The Educational Stimulus?

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The two words, “educational” and “stimulus” positively, affirmatively, and emphatically seem to come together in the American political climate. But a sad fact is that two other words, “spirit” and “truth” have in various ways been subtracted from the dialogue of learning. Our nation outspends all other nations in the world on education, yet our achievement in comparison to the others is one where we are going down, while most of the other industrialized world countries are going up!

I saw a cartoon in my e-mail that posed a question. A little boy in a classroom was holding a paper headlined, “Deficit, Debt Mount”, and he faced two legislators to which he responded, “Before you educate me on nutrition, how about it if I teach you some basic math?” It is sad picture that in our land we are looking to the almighty dollar instead of the Almighty God to resolve our educational dilemma, and the so called the educational stimulus is not resolving the increasing problems.

The U. S. Supreme Court issued two bans on prayer in public schools.The first ban came in 1962 and the second was issued in 1963. And after this time you can observe a continual escalation of more funding in education and less achievement. Our government is borrowing forty percent of the money necessary to keep our nation moving, and education has become the second highest consumption, second only to defense with health care looming as another encompassing factor. We are seeking to use the dollar to fill the gap that has been inserted in our educational world, since we continually have subtracted more and more of the religious influences from public education.

Other such nations have maintained and cultivated basic presuppositions on which to found their educational philosophies of their nations. The communists have looked to the teachings of Karl Marx as a root for learning, the Muslims look to the teachings of Mohammed, but America in the name of pluralism has discarded discipline, moral direction, and Judeo-Christian teachings as a basic force in motivation, learning, and achievement.

Money is going out the window, but the learning is faltering along with comparatively less and less results from increased investments. It has been observed that, “The key structural problem in state and local finances is education, not health care. And a fundamental shift in our K-12 investment strategy is the only way to avoid defaulting on the promise of a public education. The key structural problem in state and local finances is education, not health care.”

“The proportion of resources devoted to education has ballooned over the past two decades. Education spending as a share of tax revenue jumped ninety percent from 1992 to 2011 at the state level and seventy-three percent at the local level. This means governments have few options in responding to our current fiscal crisis. In 2011, state and local governments will spend forty-six cents out of every tax dollar they raise on public K-12 education. Medicaid/ CHIP spending pales in comparison at just seventeen cents of every tax dollar. Public education, in other words, consumes a shocking two-and-one-half times the resources devoted to Medicaid at the height of recession-driven health care increases.” (Cato Institute, “Ed-Cost Top Problem for Local Gov’t–by Adam Schaeffer, June 20,2012).

It is interesting that Barack Obama proclaimed during his days as a senator, “We now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies.” Obama was criticizing budget deficits under George Bush that averaged $425 billion per year. In four years, Obama deficits will total $5.2 trillion—fifty percent more than Bush racked up in eight years.

In March of 2010, Governor Romney said as he discussed the need to reform entitlements to address the looming spending problems and the national debt, “We have put in place so many entitlements for ourselves, we have spent so much money, we have borrowed so much, we have nearly $70 trillion dollars of obligations, unfunded obligations, to us … to the baby boomers … and what I am doing is trying to find a way to reduce those things, not for me, but for your generation.” (Financial Intelligence Report, “Government Debt: It’s Worse Than you Think”, Vol. 10 No. 6, June 11, 2012 by James Dale Davidson). But the question comes, can this problem ever be solved by legislation—either Obama’s way or Romey’s way?

Edwin F. See in a book published in 1914 by the International Committee of Young Men’s Christian Associations has a chapter devoted to “Apperception”. See says, “The derivation of this word from “ad” and “perception” gives an immediate clue to its meaning, which is that certain mental acts are added to perception. A more ordinary word for apperception is assimilation, which suggests that the mental process, indicated by the word is akin to taking up by the body that which comes to it in the form of food or other sustenance, and digesting it, and making it a part of that which has preciously been received.” (See-p. 109).

We are feeding our educational system with more and more money, more and more stimulus, but it is not giving true educational nourishment. The educational stimulus is not adequately doing the job. It is like the cartoon with young boy asking the legislators the question, “Before you educate me on nutrition, how about it if I teach you some basic math?”

One facet is the SIG, the School Improvement Grants, given by the federal government, which is one that uses of the stimulus money. Yes, It has in most instances shown improvement on test scores, but has it and will it really be a solution to our educational dilemma. One of the SIG programs’ more vocal critics has been Mike Petrilli, vice president of the Fordham Institute, a conservative education policy think tank in Washington, D.C. Petrilli who said, “It’s not exactly shocking that educators are glad to see the federal government spending a lot of money on low-performing schools….But that’s a very different question of whether this is a cost-effective investment.” We are raising achievement in various low-scoring districts, but what about the overall educational achievement over the whole land?

It’s estimated that 50 million students are in public schools, while another 15 million are in private schools and 2 million are home-schooled. The achievement between those educated in private, most often religious schools and the home schools far excels the public schools achievement than the public schools at a fraction of the costs. Why can’t our legislators and politicians see this?

We have sought to equate educational achievement with the amount of money devoted to it, and it sounds good for political campaigning, but it doesn’t work. Hebrews 13:5 says, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Money has become a basic motivator and supplier of education, which is a shift from realizing knowledge for itself, and particularly to better see and appreciate the grandeur of God. In America as was said earlier, “We are looking to the almighty dollar to improve learning instead of the Almighty God who can provide the true stimulus to education.”

President Obama talked about “change” in his first Presidential bid, but here is the real change, that we need to turn from faith in the almighty dollar in regards to education to faith in the Almighty God in education for the true stimulus! Recall the Lord Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Here is true freedom to learn. May God move those who are and who become the leaders of our land to see where the true educational stimulus can be found!

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by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Educational Columnist, Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, 5931 West Avenue, Lavonia, Georgia 30553,  706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

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