To Get More Stupider

Boys go to Jupiter to get more Stupider. Girls go to Mars to get more candy bars.

Little girls have been chanting that while skipping rope for at least three decades so it was no surprise to see her cute pink tee shirt emblazoned with the Top Five Reasons That Boys Stink. She's in my son's third grade class and I glimpsed the message when she turned around and smiled at me while we were enjoying the Thanksgiving shindig last Tuesday in the multi-purpose room.

The shirt was cute, and as always, there is just enough truth in a stereotype to make it believable. I'm not advocating censorship, I don't think she should be warned, disciplined, sent home, asked to cover it up, or anything else. But I can't help wonder in today's incendiary atmosphere of hardline political correctness what Jake's teacher, or for that matter, what the principal would have had to say if a boy arrived at school sporting a shirt that informed us of the Top Five Reasons Girls Stink.

Universal Preschool is Bad for Kids

An article on Head Start preschool centers in Northern California offers further evidence that giving the government a monopoly to run "universal" preschool could be a dangerous idea.

State regulators have recommended revoking the licenses of two Contra Costa County Head Start centers amid repeated allegations that children were slapped or physically restrained and also left unsupervised.

The recommendation, made in September by the state Community Care Licensing agency, follows repeated efforts by regulators and county officials during the past two years to address problems at the Brookside Center in Richmond and the Fairgrounds Center in Antioch, officials said Tuesday.

Unlike most other nonprofit and private preschool programs, Head Start has a built in monopoly on serving low-income four-year-olds. As this example demonstrates, Head Start continues to receive funding for low-income students even after repeated violations of state preschool regulations. The parents of children in Head Start have little incentive to find a better performing child-care provider because Head Start funds will not follow a child unless the child enrolls in a Head Start program.

State subsidized preschool, that follows the child from one school to another, represents a much more competitive structure for funding preschool and maintains competition between the private and nonprofit sectors. It also gives low-income parents a right to exit poor-performing or dangerous preschools. Those who wish for universal preschool, controlled by government-run schools, should look closely at the performance of the federal Head Start preschool program for a glimpse of a future with universal preschool.

The Problems Of Black Education

From the Walter Williams piece in the Washington Times this morning:

For children to do well in school, there are some minimum requirements. Someone must make them do their homework, see that they get a good night's rest, prepare a breakfast and make sure they get to school on time and obey school authorities. This is not rocket science, but here's my question: Can those requirements be met by a president, member of Congress or a mayor?...

Solutions to the most serious problems facing black Americans will not be found in the political arena. Otherwise, the problems would have been long solved with the civil rights legislation, litigation and the more than $8 trillion spent on poverty programs since 1965. Or the problems would have been solved by the two terms of Bill Clinton, whom some blacks called the first black president.

Whole thing here

Hat Tip: Reason Editor, Nick Gillespie, at Hit & Run.