Local Political Change is the Only Solution for Bad Schools

Like many people, I think that inner city schools are a dismal failure.  But who do the voters in districts with bad schools vote for?  Do they vote based on government policies that affect them, or do they vote their identities?  Based on how neighborhoods in Chicago vote, the inner city hell holes with horrible schools vote at least 90% Democrat every time.  They believe the liberal narrative of racist Republicans and vote their identities, not their interests.  Republicans generally favor school choice.  Democrats generally favor teachers' unions, with absolutely no regard for the students.  This problem can't be solved in the courts.  It can only be solved in ballot boxes when the voters with awful schools get past the false liberal narrative and vote their interests instead of their identities. 

I completely agree that sacrificing these kids for the benefit of teachers' unions affects everyone.  But the courts were never a good vehicle for solving this problem.  That's why we're in the mess we're in.  Courts have always been a blunt instrument.  Legislation and executive branch management at the state and local level is what ultimately makes or breaks schools.  After Katrina, Republican Governor Bobby Jindal rebuilt with all charter schools in New Orleans.  Democrats in Congress shut down the Washington, DC, voucher program after they took control in 2009.  The contrast is fairly clear.  The fact is that Republicans get no votes for doing the right thing with inner city schools, so it's less of a priority than it should be for them.  But when Republicans do the right thing, the Pravda Press doesn't report it so nobody knows. 

Any change in public schools, whether major dismantling or minor tinkering, requires local political change to make it happen. We need experimentation at the local level to find out what works.  The shortcut of a Supreme Court decision is tempting because it seems to grant your wishes instantly.  But the reality is that Supreme Court decisions tend to freeze arguments rather than resolve them.  The success of Brown versus Board of Education seems magical only in retrospect.  It was a painful and lengthy process. Given the conditions of schools today, I think the Brown decision really didn't change that much in the long run.  Schools are a local government matter.  Prior to World War II, there was almost no federal involvement in education.  The experiment I'm watching is Wisconsin, where government union dues are optional and not deducted from workers' paychecks.  They also have a large charter school movement in Milwaukee schools.  The combination may improve schools quite a lot.

My 4 Simple Amendments to Debug the Constitution

Here’s a summary of my 4 suggested amendments:

      1. States should have automatic legal standing to sue to block executive orders they feel are unconstitutional.  As it stands now, the 25 states suing to block Obama’s immigration executive orders had to show they would suffer money damages from Obama’s actions in order to gain the legal standing for a lawsuit.
      2. Congress should have to vote to approve or reject every regulation.  There could be a “fast track” procedure for regulations, that is an up or down vote with no amendments and no filibusters.  There should also be a provision in the amendment that any member of Congress can call for a roll call vote on a package of regulations after they have been formally presented to Congress and been waiting 120 days.  Once the privileged motion is made, the vote has to be taken immediately.

  3. The Supreme Court needs a check on it.  My idea is that the states should be the check.  If over half of the states’ legislatures vote for a minority Supreme Court decision within 2 years of the decision, then the majority opinion is overruled and the minority opinion takes force instead.  The Constitution is a contract between the states and the federal government.  This provision strikes directly at unilateral Constitutional change by 5 to 4 votes on the Supreme Court.  It’s far superior to term limits because it removes the decision.  However, it’s limited because the choice of alternatives is only the minority opinions in the same case.

  4. Any Balanced Budget Amendment ought to tie a balanced budget to asset sales and tie completed asset sales to a wage freeze on all federal employees until enough assets have been sold to offset the previous year’s deficit.   This means that nobody, including Congressmen, get more money salary, wages, office expenses or any other remuneration, than what they got in the previous fiscal year until enough assets are sold to realize enough to pay off last years’ rise in debt.  People who get promoted do not get promotional pay increases or bonuses.