John Stossel continues to write about education

Back in January, John Stossel did a report for 20/20 called Stupid in America. It was a hard hitting account of the current state of public schools. (If you missed it, you can read the transcript, or watch the video.) John focused on a number of areas in which public schools are failing and then showed why he felt school vouchers would help improve education in America.

Many people who support public schools have tried to discredit John's report. They have challenged his integrity, they have tried to confuse the issue, and so on. Week after week John has written columns explaining the weakness in their arguements. They even tried to shut him up by claiming teaching was so hard that John wouldn't accept a challenge to teach, but he said fine, I'll give it a try.

This week John has a column, More teachers' union myths, refuting a number of myths about education.

One of the interesting points in the column was in response to the unions' claim that we need to spend more money on education. They say that countries which spend more money than us are doing better on international tests. John had an excellent insight: yes, and countries which spend less money than us are doing better than us.

Near the end of this week's column John writes about accountability. He says: "The people who want to control every young American's education like to talk about accountability, but what they want is to make schools accountable to anointed bureaucrats who think they know what's best for all of us. They evade real accountability -- the kind of accountability where if a student or parent realizes a school isn't doing its job, he can find another one."

If you are want to be more informed on the current state of public education, and you don't have time to read Thomas Sowell's book, Inside American Education, John Stossel's columns and his Stupid in America report are good places to start.


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