Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

Over on WorldNetDaily, Walter Williams talks about education. I have a lot of respect for his opinion. Mostly, he says things which really pique my interest and thought processes.

One of his points is buttressed by this link to a transcript of a presentation made to high school physics teachers in 1994. Unfortunately, the data Dr. Donald E. Simanek used in the presentation is dated. I’ve spent a little time searching for more current information, but no sites with statistics make it easy to cull anything valid from the pile. The National Center for Education Statistics appears to offer access, but the one query I tried to run crashed.

I’ve been trying to determine how best to establish some basic rules for schools to follow in educating our kids. I’ve had a few thoughts, and will try to develop them for a more coherent post over the next few days.

First of all, I think the best way to improve education and public assistance is to tie the two together in some way. Perhaps a requirement that people receiving welfare or Medicaid have at least a 9th grade education. If you aren’t willing to try and get the education you need to earn a living, you shouldn’t be able to receive benefits.

I also think there must be some way to set advancement requirements. For example, students who start failing are regularly put into special education even though their failure has nothing to do with IQ and everything to do with effort. I want to see something like two grade failures (repeating a grade) be required before a student with normal intelligence is put in special ed.

More to come in a day or two, and any ideas you have will be evaluated for inclusion in my final manifest. I hope to put something together worth presenting to someone who can try to make changes.

Dan Henninger has an interesting piece in Opinion Journal. The focus is on Lou Dobbs of CNN, who has become a left-wing monster of late.

An interesting point to be made, in my ever-so-humble opinion, is that out-sourcing, the bane of well-intentioned liberals across the country, has a cause, and it has nothing to do with the federal government. That is, the availability of competent workers.

Much of the commotion focuses on high-tech jobs. That phrase has come to mean programmers. The problem is that companies cannot find enough. The standard response is that we need to provide incentives to the unemployed to get them the skills to fill these jobs.

Okay. Every community college in this country offers at least a single class in programming. Most offer associate degrees. The typical tuition rate for community colleges is around $25 per credit hour; $75 per course. $150 per year.

What keeps people from getting this degree is that there is right and wrong. Fuzzy answers don’t make the program work. Rules must be followed. Math and science are generally involved. Writing a program that works means making a A in class. Too much pressure.

The same people complaining are the very ones who cry about illegal Mexican workers, who “do jobs Americans won’t do.” The difference here is that Indian workers are doing the jobs Americans won’t get the education to do.

Thanks to Dr. Ray for pointing out this article.