Fixing The US Education System
Once again to the well...
I read with great interest the recent Report about How to Save US Higher Ed. It was authored by one of the leading US Conservatives, and co-signed by a very impressive Who’s Who list of 40+ heavyweight education experts.
I am in complete agreement with everything in the Report — but very disappointed with what was missing: not a word was mentioned about the essential importance of first fixing the US K-12 education system!
What’s going on here? How could such a collection of world-class experts not understand that there is no conceivable way of “saving Higher Education,” without first completely reconstructing the dilapidated and disintegrating foundation that it is built on?
Let’s back up to see this in perspective…
Fixing the US education system (Secondary plus Higher Education) has the distinctly intimidating appearance of being a Sisyphean task. As a result, most complaining people give up before they do anything productive.
Worse, the few who bravely attempt serious reform are like the blind men describing an elephant — they rarely seem to understand the Big Picture.
The net result is that our education system continues to rapidly decline. The outcomes of this trajectory are beyond horrific, and they all but guarantee the failure of the American Experiment. (That, of course, IS the objective of the bad actors we have allowed to take over our K-12 education system.)
I don't say this lightly. Consider that annually there are 4± Million graduates from US high schools. One consequence of our allowing the Left to control the US K-12 education system is that almost all of these graduates are not only Marxist indoctrinated but also have purposefully been lobotomized so that they are devoid of Critical Thinking skills.
Now, carefully consider the impact on America when 3± Million of these automatons are annually added to the voter rolls…
Once we appreciate our alarming proximity to the cliff, we need to stop worrying about the challenges and instead stay focused on the consequences.
This is a perfect example of a task where Critical Thinking should be utilized. My suggestion is to employ the time-tested concept of Divide and Conquer. In other words, breaking this complex problem into more digestible bites is essential. Here is my suggested sequence…
Six Steps to Fix America’s Most Significant Problem —
1 - We MUST fully recognize that the K-12 part is the foundation for the entire education edifice. Spending a large amount of time trying to save Higher Education makes little sense since it is constructed on a crumbling base. We can significantly simplify our task by realizing that K-12 is where meaningful reform needs to be made first. If we do that right, Higher Ed will subsequently be a major beneficiary.
2 - Although the phrase “K-12” sounds simple enough, the reality is that it includes numerous and very diverse problematic issues. These range from teacher certification to age-inappropriate books, smartphone use to parental rights, SEL to pedagogy, etc. In this step, we need to get a reasonable handle on what the main K-12 issues are. I proposed a list here, and I am open to additions and/or clarifications.
3 - Once we have a solid understanding of the many major K-12 issues, the next step is to prioritize them. A key point here is that prioritizing is NOT based on which items are more important, but rather what sequence do fixes need to be made to get the most effective results? For example, unless we are clear about our national K-12 education objectives, most other issues will not get effectively resolved. (Note: to date we have ZERO national K-12 education objectives!!!)
4 - Going one step further, it is essential to appreciate that there is one underpinning issue: the Curriculum. Fixing all other K-12 issues, but allowing corrupted curricula, guarantees failure of meaningful K-12 reform — and that is the direction we’re headed. A good perspective is to see where the main emphasis of our opponents is, and then counter it. There is no doubt that the Left has invested an extraordinary amount of time and effort in undermining K-12 curricula (Reading, Writing, History, Math, Science, etc.) … Considering that a typical State is “educating” our children for over 2200 days. There is no way to overstate the extreme importance of WHAT is being conveyed (the curricula) during that enormous amount of time the K-12 education system has control over our youth.
5 - Right now, the US K-12 education system is focused on teaching children WHAT to think — and the WHAT is determined by the Left! A simple, but very powerful change, would be for our K-12 education system to focus on teaching children HOW to think! Currently, no State is doing this! Making that one change would positively affect every K-12 issue and would be the most consequential improvement in the US K-12 education system in over a 100 years. This requires leadership, and the most appropriate source for that is the federal Department of Education.
6 - Lastly, we need to understand who has what authority. Those with some K-12 power are: parents, the local School Board, the State School Board, the State Education Department, State Legislators, Teacher Unions, the federal Department of Education, etc. One of the main reasons that K-12 education reform has failed is that most citizens do not accurately understand who is responsible for what. For example, blaming the federal Department of Education for age-inappropriate books in your local school library is completely inaccurate. Unless we understand the authority of the various K-12 players, there is no way effective reform can come about.
The Bottom Line —
It is becoming more disturbingly clear every day how almost all federal departments and agencies (EPA, DOE, FBI, FDA, DOEd, etc.) have become corrupted. Due to a lack of Critical Thinking, the DOEd is the only one that is being targeted for closure. The proper solution for DOEd (just like the EPA, which has seriously lost its way) is head-to-toe reform.
For the details and further explanation of how to make revolutionary improvements to DOEd (and to K-12), please read here, here, and here.
——————————————————
PS — How to teach children to be a Critical Thinker has been addressed in some earlier commentaries (e.g., like here)… I have also made it clear in earlier posts that part of any graduating criteria is that a student (in addition to being a Critical Thinker) should be fluent in the 3Rs.
Here is other information from this scientist that you might find interesting:
I am now offering incentives for you to sign up new subscribers!
I also consider reader submissions on Critical Thinking on my topics of interest.
Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.
WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.
C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.
Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.
Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from climate to COVID, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2025 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?
Thanks for reading Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues! Please pass a link to this article on to other associates who might benefit. They can subscribe for FREE to receive new posts (typically about once a week).
Where are the male role models in K-12? In all discussions of equality in employment, I have never heard anyone say "We need more men as teachers in k-12." I have seen first hand how boys are treated as if they are 'defective girls', how girls are encouraged to be strong mentally and physically, and how boys are treated as if their innate character is 'toxic' and must be suppressed. Children seem to be taught that the standard approach to problem solving is to substitute feelings for facts in all disputed, contested, or contentious matters; that feelings trump facts, and that if anyone disagrees or dissents, then they are labelled 'disruptive' and must be removed from the discussion while being denigrated and rebuked. Can there be any wonder why so many families have turned to home schooling?
Sort of funny that this critique begins with the observation that a recent report on American education reform focused solely on post-secondary/college/university level issues, with the criticism that higher education rests on the foundation of K-12 education.
Have you considered that the problems of K-12 education are rooted in American universities' Schools of Education? That is, American K-12 teachers, to be licensed, must have a degree from a university School of Education. And the Schools of Education are the propagators of the PC-Progressive hate-Normal-America belief system. The belief system came from Dr George S. Counts of Columbia U. His educational philosophy is revered in American Schools of Education, which call it "Social Reconstructionism."
Thus, any focus on K-12 change MUST begin with the higher levels--the university Schools of Education.
Full details:
https://kentclizbe.substack.com/p/infiltration-and-subversion-of-american?utm_source=publication-search
Excerpt:
In his [Dr. George S. Counts'] bold proclamation, printed as a series of pamphlets capturing his PEA speeches, as Dare the School Build a New Social Order, Counts broke with Dewey’s ideas of child-centered education, and proclaimed the need for “imposition and indoctrination.”
He argued that he and his fellow Progressives had been timid, had professed and theorized, and not acted in concert with their beliefs. Counts’ argument was fundamentally Marxist, in tone and terminology, but never referenced Marx. His themes included class, class conflict, anarchy of extreme individualism, race hatred, reconstruction of society; democracy vs. industrial feudalism, capital must belong to the masses, not the favored few.
In his PEA speeches, He spoke (and spoke, and spoke, and spoke) condescendingly of “the masses,” “the minds of the masses.” He said “natural resources and all important forms of capital will have to be collectively owned.”
Counts went on to demand that “the resulting system of production and distribution be made to serve directly the masses of the people.”
He ended his speeches with a call to action to his fellow Progressive Educators, in effect a call to bloody revolution: “If democracy is to be achieved…powerful classes must be persuaded to surrender their privileges…this process has commonly been attended by bitter struggle and even bloodshed.”
In a shot across the bow of the American bourgeoisie, Counts warned his comrades, “Ruling classes never surrender their privileges voluntarily.”