The failure of our education system

Alaska’s fiscal realities are upon us and must be attended to, quickly. We are rapidly going broke. The latest account is that we will be out of money in three years if we don’t get our spending under control.

There is no one person or political party to blame for this fiscal dilemma. We are all guilty of contributing to overspending our state income. The time of reckoning is here!!

Every state program contributes to the problem by overspending and providing incentives we can no longer afford. We must cut the cost of government or mightily increase taxes, or both. There is no choice.

Where do we begin? The answer is everywhere the state is involved. Please, gentle reader, pick a department or program and make some suggestions to our governor and lawmakers then follow up with more thoughts and solutions.

I will, as an example, pick education as my place to start. You may pick your own department or program then bring forward your ideas of change that will improve our state and lives. Share those ideas with your legislators. Ask for their consideration, then follow up if they do not reply. Do your share. Start a dialog.

Here are some of my thoughts!!

I am a product of Alaska schools, grade school, high school and college. I received an excellent education. In grade school I could read and comprehend and do arithmetic. I could also write with reasonable success. While in high school I studied chemistry, physics, earth sciences, and a smattering of oceanography. I studied US and world history. I was proficient in geometry, trigonometry, algebra, music and had two years of calculus. I graduated college as an electrical engineer.

Our Alaska education system of today is a failure. We have the highest per student cost in the nation and the lowest rating of national test scores. We are failing our own children by not holding our education system accountable. We must now make some significant changes if we are to provide our children with the education they deserve.

But how? Here are some suggestions:

1. Introduce competition to the education system by strengthening our charter, faith based, and home school programs. It has been a long term rule that if we encourage competition the product cost will go down and the quality will go up. Our brick and mortar schools will be forced to improve in order to compete.

2. Allow parental school choice for their children.

3. Employ a system of vouchers so that school money follows the student.

4. Poorly operated schools will soon be out of business as they will not have sufficient students nor the funds to survive. Successful schools will thrive and as a result more students will be able to attend and receive a better education. This will move the needle toward higher test scores.

5. Place union negotiations and union contract administration entirely in the hands of the school superintendent. Union members are the employees of the school administration. They are not employees of the school board. The School board is responsible for the policies to be followed by the administration and approves the budget. It is the responsibility of the administration to operate within the constraints of the budget guided by board policy.

There are many more changes that need to be done if we are to provide a first class education for our children at reasonable cost. I offer the above as a place to begin.

Aaron Downing is a resident of Palmer.