Comments on: Civics Quiz!

By: Jacob Wintersmith

Jacob Wintersmith — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:34:57 +0000

Undoubtedly, the atrocious state of many inner-city public schools is one of the biggest barriers to economic success for many poor people. And it's not unreasonable to worry that restricting voting might exacterbate such problems, although I think the fear is overblown for the reasons I mentioned previously. Regarding school choice, I decided to post a response on the front page.

By: george.w

george.w — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:17:22 +0000

It is not the monopoly so much as the funding model that is flawed. Schools in rich neighborhoods tend to be better than schools in poor neighborhoods. Restricting voting quickly degrades from a smart/not-smart division to a have/have-not division, graduating toward a permanent underclass.

School-choice sounds great on paper, and I’d go along with it if there were strictly enforced standards for education content. Too often in this country it just boils down to keeping kids from learning about evolution and sex.

By: Jacob Wintersmith

Jacob Wintersmith — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:25:20 +0000

It’s pretty easy to graduate from American public schools without learning much of anything. In the worst cases, some schools turn out graduates who are barely literate.

School administrators and teachers face relatively weak incentives to make their students actually learn anything. Conversely, they usually cause a lot of trouble for themselves when they flunk a student. Top-down attempts to impose accountability (e.g. testing, state standards, and now federal standards with No Child Left Behind) have failed repeatedly.

Unfortunately, the public schools are given an effective monopoly in America. Few parents are rich enough to move their kids to a private school while continuing to pay taxes for the “free” public schools. There’s no bottom-up accountability because parents can’t threaten to take their money and leave a public school that fails to educate kids.

By: Anders Ehrnberg

Anders Ehrnberg — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:36:32 +0000

I´m swedish and made 29 of 33 (including Gettysburg Adress). Are you not taught this things in school?
Anders Eg

By: Meowlin

Meowlin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:53:46 +0000

>>We also should consider giving less political power to dumb people.<<

Intelligence/stupidity are not the same thing as wisdom/foolishness. I can think of plenty of intelligent people who are nonetheless foolish. And I can think of a few relatively unintelligent people who are nonetheless very wise.

- M. \”/

By: The (November) Carnival of Elitist Bastards is Up at Last! « Café Philos: an internet café

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:12:25 +0000

[...] Surely the most controversial submission to this month’s Carnival comes from Jacob over at Winter’s Haven. Whether you agree or disagree with his proposal to require people to pass a knowledge test before they are allowed to vote, I think you will agree his article is well-written and thoughtful. It can be found here. [...]