After a recent TFR speaking engagement a group formed as we were leaving to lamenting the fact that congress was considering a bailout for auto makers. A bailout that now seems imminent.
They were saying “did you hear the execs flew private jets to speak to congress (total cost $20,000 round trip). There won’t be any change after the bailout and we will have to bail them out again. Their CEOs are paid huge sums and for what, rearranging deck chairs on the titanic.”
Taking in these comments I could not help but think of our state’s public education system.
In droves school districts have been asking for more money, over 100 districts this year proposed tax rate increases. Officials are jet setting, staying in the best hotels and dinning four star all at the expense of taxpayers. And those top ranking officials who are supposed to be the best or at least we should expect them to be for what we are paying, seem to be sinking with their furniture.
Despite these shortcomings we essentially hand schools an automated annual bailout.
Just like the auto makers, school bureaucrats in Texas have unions and lobbyists solely interested in taking tax dollars for themselves and their clients. All while they are putting out a subpar product. What should they care if the product suffers — whether it’s a car or a pupil – as long as they are getting their (read “your”) money?
But what if the big three were to go belly up? Wouldn’t that mean disaster? I don’t think so. There would be a huge group of people looking for work and the infrastructure in place to start making cars. Another company more interested in being operationally agile could take over.
It is not unthinkable that a similar scenario could be played out in Texas schools. Children obviously aren’t cars, but perhaps our schools, properly motivated, could learn from the organizational and operational mistakes of the auto industry. Schools need to be restructured, made more efficient and less administration-heavy.
There is a palpable sense of disgust when we talk about a bailout for the Big Three. We should be equaled outraged by the taxpayers’ ongoing bailouts of failing schools and under performing administrators.
