Monday, November 15, 2010 at 01:35PM Roger Pilon at Cato captures the essence of the issue.
Rather than unity, the American people need to make informed choices between two visions.
Cato, Roger Pilon, bipartisanship Friday, October 22, 2010 at 03:09PM John Samples at Cato makes a good point about competition in news.
The new media is opening up avenues for news reporting which goes beyond the MSM to present the full story. Many liberals have defended the NYT by claiming their reporting is objective, high-quality and fact-based, but what they fail to see or admit is the NYT isn't presenting the full story, like the story on election donations. Yes, they are factual in what they report -- it's what they leave out, or minimize, that's the problem and points to bias -- just like the liberal defense. Yes, they are objective in what they report, they just don't report the full story.
Cato, John Samples, NYT, bias, campaign contributions, journalism Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 01:57PM The collusion between government and the teachers' union, an enhancement of State power and control, is ruining education in America. The billions of dollars spent are not making matters better, and the tragedy is that the nation is depending on the education of their children to provide young people with the knowledge and skills necessary to become independent, well-rounded adults who are financially secure.
Most students are ill prepared to make it in the world when they graduate high school, and many are ill-prepared even after receiving a college degree. When the federal government created the Department of Education, it went beyond Constitutional limits, and now central planning has subjugated education to federal control.
One of the main concerns is the State having so much influence over what students are taught. When teachers are so dependent on government, they lose their objectivity and fall under the influence of politics and ideology. The link above leads to a Cato article, and Cato has gathered a lot of information on the state of public education. Search Cato's site for articles on public education.
The argument for public education would be stronger if the results justifed the defense, but the results, for the most part, are very poor. My position is to end public education and allow the private sector to offer educational choices for parents, so that parents have control. Society will not allow those children whose parents can't afford to pay for education to go without one. Private assistance will develope, but first we need to stop the State from draining money out of the private sector and blocking economic progress.
A free market will address education, and it will do so innovatively. The public education system is like the horse and buggy industry after cars were invented. Technology will allow creative educational offerings that meet our current need for effective education -- the status quo will house students and turn teachers into wardens while wasting valuable resouces and failing to produce successful results.
Just one more reason to get government out of areas of concern in which it has no competence and no Constitutional authority.
M. Farmer
From Reason Magazine:
http://reason.com/blog/2010/10/07/reasontv-3-reasons-obamas-educ
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 11:30AM There's a great, short article today at Cato by Roger Pilon.
Pilon is absolutely right, if we can't take the truth and diligently adhere to the limitations of the Constitution, then we don't deserve freedom -- the problem is that the majority might give up freedom willingly, but the minority who want to protect freedom are not willing. This is what the Constitution is supposed to protect against, tyranny of the majority. The loopholes in the Constitution have been cynically exploited, and in some case the Constitution has been arrogantly ignored. This direction will destroy the nation.
