Speech to community groups.

By Mark Isler

A look at deeply held convictions about our educational system.

We spend a lot of money on education but what we accomplish with that money is a disgrace. Too many students graduate who can't read, write, spell, or even fill out a job application. Instead we waste money on programs like bilingual education which does a disservice to the very children it is supposed to help. They wind up fluent neither in English nor in their native language.

We waste taxpayers money on new math and whole language instead of phonics. Did you know that Bill Honig, the former superintendent of schools, admitted that he was wrong and we were right, phonics works and whole language doesn't. We could have told him that 10 years ago.

We need to end experiments, theories, and fads that have replaced sound education

We need to get serious about the mastery of basic skills in the lower grades and then use the upper grades to prepare citizens of the next generation to understand, appreciate, and contribute to the life of the nation. If our students do not understand our history, our system of government, and the mechanisms of a free economy, they will be tossed about in a world they do not understand and they will be of little help in defending the institutions we cherish.

But we must pass along more than knowledge to our students, we must also teach traditional American values-honesty, decency, the virtue of hard work, respect for others, and responsibility for one's actions, If we ignore the teachings of values, the message comes through quite clearly that there is no agreement on standards of behavior, and the values expressed in the streets appear as legitimate as any.

But some will tell you the problem is money. The Los Angeles Unified School District spends billions of dollars a year and if they were a business they would have been declared bankrupt a long time ago. In Washington D.C., in Jersey City, New Jersey, they spend $9000/ year per child, and their educational outcome may be the worst in the nation. The Catholic schools in New York educate their children for about $3000/year per child and they do a very good job with inner city children. It is not money, it isn't even class size, it's back to basics, back to high standards and back to discipline.

The key educational reform is school choice. When we allow and encourage parents to enroll their children in schools of their choice, schools will become accountable to students and parents for the quality of the education they deliver.

We need to redefine public schools as schools the public chooses, be it public, private, charter, or home schools. With competition the public schools will do better too, but we must never lose sight of our mission, it is not a public school building that we need to preserve but a quality education for each and every child. It is not fair that inner city children in California go to schools where they have to fear for their safety, it is not right that families in the San Fernando Valley have to leave their city to seek a quality education in surrounding areas. It is not right that the public schools are run largely for the benefits of their employees and interest groups rather than for the children and taxpayers.

I want our children to have the same opportunity as public school employees children do. When Bill Bennett, the former education secretary, asked the head of the national teachers union-what does it tell us when 50% of public school teachers send their children to private schools, the only answer he could come up with was-it's not 50% it's 40%.

It always bothers me when the public school unions say they only want what's best for the children. That is not their job. They are there to get the most money and benefits for their members. They do that very well, but if their goals ever coincide with the needs of children it is pure coincidence.

This campaign is about bringing education back to the people. We do not need the unions, we do not need the federal department of education, no we do not even need the state department of education in Sacramento, to tell us what to do with our children. We know what is best for our children. They may only want you at the schools to pay the bills and bake the cookies, but they are our children, our grandchildren, and yes our future. We will take them back and we will educate them and we will make them good Americans, and we will return our educational system and our country to greatness!