Educational Monopoly

Andrew J. Coulson has written an article entitled, "Time to End The Monopoly in Education." His article is written from an economic perspective. He writes, "Far from being an engine of wealth creation, the education system is bleeding the economy to death. The U.S. spends 2.3 times as much per pupil in real, inflation-adjusted dollars as it spent in 1970, but the return on this ballooning investment has been less than nothing."

If you research public education, you will find no correlation between increased spending and increased achievement. As a matter of fact, Coulson states that student achievement at the end of high school has been flat for nearly 40 years. He writes, "Student achievement at the end of high school has been flat for nearly 40 years, according to a recent study by the Education Department, while the graduation rate fell over the same period, according to a report by James Heckman, a Nobel laureate economist." How can that be in a country such as ours?

Coulson is not done; there is more as he writes, "If the efficiency of U.S. public schooling had merely remained at its 1970 level, the country would enjoy the equivalent of an annual $300 billion tax cut. The productivity collapse in education is more than staggering; it's unparalleled. Can you name any other service or product that has gotten worse and less affordable over the past two generations? The reason you can't is that no other field is organized as a state-run monopoly."

Now, I would like to refer back to my history lessons from middle school on monopolies. I was taught that monopolies were bad for our country and bad for our people. Monopolies gave one company an unfair advantage, drove up prices and drove other companies out of business which produced unemployed workers. But, here is the most important lesson I learned in Monroe School in Monroe, Massachusetts about monopolies... monopolies eliminate competition and without competition, mediocrity will soon replace excellence. Could that be on of the problems public-sector education faces? I believe this idea could be worth exploring. To read the rest of this fine article, click HERE. Blessings!

Decisions and Priorities

The decisions we make daily reflect our priorities. While this is a simple enough thought, most of us do not stop and think on it in the busyness of our day. Have you ever thought about what is truly important to you? How would you measure such a thing?

Someone once told me that to measure what is truly important to you requires your checkbook or, in today's world, your credit card balance statement. What you must do is take a tally of your expenditures for the month and totally them up. Once you get your total you merely look at what or who you are spending your money on most, and that is what is most important to you. Speaking from own experience, it works pretty well, and was pretty humbling for yours truly.

As Christians, it is a great way to take stock of where our priorities lie; do we spend more money on the things of our Lord or on the things of this world? Do we spend more money on the eternal things that will contribute to His Kingdom, or do we spend more money on accumulating things in this life for our little kingdoms? Money has a way of revealing who we really are, at least it does in my life. It took a while for me to discover that wonderful truth in scripture, "it is truly better to give than to receive."

There is a bumper sticker that states, "the one with the most toys at the end wins." Sadly, that is how many of us live. I remember being in college and being focused on the red BMW. I wanted to graduate college so I could buy one. How vain was I? I did not care about what I learned or even what job I would land... I just wanted that red BMW. Now, I am not saying that everyone who owns a red BMW is spiritually off-centered, but I am saying that that red BMW was my idol and made me spiritually off-center.

Each day we make decisions, and like it or not, they reveal our priorities. The biggest most important decisions we make in our lives have to do with money. It is just the way life is, at the moment. As you live out each day, I implore you to take stock of your priorities. Are you contributing to His kingdom or building your own? Blessings!