Denver's preschool tax is a mistake

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com) Last night the Denver City Council approved asking voters to increase taxes for the next ten years to fund preschool programs for all four-year-olds. So the proposal will now go to the ballot in November, where it may pass -- or go down in flames as Prop 82 did in California, despite Hollywood Rob Reiner’s support.

Advocates will tell you that 12 cents out of a $100 sale (an estimated $12 million a year) is a small price to pay for a huge return. In the words of Mayor John Hickenlooper, “quality affordable pre-school for their children is a critical part of improving our public schools [his emphasis], increasing economic opportunity, and reducing burdens on our public safety and criminal justice systems. Early childhood education’s documented return on investment leads me to support this initiative…”

His words echo a familiar theme: A dollar spent to provide preschool saves society three, four, even $10 dollars down the road because kids who receive preschool are less likely to commit crime, be unemployed, go on welfare, etc. Sounds great doesn’t it! But is it true? Not really. The savings touted by advocates are derived from a small program for highly disadvantaged students that yielded some benefits for some participants. Upon close examination, the results are far less impressive than advocates would have you believe. See for example this report from the Goldwater Institute. Moreover, the program’s results have yet to be replicated.

The results of larger programs, such as Head Start, are more typical. Initial gains fade out over time, the Heritage Foundation has found, leaving participants undistinguishable from non-participants. So too, Georgia’s 10-year, $1.5 billion experiment in universal pre-K has had equally dismal results: Participants are once again undistinguishable from non-participants.

Saying that preschool will cure society of its ills is like saying Kool-Aid prevents cancer; the logic being that Kool-Aid contains vitamin C, vitamins are important to health and disease prevention, ergo Kool-Aid prevents cancer. The truth is that while some children who receive little nutrition could benefit from drinking Kool-Aid, it will not inoculate them from disease.

Similarly, preschool can help some children from deprived home environments gain needed skills, but it is not the panacea touted by pre-K advocates. The Denver City Council would do well to invest elsewhere. Better yet, they should let families keep more of their hard-earned money.

Bennish a poster boy for school choice

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com The leftist rantings and ravings from Overland HS teacher Jay Bennish were not only "off the hook" with their bias and idiocy – he was probably off his medications when the audiotape was made. This only reinforces my steadfast belief about public education, that’s it’s more about indoctrination than true education of young minds.

Slapstick Politics and Michelle Malkin say the same thing. Public Ed doesn’t just need minor reform, tinkering around the edges, or more parent participation (which would be good in any school). It is an outdated, mediocre monopoly that needs to be abolished. It should be tossed on the scrap heap of bad ideas along with Communism, socialism, and slavery. I’m just getting warmed up – here are several more reasons why.

Public school proponents argue that more money for technology, better facilities, and other upgrades is the solution for improving "modern education" – not bringing morals or values back to the classroom, God forbid (oops, can’t say the G-word in school). Yet with spending at record levels, American public schools are doing a worse job than ever of teaching kids the basics, and we’re falling way behind other nations in the quality of K-12 education. Not to mention that traditional Judeo-Christian values are often ridiculed and secular values are glorified.

Along with this, a lot of high school and college graduates I talk with today aren’t really critical thinkers. More than a few have problems spelling and reading. Public education - along with television - is the most destructive force in America today. If you look around and talk with more than a dozen people today, you’ll realize that our society has been dumbed down by "modern education" and the idiot box. The biggest fallacy about public schools is that the better school system will provide better education for your kids.

Overland High School, where Mr. Bennish teaches, is a part of the glorified, hallowed and (formerly) respected Cherry Creek School system. Its reputation was that of being the crème de la crème of all school systems in the Denver-metro area. After hearing Jay Bennish’s rantings, I’d call it the crème de la crap. Pardon the language, but this is ridiculous. If this is the best that Public Ed has to offer, they’ve flunked the final.

Mr. Bnnish’s Dennis Miller-like rant reminds me of a Rodney Dangerfield movie in the mid-80s titled Back To School. Rodney’s character goes back to the halls of higher ed, where he runs into a bi-polar professor, played by the late comedian Sam Kinison.

The professor rambles on about Vietnam, and other assorted topics, before yelling at someone in his class to give him an answer: “Say it, say it, oh, oooooohhhhh!” Bennish almost does the same thing in his 20-minute screed that Overland High student Sean Allen recorded. It’s the same MoveOn.org/Cindy Sheehan/moon bat-type propaganda that’s infiltrated and infected the minds of too many American kids and adults.

I’d rather have a kid properly educated in the 3 Rs and Judeo-Christian values in a schoolhouse in the middle of a cow pasture, than send him to the most modern facilities to be indoctrinated by a bunch of secular, leftist losers. I’ll go a step further – I wouldn’t even send a dog to an American public school today. I wouldn’t want him to get corrupted or dumbed down by these progressive "educators" (using that term very loosely).

Liberal logic, when you think about it, is absolutely insane. It astounds me that the left is adamant about a "woman’s right to choose," i.e., killing her unborn child, but they’re staunchly against letting a parent choose where, how and by whom their living child(ren) are educated. I dare anyone to tell me how this makes a lick of common sense.

The injection of competition into education is long overdue. Give parents educational vouchers so they can have choice, and schools will be forced to be accountable for the educational services they provide. I know the NEA, CEA, ACLU, and other liberal acronym groups will raise hell, heaven and earth to keep their precious monopoly. I don’t care.

It’s time for a showdown at the K-12 Corral to break up this educational cartel. It’ll be a heck of a battle, but its one that needs to be fought – and more importantly, won. This protracted experiment in liberal lunacy has gone on long enough. Give real educational choice a chance.