Sunday, January 22, 2006

The truth about Liberalism

I have long been an advocate for conservatism and much of the political ideology that goes with it. That in itself tells you that I am not a supporter of liberalism and the policies that follow along with that mindset here in the United States and abroad.

It seems to me that if you look at liberal policies in America objectively and track the progress we have made over the last 40 years or so it is impossible to NOT see where liberal social programs and policies such as the welfare system and the public school system have been the catalysts for crime and poverty in the America we live in today. The failure to invest more money into the judicial branches of government, such as hiring enough prosecutors, cops and building enough prison cells for violent offenders can be directly tied to the constant pouring of money into other areas of local budgets such as perpetual social programs like welfare and the failing public education monopoly. The results have been disastrous for the inner city families.

While it sounds good and feels good to spend more money on education than incarceration, it is bad policy when the education that kids get is poor and the dollars spent per child continue to rise as test scores drop. The conservatives in this country have long been supporters of a voucher system where lower income parents who care about the education their kids receive, can take the government money (our tax money) normally reserved for their child in the form of a voucher or tax credit and spend it at any school they wish. This kind of program is working in different areas across the nation and study after study has proven it to be true that the graduation rates and test scores for the kids who have choice in education is far superior to those who are stuck in the Public School monopoly the government controls across the nation.

If you look at crime and gang activity in any given city it can be directly tied to the worst public schools and inner city neighborhoods where many of these kids are trapped. The horrific welfare system in our country has been the catalyst for these inner city slums and the gangs thrive in these areas, recruiting kids from the schools themselves. If a caring parent has the ability to take their kids from these schools and is motivated to get out of the inner city slums by being weaned of welfare and taught to work for a living the chances are that their kids could be saved from a life of criminal behavior and gang membership and the violence that goes along with it.

If we as a society tackle these three problems, public school reform, welfare reform and judicial reform we could make life better for those lower income families that so many liberal politicians claim to care about so deeply. Yet politics in this area seems to be more about dollars, promises and votes, not effective problem solving to elevate people and eliminating inner city slums and the multitude of problems that eminate from these neighborhoods.

If we as Americans truly want to solve the problems in the inner cities of our great country we must break the cycle of poverty created by the welfare system and offer better education opportunities to our kids by destroying the current monopoly the government holds with the public school system. Introducing competition into that arena is the only way and voucher or tax credits will do it. Common sense tells you that if you do not have competition you have no reason or motivation to improve services in a non-profit organization. Yet when you do introduce competition for the massive amount of education dollars (Billions) that government spends, schools will be forced to perform better or else lose those dollars!

Think for a moment about some of the government agencies that we deal with on a regular basis and tell me if you believe they could be run better if they had competition to spur improvement. The DMV comes to mind and most government service agencies are just as bad. Look at how the Post Office changed (for the better) when UPS, Fed-Ex, DHL and other businesses were allowed to compete for the overnite package business. If all government, non-profits knew another business down the street was competing for their customers and they had to provide better service to keep their jobs, you can bet we would not have the problems we do with most of these places.

It is the same with the public school system. Without condemning all schools and teachers in it, since some do perform well, it is honest to say the system as a whole, across the country is a staggering failure when it comes to providing the best education for our kids. We should be turning out the best and the brightest in this, the richest country in the world but sadly we are way down on the list even though we spend more money per child than any other system in the world.

If we continue down this road allowing these ineffective, liberal policies to further erode our ability to educate our kids and perpetuate our inner city slums, America will not reach it's fullest potential as being the great beacon of hope it once was in the world. Crime, poverty and education are tied together my friends and liberal policies are the glue that binds them and that's the truth about liberalism.

Here are some links to a couple of articles about education in America.

http://www.reason.com/hod/js011306.shtml

http://www.reason.com/hod/ls110405.shtml

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