Question my sanity, but I’m considering running in this election to recall California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Here’s a big reason why.
No one doubts that bad K-12 public school teachers exist. There is a phenomenon known as the “turkey trot,” in which bad teachers wind up in the worst schools.
Why? There is a connection between bad schools and lack of parental involvement. When you have strong parental involvement, parents pressure their schools to remove such teachers. Because of strong, protective teachers unions, these teachers are rarely fired, merely shuffled from school to school, until they land in one where few parents complain.
And while the vast majority of teachers do not fall into that “bad” category, look at where public school teachers send their own school-age children. Nationwide, approximately 10% of kids attend private school. Six percent of Black kids do so. But more than 20% of public school teachers send their own kids to private schools.
A 2004 study by the Fordham Institute found that 44% of Philadelphia public school teachers send their kids to private schools. In Cincinnati and Chicago, 41% and 39% of public school teachers, respectively, put their own school-age children in private school.
In Baltimore, in 2017, there were 13 public high schools where 0% of students could do math at grade level, with another half a dozen Baltimore public high schools where only 1% could do so. So, it is hardly a surprise that Fordham’s study found 35% of Baltimore public school teachers with school-age kids placed them in private school. In San Francisco it was 34%, and New York-Northeastern New Jersey was 33%. In Los Angeles, nearly 25% of public school teachers sent their kids to private school, versus 16% of Angelenos who did so.
For this reason, school choice has never polled higher. A June 2021 RealClear Opinion Research poll found support for school choice at 74% among registered voters. This includes 83% of Republicans, 69% of independents and 70% of Democrats who strongly or somewhat support school choice. In April, 2020, support for choice was 64%. Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children, said: “Public support for school choice is at an all-time high. And, as the nation recovers from unprecedented, nationwide school closures, a new story is unfolding. Parents are rising up and demanding the freedom to choose the best educational environment for their children. … Already in 2021, seventeen states have passed legislation to improve, expand, or create new school choice programs.”
School choice is not a panacea, especially without strong parental involvement. Studies show that Black kids spend less time doing homework than Hispanic kids, less time on homework than white kids and much less time on homework than Asian American kids. Economist Walter Williams told me, “If you don’t have someone in your household to make sure that you do your homework and to insist that you go to bed on time, the school you attend will not make a whole lot of difference.”
When I was in elementary and middle school, several classmates were Asian American, most of Chinese or Japanese descent. They all told me the same thing. If they got a B — they rarely got a grade lower than that — their parents told them they did not work hard enough. If they got an A, their parents told them the test was too easy. Their parents did not accept the notion often heard from my Black classmates, that so-and-so is “just not good in math.” The parents of my Asian American classmates believed that in academics, as athletic coaches say, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
School choice benefits children of parents who preach that education and hard work are key to upward mobility. School choice will be of little benefit to the kids of parents who do not.
Please let me know your thoughts about my possible candidacy at [email protected]. We’ve got a state to save.
Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host. His latest book, “The New Trump Standard,” is available in paperback from Amazon.com and for Nook, Kindle, iBooks and GooglePlay. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @LarryElder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Parental involvement in schools is certainly needed just as general voter involvement is needed in every local, state, and national election nationwide. And they need assurance that they are being heard The voice of the American people was stifled this past November through fraud, trickery, and theft. When the perpetrators get away with it, if can discourage voter participation in the future. The same is true in regards to public schools. There needs to be a solid support system for all who want to see America strong and free again.
FOR decades we on the right, have been trying to WAKE PARENTS UP, to get them more involved in what schools are doing.
I AM GLAD they are starting to wise the hell up, but REALLY WISH it didn’t take THIS bloody long for them to do so.
Larry, Great great commentary. The black community was destroyed by the Lyndon Johnson welfare society. The Democrats bought the black vote and the Democrats destroyed, with welfare, the black family unit. Evil personified. There was a black minister on Fox News, within the last couple of years and he stated that when Lyndon Johnson’s welfare program was passed, there were Federal Employees in California who were encouraging black women to have babies out of wedlock, with no fathers around. Look at the resulting destruction this has caused in the inner cities.
AND since johnson said “i will keep them on the plantation for a hundred years” or something akin to that, he certainly SEEMS to have been right.
K-12 public schools is just another example of what happens when WE the People allow the government to have total control ANYTHING.
Now the Dishonorable, Dishonest, Racist Democrats want to brainwash our very young children with the racist, anti-Christ, hateful “Critical Race Theory”.
And it is Just that, a politically motivated “Theory”, belief, concept, scheme, con.
WHY do you think i do not want them ANYWHERE NEAR MY MEDICAL INFORMATION!
In failed schools you usually have failed single parents, overwhelmed with their own incompetence and poor life choices. It’s undisciplined children in adult bodies raising more undisciplined children in adult bodies. The parents are more interested in playmates than disciplined progeny of integrity that would shame the parents by comparison and defy the legitimacy of their own parent’s existence. Who wants them to show up and create more of a mess in their schools? Either the kids meet established national standards or their funds get taken away to be given to private schools of choice of proven records of success. No schooling is better than bad schooling, and in the case of most democrat run inner cites they children end up getting both.