and they might deny the president the money he needs to help us," she told a Chicago reporter visiting her school.
Her plain request and obvious logic, " because of the conditions we are in now we can't succeed at anything, " and her words of assurance to the Congress that such an effort would not be money wasted moved the President to take up her rallying cry. He quoted young Ty'Sheoma Bethea's words from the well of the House before a joint session of Congress and put them before the American people. Her words tell of a spirit that built the American estate: "we are not quitters."
How much better it sounds as a war cry than "socialist." I applaud her wonderful common sense.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Hi - great detailed points - the confusing rhetoric has become common, and most don't recognize it.Thanks for taking the time to tell the truth and balance out the propaganda. I never mind conflicting "truths" when each is telling it as straight as they see it - but that is not the case in politics anymore. It's like you point out - "what ever I can get away with I can say." I long ago turned off TV as propaganda - and look to foreign news sources for facts - and the few intellectual commentators with integrity we have left... I hope you get this article published in the papers - it needs to be said over and over. Thanks for taking the time and writing it. Best - and Good Fortune to you, Cheryl
This article is one which would not look out of place in the Times.
Walter,Very interesting article and one I will have to revisit. There's a lot of material to digest. Considering we 'have been' the greatest nation on earth, it is sad that our education doesn't follow suit.Thanks for sharing your thoughts,Nancy
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