Judge Manning is frustrated here that failing schools are not making more
progress and so am I. Unfortunately, his orders will have little lasting impact
on a Soviet style, centrally planned system that is operated from the top
down.? I think he needs someone to explain to him why the Soviet Union
failed. ? If that system could not produce milk, shoes and even toilet
paper after trying for 70 years, who in their right mind would expect a similar
system to be able to educate kids.?
The new Republican majority on the Wake County School Board is faced with
the same problem and so far, it looks like they have not learned the lesson of
the centrally planned Soviet economy.
If anyone doubts that the system is the problem they should read John Chubb
and Terry Moe’s book Politics, Markets and America’s Schools.?He writes that “…government has not solved the education problem because government is
the problem.”
The judge should consider that the real remedy is for him to order the
school systems to give vouchers to the kids in the failing schools. Giving
parents the freedom to enroll their children in a public, private or parochial
school that will educate them will show immediate results.? No excuses,
Judge Manning, you have the power to improve the education of North Carolina’s
children and the time is now.
