For a history lesson, let us recall Adm. Hyman Rickover, developer of our nuclear navy, and former president Ronald Reagan. Public school failure was their theme too, and they were joined by many Democrats. But Rickover's lazy and unfit students of the 1950s, students who were doomed to lose the arms race, now are in charge of most of the nation's important government agencies and corporations. Those 1950s dum-dums haven't done too badly in terms of national defense, economic productivity or positioning America for a bright future. Instead, we have built the world's strongest economy.
American workers attain the highest rates of productivity in the world.
These achievements are the results of the creativity and work ethic of Reagan's hordes of mediocre schoolchildren, spawned by Rickover's inadequate parents. The sky is not falling on America. Since the United States has 15,000 or more school districts, with 15,000 funding formulas and 15,000 curriculum committees and school boards, it should have been obvious that change would not occur quickly. Despite the doomsayers, some of our schools are doing fine. The U.S. average masks the scores of students from terrific public schools and hides the scores of students attending shamefully inadequate schools.