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.