Bev Elliott and Bruce Gardner are trying to start a movement to reform the national education system. Reasons cited include:
- States can spend twice as much per pupil on education than private schools.
- Unions and pensions are draining education dollars.
- American schools put too much emphasis on fun activities and not enough on core subjects.
- America has fallen from 1st to 37th place in math, science, and engineering.
- 30% of kids drop out and 60% of dropouts wind up in prison.
To remedy the situation, the duo’s group, known as Tea for Education and based in Haywood County, is suggesting raising the cap on the number of charter schools allowed. So far, so good. They also would like some kind of oversight commission to be appointed at the state level (which sounds like a slope often described with a word that starts with “slipper.”) They call for opening schools to the free market, but some of their requests ask for equal access to government perks. They would like charter schools to be able to float tax-exempt bonds for capital improvements and have something akin to first rights of refusal for surplus buildings. They favor a voucher system, which has been described as inferior to a tax writeoff because vouchers require greedy little fingers to get a piece of the pie for handling. They also approve a lottery system for deciding who gets to attend the schools.
If this sounds like your cup of tea, more information is available at teaforeducation.org.
