Monday, March 26, 2007

Dewey's Promise

Having praised the NEA for something, I guess I'd better say something on the other side to balance things out. :^) This morning, I was thinking about the old proverb that it's better to spend money on education than on criminal justice--that somehow time in the government schools leads people to avoid a life of crime.

And then, I wondered what data might show this. Well, the past 50-60 years have seen a quadrupling of per student (real dollar) educational funding, and also a monstrous increase in crime.

Oops. While certainly criminals are less likely than the rest of us to have a high school or college diploma, just as certainly Dewey's promise of eradicating crime via compulsory government education has been disproved by the experience of the past half century.

It's as if Romans 3:23 still held or something like that.

1 comment:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Money is overrated. It doesn't help education, certainly not if a solid parental foundation is not there. It also isn't all that good at reducing crime if standards for law enforcement aren't there. When laws are routinely not enforced because of "prioritizing" for example. When Mammon replaces God as the great mover and shaker of society bad things are going to happen.