In October 2023, Hamas launched an attack on Israel. Which side of that issue you are on is your business, but something very important was revealed during the ensuing conversation.

At our “elite” universities, anti-Israel protesters parroted the slogan: “From the river, to the sea…” whereupon a number of reporters asked these elite students: “From what river, to what sea?”

One would think that students at our most prestigious colleges – being taught by our most “progressive” professors – would actually know which river and which sea they were talking about. As it turned out, almost none of these young elitists knew which river or which sea, nor could they find Israel on a map. These activists obviously believed they held the moral high ground, but if they could not even find Israel on a map, how could they claim sufficient historical knowledge to justify their position?

The point here is not the Palestinian conflict. The point is the disastrous state of the American Education System, from top to bottom, from kindergarten to Ph.D., from federal agencies to state agencies to local school boards to teachers unions. How did our education system get so pathetic?

On the other hand, little Johnny sure knows a good drag show when he sees one, and has access to lots of kiddy-porn in the school library. (Pay attention to SCOTUS). Meanwhile the Biden FBI made sure that parents who questioned school boards about kiddie porn in the library were investigated and labeled domestic terrorists.

US Taxpayers are forced to spend more on Government schools than anyone else in the world, and our results, particularly in critical fields of Math and Science are nearly the worst in the industrialized world (see PISA). New York leads the U.S. and the world in annual spending per pupil and our results are only average among U.S. states. Florida has better outcomes, yet spends half as much as New York. Why is Florida’s system so much more cost effective than ours?

Our government-run education system is as close to pure socialism as anything in our economy, which may explain the deplorable results. Government schools are state monopolies, and in many states, Teachers Unions enjoy monopolies on teaching services. And while monopolies are never good for consumers, almost all of our politicians support these monopolies, or are afraid to oppose them.

Education is too important to be left in the hands of bureaucrats and unions whose only interest is an easy paycheck.

Nowhere in the U.S. will you find more greed than in our education system, where bureaucrats demand top-dollar six-figure salaries for driving student achievement into the ground. Taxpayers and parents must now take back our education system from those who use it as their personal gravy train.

Other countries overcame the problem of Government School monopolies by using voucher systems, where public money follows the student, and never goes directly to schools, and where teachers act like skilled professionals rather than unskilled union labor. No enemy could have created a more effective system for wasting young American minds than our politicians and education “experts” have done.

Where vouchers and school choice are allowed, you won’t see the ugly confrontations between parents and school boards like we witnessed in Virginia and elsewhere a couple years ago, and more recently in nearby Rochester. Vouchers enable a form of education democracy where parents vote with their feet, and pick the school best suited to their kids’ educational and moral needs. Vouchers enable “education justice”.

New York state spends annually around $33,000 per pupil, while decent private schools cost only half as much. New York could provide vouchers for $20K per student and still spend more on education than most American states, all while saving taxpayers more than one-thrid of the current cost. But don’t expect Government Schools and Teachers Unions to go along. Randi Weingarten openly declared that her Teachers’ Union is not interested in education results! (Yes, you read that correctly).

Sweden began its voucher system 30 years ago, and the majority of their students now attend privately run schools. Government-managed schools remain but must compete for the same vouchers and get no other subsidies. Bad schools go out of business, and good schools survive and grow, as it should be.

A voucher system that breaks the Government monopoly on education will also benefit those who might like to be teachers, but who refuse to subjugate their brains to the ideological nonsense imposed by Government Schools and Teachers Unions. Why would a bright young person choose teaching as a profession when forced to surrender their intellectual and moral souls to the likes of Randi Weingarten’s monopolistic rent-seeking Teachers Union, pushing DEI, CRT, and other social engineering nonsense?

Thanks to our current system, students in Teachers’ Colleges (Schools of Education) now have the lowest SAT scores of any programs in American colleges. We can thank the Government Schools and Teachers’ Unions for creating this depressing reality.

American Education went from the top to the bottom after President Carter created the Federal Department of Education in 1979, and wasted $3 trillion in the process. Correlation does not prove causation, but is a strong indicator.

In the last two years, 14 states either adopted universal school choice programs or expanded existing programs through Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs). There is hope, but we must fight the “entitled” establishment in Washington and Albany.

The time has come to totally deconstruct the Government Education Establishment that has failed us so badly. From top-to-bottom it needs to be replaced. The longer we wait, the worse it will get.

With serious reforms, our students will someday be able to identify which river and which sea the clueless elite Ivy League protesters of 2024 were talking about.

Michael Dee is a Silver Creek resident and Scott Axelson resides in Jamestown.