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The disquieting truth about our educational systems is that fraud keeps them motoring along

Herbert London is president emeritus of Hudson Institute and author of the book Decline and Revival in Higher Education (Transaction Publishers).
 
In Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz the Wizard tells his constituents that he wants an educated populace, “so by the power vested in me I will grant everyone diplomas.” Welcome to the education system of 2011. Much of what we now observe comes right out of the Baum novel.
 
When Charles Eliot was president of Harvard, he was asked why there is so much intelligence at this college, He replied, “because the freshman bring so much in and the seniors take so little out.” My guess is if a university president were completely honest today, he might say the freshman bring almost nothing in and leave by taking nothing out.
 
The question is if the society spends billions on primary, secondary and higher education, why is it that so little is accomplished. There are, of course, many answers to this question, but I would argue the overarching reason is fraud - at every level in order to satisfy political demands.
 
At the elementary school level it is simply embarrassing to have a large number of students leave who are illiterate or semi-literate. As a consequence, students pretend to read and teachers pretend to assert their competence. Test scores are altered to satisfy political concerns. In a society suffering from the Lake Woebegone effect in which everyone is above average, you can’t tell Mom that Johnny and Mary cannot read at grade level. Rather than declare inadequacy, you change the grade. The disparity between NAEP scores – the gold standard of evaluation – and state sponsored tests is startling with NAEP scores 20 to 30 percent lower on average. Obviously some manipulation is at work.
 
When scores are low, mayors and governors are held accountable. Since most are vulnerable to the political heat, the incentive to cheat is overwhelming. In fact, across the country there is a euphemism for this cheating: scrubbing. This practice suggests that teachers should “search” for clues in the test that would allow for an alteration in scores.
 
At the high school level, graduation rates are invariably employed as a standard of evaluation. Yet here too most scores are bogus. If a student is pushed through the system through social promotion, his cognitive skill may be near zero, but he is added to the percentage of graduates nonetheless. Rigor rarely exists as a demand or a practice, a condition that explains in large part why American students compare unfavorably to foreign students on international tests in language skills, math and science.
 
Once holding a diploma in their hands, however questionable their skill level, these high school graduates are now deemed college ready. Since America has a college for everyone and the society is committed to mass education, students who can read at only a marginal level or who cannot solve quadratic equations are seated in institutions of higher learning.
 
Surely something has to give. Invariably remediation must take place, but that is insufficient to deal with widespread incompetence. Obviously course content and requirements are modified. A physics instructor at the City University in New York told me recently it is impossible to teach real physics when your students are incapable of engaging eight grade math.
 
Of course there are exceptions to the lugubrious picture I’ve painted. Yet in far too many cases fraud from one level to another is passed on like a virus that cannot be controlled or cured. In fact, most teachers and professors who know the truth become complicit in this institutionalized fraud in order to retain their jobs. They simply cannot say college isn’t for everyone and most students are not prepared to engage in college work or that rigorous exit requirements at any level do not exist. Hence, there is the clarion call for more money; there is the deceptive claims about the success of our educational systems and there is the belief this investment is worthwhile.
 
Unfortunately there is rarely a soul who will say fraud keeps this system going and like it or not the emperor hasn’t any clothes.

Sen. Marco Rubio: The spending spree is over, it's time for a REFUND

Senator Marco Rubio is a Republican from Florida.

Recently, I introduced the Returned Exclusively For Unpaid National Debt (REFUND) Act, which would allow states to return unwanted federal funds to the federal Treasury in order to help pay down our staggering national debt.

The REFUND Act would end the age-old "use-it-or-lose-it" mentality that encourages states to accept money from a deeply indebted federal government for projects that are wasteful, unnecessary or that come with too many strings attached. In essence, it would empower state legislatures to help curb Washington's spending spree.

Even without this power, many fiscally responsible states have been making the tough decisions to reject federal dollars. They've done so because these funds often come with Washington-concocted strings requiring higher spending or higher taxes — or both.

Keep reading on Senator Rubio's congressional website...

Rep. Tim Huelskamp: America’s Spending on Trial

Congressman Tim Huelskamp represents the First Congressional District of Kansas.  He serves on the House Budget, Agriculture, and Veterans’ Affairs Committees.  He is in his freshman term, and prior to coming to Washington, he served in the Kansas State Senate for 14 years.  Follow Congressman Huelskamp on Facebook, Twitter (@conghuelskamp), YouTube, and his webpage.

If this were a legal case, lawyers would be delighted in the amount of evidence that keeps appearing.

Not only have three major credit rating institutions threatened to downgrade the United States' credit ratings as a result of the nation's debt crisis, but now the top evaluator of Washington's spending patterns has weighed in. It does not bode well for Defendant Washington.

This week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest long-term budget outlook. It enhanced existing evidence that already has said America cannot afford unchecked government spending. Notably, this CBO report affirmed what many private organizations have been saying for months and what ordinary Americans have known for years: America is about to reach a debt breaking point. The day of reckoning will be here soon if immediate action is not taken. 

CBO says that if the current trajectory prevails, in the course of only one decade, publicly-held debt will exceed the entire size of America’s economy.  That’s right – Washington’s reckless debt habit will be larger than the measured value of the work of every American for an entire year.  This is entirely unacceptable and unsustainable, and one that scares job creators.  American businesses and workers know this – when Washington runs out of foreign creditors to bail us out, they will come knocking on our door for massive tax increases.

Unlike Greece, which is facing considerable economic turmoil, America should not have to learn a lesson the hard way. There is still time to right the ship of state – and sail America back into prosperous times. It is for that reason that this week I signed a pledge to "Cut, Cap, and Balance" as a condition to raising the debt limit. This is a pledge to the people of Kansas who sent me here to restore fiscal sanity to Washington. 

This pledge has been also signed by several other members of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Signatories pledge to their constituents that they will not raise the debt limit unless deficits are cut, future spending is capped, and future budgets are balanced. These actions are reasonable – and frankly it is what ordinary families, successful businesses, and responsible states do in America every day. 

This pledge to Kansans – and ultimately all Americans – recognizes that evidence is mounting against Washington's reckless behavior.  And without adoption of cut, cap and balance and soon inside the Beltway, I fear that America’s spending will be put on trial.  And the verdict then will not be in doubt – our politicians will have failed our country. 

Reps. Marsha Blackburn and Scott DesJarlais: There is plenty of blame to share for how we got into this economic mess, but what is clearer than ever is that deficit spending has to stop

Rep. Marsha Blackburn represents Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District. Rep. Scott DesJarlais represents the Fourth Congressional District.

In the coming weeks, Congress will consider a measure to raise the federal debt limit. Put simply, government expenditures exceed revenues, and we have maxed out the credit card to cover the difference.

If government is to operate at current or even reduced levels, Congress will have to authorize an increase in the debt limit. The latest assessment of our debt indicates it will reach 109 percent of GDP in the next decade. The daily interest payments on our debt to China are sufficient to allow them to purchase several fighter jets per week. There is plenty of blame to share for how we got into this mess, but what is clearer than ever is that deficit spending has to stop.

We believe Congress must use this opportunity to end the deficit spending habit that got us into this mess in the first place. Further, we must end it in a way that ensures the generations who ran up the $14 trillion debt are the ones to pay it off.

Keep reading at The Tennessean...

Rep. Bob Gibbs: The EPA is doing all it can to raise energy prices for ordinary families by pursuing backdoor cap-and-trade policies

Bob Gibbs is a member of the freshman GOP class in the House of Representatives. He represents Ohio's 18th congressional district.

Coal and the Ohioans who depend on it are under attack.  Despite failing to pass a massive “cap and trade” national energy tax last Congress, this Administration has continued to pursue a radical, anti-business agenda to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

In the last 30 years, total air pollution has decreased by 57% while the U.S. population grew by 35% and energy consumption grew by 22%.  According to the U.S. EPA, “emissions…have been reduced substantially since 1980,” showing “great progress in air quality improvement.”  However, the EPA has proposed two national emission standards that would be among the most expensive regulations ever imposed on coal-fueled power plants without meaningfully improving air quality.

Thanks to these arbitrary and unreasonable standards, power providers would incur $17.8 billion per year in compliance costs alone.  15% of the nation’s coal plants will become uneconomic and be forced to shut-down prematurely by 2016, not because they are unsafe or faulty, but because bureaucrats in Washington are moving rapidly to drive up the price of coal to ultimately eradicate its use.

Here in Ohio, not only does coal supply 84% of our power, but we rely on the jobs created by the coal industry.  However, it is projected that these backdoor cap and trade rules will eliminate 1.44 million jobs by 2020, including almost 54,000 jobs in Ohio.  The effects to the communities will be far greater than these direct job losses alone as 11 Ohio jobs stem from every one coal job.

The extreme cost of these anti-coal mandates would also dramatically increase our electricity rates by 13% in Ohio and natural gas prices by 17% nationally.  Small businesses and manufacturers will pay significantly higher energy bills as a result, and unfortunately those costs are passed along to consumers – that means you and me.

In addition to the fact that household gas and electricity rates would increase, these rules would increase our dependence on foreign oil and reduce the ability for American manufacturers to compete.  Not to mention that reduced energy capacity will increase the occurrence of rolling blackouts and electrical shortages throughout the country.

As the U.S. economy struggles to get back on track, now is not the time to allow the EPA to impose what could prove to be the most costly, burdensome, and expansive set of job-destroying regulations ever crafted.  For the sake of Ohio jobs, families, and small businesses, I will continue to rein in the EPA’s runaway regulations to save countless jobs and protect our economy from the tens of billions of dollars their backdoor cap-and-trade energy taxes would cost.

Rep. Peter Roskam: Recovery summer?

Congressman Peter Roskam represents the Sixth District of Illinois and is the Chief Deputy Whip, a member of House leadership.

A year ago this week, the Obama Administration declared the summer of 2010 “recovery summer.” One year and twelve unemployment reports later, our national unemployment is still 9.1%, and our economy continues to underperform. Americans experienced no “recovery summer.” Rather, for most in the Sixth District, the false promise of “recovery summer” is just one more reminder of this Administration’s broken promises and flawed policies -- much like the failed “stimulus.”

Regrettably, even in the face of continual underperformance, Washington Democrats cling to and even cheerlead their failed policies, showing a striking detachment from reality. In what can only be considered a shockingly tone-deaf moment last week, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz went so far as to declare that Democrats “had turned the economy around.”

In reality, Americans continue to struggle to find jobs -- especially the right ones -- to pay bills and to put away money for their family’s futures. The policies of Washington Democrats have been no solution at all. The 14 million unemployed Americans still looking for a job are a testament to that.

The hard fact is that Democrats have no credible plan to grow our economy. Simply hoping for a change is not an economic policy.

We need more than just hope. That’s why House Republicans have a robust plan to grow our economy, to remove obstacles to job creation to create an environment where the private-sector will flourish and create jobs. The central pillars include reforming the tax code to make it simpler and fairer, removing onerous regulations, and fundamentally reducing our skyrocketing national debt to create pro-growth certainty.

We need a comprehensive fundamental tax reform overhaul — one that produces a system that raises the necessary revenue for the government to run as efficiently as possible, while removing barriers to private-sector job creation. More specifically, we need a revenue code that is fairer, simpler and no longer hinders our economic competitiveness — all of which cost jobs.

A fairer and simpler tax code would reduce costs for American citizens and job creators. Right now, the tax code often forces employers to make investment decisions based on the tax code, not by what is best for their business.

Even Japan has pledged to lower its corporate tax rate, which when delivered, will leave the U.S. holding the dubious distinction of having the highest corporate tax rate in the world, at nearly 40 percent. To say our tax code puts American job creators at a disadvantage is a serious understatement. With unemployment still above nine percent and bleak projections ahead, we simply can’t afford to allow our tax code to continue to hinder our competitiveness. It costs too many jobs.

This post originally appeared on Congressman Roskam's congressional website.

Rep. Don Manzullo: The Lady of Burma speaks to the U.S. Congress

Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) is Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. Rep. Manzullo co-authored a bill that was signed into law in 2008 awarding Aung San Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal for her brave fight for democracy in Burma. Manzullo has also kept pressure on the military junta in Burma by working annually to renew economic sanctions against them. Manzullo is also a member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China that monitors human rights and rule of law violations in China.

We have a remarkable opportunity Wednesday to hear directly from the extraordinary woman at the center of the decades-long struggle to bring freedom to Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.  Ms. Suu Kyi – a Nobel Peace Prize winner and democracy advocate – has sent us a recorded video message that we will play at a Congressional hearing I will chair on Wednesday afternoon. The hearing of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific is titled “Piercing Burma’s Veil of Secrecy: The Truth Behind the Sham Election and the Difficult Road Ahead,” and it will share Suu Kyi’s account of the ruling military junta’s Nov. 2, 2010 sham election and changes that have occurred in Burma since then. The Capitol Hill hearing will take place in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building and will be webcast live at http://www.hcfa.house.gov.  

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Ms. Suu Kyi – both as a freedom fighter and a courageous leader.  If you are looking for modern day heroes you certainly have to include Ms. Suu Kyi in a group with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.  She is a true inspiration to millions of people around the world.

Recounting Ms. Suu Kyi’s life requires understanding the historical context in which she emerged as the Lady of Burma.  Ever elegant, eloquent, and gracious, Ms. Suu Kyi is not just a gift to Burma, but also a gift to the entire world.  She remains a symbol of hope against a brutal military junta in Burma too cowardly to let democracy reign supreme.  Ms. Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy Party were the landslide winners in the 1990 presidential elections.  Yet Burma’s military regime continues to deny those election results to the detriment of its own people and its own legitimacy.  For 23 years, Ms. Suu Kyi has championed the cause of democracy in Burma, and she spent the past 15 years as a prisoner for daring to believe in a better tomorrow.

The Saffron Revolution of September, 2007 exposed the Burmese regime for what it is – a brutal authoritarian regime willing to stop at nothing to crack down on thousands of peaceful, nonviolent protesters simply because they demanded their basic human rights.  I vigorously spoke out against the actions of the Burmese government then, and will continue to do so in the future.

The recruitment of child soldiers, detention and torture of political dissidents, restrictions on freedoms of press, speech, assembly and association, and limited religious freedoms continue to prevail in Burma under the highly authoritarian military regime of General Thein Sein.  Minority religious groups like Christians in Burma continue to struggle to obtain permits to repair places of worship or build new ones.  Amidst all of this, Aung San Suu Kyi and her countless followers continue to pressure the government to reform.  But these voices need support from us and others around the world who share in Ms. Suu Kyi’s vision for a democratic and free Burma.

Many Burmese people fittingly refer to Ms. Suu Kyi as “mother,” indicative of the important and enduring role that she plays in her country.  She is the mother of the movement for democracy and human rights in Burma who has earned, by every standard measurable, not only the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Gold Medal, but also our enduring respect.  Ms. Suu Kyi’s spirit has not been broken by 15 years of house arrest, but given strength through her faith and hope in a brighter future for millions of Burmese citizens.  Our Lady of Burma continues to inspire us all.

Sen. Marco Rubio: Every day that politicians delay action on important economic issues, Americans feel the pain

Senator Marco Rubio is a Republican freshman from Florida.

Last week, President Obama touched down in Miami to raise money for his reelection campaign, just a year after his administration kicked off its “Recovery Summer” campaign to celebrate the failed trillion-dollar stimulus spending bill.

Today, Florida struggles with a 10.6 percent unemployment rate, far higher than the national average of 9.1 percent. The jobless rate in my state is far higher than 8 percent — the level that the president promised his stimulus would keep unemployment from exceeding.

All in all, nearly 1 million Floridians are looking for work. Tragically, millions across America have lost all hope of finding a job and simply given up.

This economic malaise is not a “bump in the road” for my constituents. It is a direct result of the anti-growth, Washington-centric policies that are fueling uncertainty for those who wish to start a business or expand an existing business. And it has real-life consequences for the future of our nation.

Keep reading at The Daily Caller...

Miles Taylor: No time for retreat - the dangers of an isolationist GOP

Miles Taylor works in the U.S House of Representatives and previously served in the Department of Homeland Security. He is co-founder and senior editor at Partisans.org.

Republican presidential hopefuls spent little time on foreign policy in last week’s CNN debate, instead focusing on the economy and healthcare—and Herman Cain’s persistent xenophobia toward Muslims.

But when the subject did come up, Mitt Romney made an unexpected statement while discussing Afghanistan.  “We’ve learned that our troops shouldn’t go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation.  Only Afghanis can win Afghanistan’s independence from the Taliban.”  The comment came on the heels of his appeal to “bring our troops home as soon as possible.”

Romney’s remarks were surprising for a number of reasons—not least of which was his odd decision to frame the conflict solely as a “war of independence.”  Until now, the former governor has been a staunch supporter of U.S.-led effort.

Romney is not alone among conservatives in his criticism of interventionism, though.  Presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman recently hopped on the bandwagon, too, declaring that we were “wasting our money” in Afghanistan and Libya.  House Republicans seem to agree and are reportedly considering a proposal to defund the U.S. military’s involvement to oust Qaddafi.

These comments and actions are indicative of a broader trend gaining traction among GOP leaders:  isolationism.

This comes as a bit of a surprise.  Many of the Republicans using isolationist terminology are the same ones who strongly backed U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and who voted to more than double foreign aid during Bush’s tenure.  Have war-weary conservatives changed their views on America’s role in the world? 

It is unlikely.  A better explanation for the shift, though not a more encouraging one, is political posturing.  The top presidential contenders, for example, are competing for the support of the Tea Party movement and several have adjusted their positions to court the movement’s isolationist strains.

It was only last year, for instance, that Mitt Romney released his book, “No Apology:  The Case for American Greatness,” which argued for anything but an isolationist foreign policy.  But Romney has become a “weathervane,” as one analyst put it, and appears to be trying to “appease Ron Paul’s [isolationist] constituents without actually being Ron Paul.”

For other Republicans, though, the shift to an isolationist message appears to be little more than reflexive opposition to anything “Obama.”  As a result, GOP members of Congress who would have almost certainly backed a Bush-era toppling of Qaddafi are calling Obama’s Libyan intervention “unconstitutional” and accusing the president of wasting taxpayer dollars on an unnecessary escapade.

During the Bush Administration, though, Democrats were guilty of the same habit.  They ridiculed Bush’s advocacy for democracy promotion and argued that Americans could not afford to be the world’s policemen.  Those Democrats had ignored—or conveniently forgotten—their support during the Clinton years for democracy promotion and police actions in places like Yugoslavia and Somalia.

In fact, the partisan-inflicted amnesia was so great that today there is still a good deal of ideological confusion in liberal foreign policy circles, perpetuated by the Democratic Party’s lingering disdain for President Bush.  Many seem to have forgotten that it was leaders of their own party, like Woodrow Wilson, who promoted an activist, values-based foreign policy in the first place.

But whether today’s isolationist shift in the GOP dialogue is genuine or simply political posturing is irrelevant.  The reality is that it legitimizes a foolish and dangerous foreign policy.

Today, America underwrites global security for the world’s 6.7 billion people.  This is a costly and often thankless burden for the country, but far preferable to the alternative.  A U.S. withdrawal from the international scene would be an unmitigated disaster.

For every inch America retreats on the world stage, nations like China and Russia move an inch forward.  Does the United States want to be responsible for creating a vacuum in global security—one that will be filled by countries with starkly contrasting values?

It’s not difficult to imagine what Russia would do in bordering states without American influence, or what China might do in the Pacific without the same.

Even when the United States has given into more moderate impulses to “step back” in the past, the result has been damaging.  For example, the United States still hasn’t fully recovered from the “peace dividend” retreat of the 1990s, which left the foreign service in disrepair and decimated America’s covert workforce overseas.

It would be a mark of shame upon the Republican Party—and a danger for the rest of the world—for the next GOP president to take office vowing to roll back America’s involvement overseas. 

* * * 

Isolationists like Ron Paul proudly cite George Washington, who made a final appeal before leaving office for American leaders to avoid foreign entanglements.  His advice was probably wise for the time.  America was young, weak, and unprepared to agitate despotic states around the world, who might try to crush the fledgling democracy.

But applying Washington’s advice today would be borderline delusional.  America’s “foreign entanglements” have freed billions from the chains of poverty and despotism, changing the course of history and the face of the world as Washington knew it.  Diminishing America’s global presence now would lead to a world that is both less prosperous and less friendly to freedom-loving people.

Isolationist Republicans are wrong to seek a diminished U.S. role in the world. 

The world needs America’s innovation, which is the lifeblood of the global economy; its ideals, which are the foundation of the most prosperous societies; and its might, which has served for a century as insurance against the aims of rogue regimes.

In short, the world needs America to care about “foreign entanglements”—or someone worse will. 

Rep. Ron Paul: Why I'm suing President Obama for engaging in military action in Libya

Congressman Ron Paul represents the 14th congressional district of Texas and is currently running for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

There is no issue more serious than war. Wars result in the loss of life and property. Wars are also expensive and an enormous economic burden.

Our Founders understood that waging war is not something that should be taken lightly, which is why Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution gives Congress — not the president — the authority to declare war. This was meant to be an important check on presidential power. The last thing the Founders wanted was an out-of-control executive branch engaging in unnecessary and unpopular wars without so much as a Congressional debate.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly the situation we have today in Libya.

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