The Elves of Social Engineering
[Reprinted from Issues & Views Spring 1998]
The United States is not
alone in its drive to destroy a once fine education system. The
elves of social engineering have been busily at work in many
lands, including the little nation of Guyana, on the northern
coast of South America. In 1976, in a determination to end what
it called a "dual system," the state abolished all
schools other than those run by the government. Successful Roman
Catholic schools and other private schools were forced to shut
down, as the heavy hand of government took over.
Fantasizing that it
possessed more money than it did, the Guyana government was never
able to provide affordable quality education as had the private
schools. Guyana’s Stabroek News reports:
"Sufficient funds were never allocated, school buildings
deteriorated, there was a shortage of text books, teachers were
underpaid and emigrated. From having an educational system of the
highest quality, Guyana collapsed to a situation where its CXC
[test scores] results are among the worst in the region. Free
education became a nightmare and those who could afford it beat
the system anyway, by paying for private lessons. So, a dual
system was effectively re-established."
Now, after causing
unnecessary decline, the government is promoting the re-opening
of Catholic schools, and making scholarships available to all
Guyana children. The Stabroek News describes the gratitude
expressed by many in Guyana, and reports, "Ursuline nuns
have a long and distinguished tradition in education . . . their
past experience will be invaluable. The Sisters and the Church
must be congratulated on this public service." And a final
interesting note: "The deterioration of the educational
system was probably a cause of more emigration by anxious parents
than any other single cause."
Back in the USA, the beat
goes on as cities continue to struggle with the consequences of
court rulings imposed on them decades ago. In Boston, city
authorities are wrangling over ways to move the city back to
neighborhood schools and away from forced busing--without
appearing to do so. (Backtracking can be so embarrassing.)
In Indianapolis, there is a
plan afoot to phase out court-ordered busing "over the next
18 years." During this period, the elves will busy
themselves with strategies to force the races together by
meddling with housing patterns.
And a final piece of irony.
After all that black elites and their white liberal guardians did
to rid the country of black-run public schools, here is a move to
bring things full circle, at least in Akron, Ohio. Administrators
of Akron’s Public School district are contemplating plans
for a pilot "Afrocentric elementary school" to open in
1999. Akron’s Beacon Journal claims that the
projected school is part of Akron’s "strategic
improvement plan," designed to "take the district into
the next century."
Afrocentric or not, when
one considers all the well-functioning black schools, especially
throughout the South, that could have been upgraded and
revitalized, instead of shut down to blindly comply with
desegregation orders, the waste seems enormous. After years of an
educationally and morally bankrupt system, "separate but
equal" is looking good to a lot of people.
Copyright 1998 © Issues & Views
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