A history professor wrote a great op-ed on education in yesterday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Here are two of the statements that stuck out:
…I’m not sure what the answer is, but I know that increasing educational spending every year until the Second Coming is not it. It’s well-known that, nationwide, Catholic schools spend several thousand dollars less per pupil, yet on the average have higher test scores and more capable graduates. (And no, it’s not because they’re staffed entirely by nuns ? there aren’t many sisters left.)
…although I have a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern, world and African history and almost a decade of teaching experience and have published a book and numerous articles, I am not qualified to teach in Fulton County schools because I lack “certification,” a barrier the educational apparatchiks have thrown up to keep out undesirables. Dr. Newt Gingrich makes this same point in his new book, “Winning the Future.”