Tag: school shootings

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Abolish Government (Public) Schools

George Noga

Government schools are a destructive force incapable of significant reform.

Abolish Government (Public) Schools

By: George Noga – November 13, 2022

This post destroys the final school choice myth, i.e. that public schools are necessary. We advocate universal school choice with the money following the child. Up to now, we assumed choice would force public schools to become competitive. We now conclude government schools are a destructive force incapable of significant reform and should be abolished. First, we recap other myths propagated by teachers’ unions.

  • Choice drains money: Vouchers always are for less (usually far less) than per pupil spending in public schools. Hence, vouchers increase spending per public student.
  • Some children are left behind: This is analogous to asserting that because there are not enough lifeboats for everyone, then no one should be saved.
  • Choice Balkanizes education: Students already are highly stratified by income and race. School choice, rather than compulsion, does much more to bridge divides.
  • Segregation would increase: Public schools already are highly segregated based on where people live. Voluntary integration under choice is better than forced integration.
  • The rich benefit under choice: The wealthy already have choice based largely on where they choose to live. The poorest among us need choice the most.
  • Poor families make bad choices: Not only is this insulting to low-income families, but empirical evidence from existing voucher programs dispels this myth.
  • Voucher schools are unaccountable: Private schools are immediately and directly answerable to parents, government schools only indirectly to school boards elected every four years. There is no force more powerful than parents armed with a voucher.
  • Voucher schools are unregulated: Regulating private schools would turn them into the monstrosities families are desperately escaping. Parents are the best regulators.

 

The Case for Abolishing Government Schools

Abolishing public schools will reduce school shootings. As gun free zones, public schools are easy targets. They create hordes of disgruntled and disaffected students who are held there involuntarily; it is not shocking some of them turn to mass violence. With school choice, parents could select schools that provide strong security. No child would be there involuntarily, and troublemakers could be summarily expelled.

Because private schools are non-union and have few administrators, they cost roughly half that of government schools. The county where I live (Seminole) has 60,000 students and 125 administrators making $100,000 per year plus many more making less. In sharp contrast, the Catholic Diocese of Orlando has 15,000 students and only 3 administrators. Eliminating unions and unneeded administrators not only saves money, but it does away with all the mindless bureaucracy that stifles learning.

Abolishing public schools would result in better schools at half the cost

Schools should adapt to the needs and capacities of its students. For less capable students, public schools impede learning, while for bright students the incredible slow pace is a form of torture as they sit year after year in an inescapable miasma. Every student needs a school at his/her level taught by teachers at the same level.

Then there is the issue of values. Families should be able to have their children attend schools that reinforce, rather than contradict, parental values. Parents should not have children taught CRT, the 1619 Project and gender dysphoria without their consent. They needlessly scare the bejesus out of kids about the environment and climate change. Public schools take in carefree, joyous and eager children living in the most well-off, healthy and multicultural society ever known and indoctrinate them to believe they actually inhabit a horribly oppressive country of which they should be ashamed.

That public schools are necessary for maintaining American democracy is a canard that no longer exists and is actually perverse. Eons ago, it might have been possible for a laborer’s daughter to marry the banker’s son, but today there is no way they would attend the same school. Data show private schools produce superior civic outcomes. Public schools do not foster unity from diversity; they exacerbate diversity.

Government schools are a jobs program for adults; children be damned. They resemble public housing; only people with no other choice go there. Public schools, teachers’ unions and the blob of administrators suck the sustenance out of our children. Government schools are a destructive force that can’t be significantly reformed and that cause far more harm than good. America will be much better off without them.

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Next up on November 20th is our special Thanksgiving posting.

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Common Sense About Preventing School Shootings – Sacrificing Children on the Altar of Gun Control

George Noga

It’s time to put gun control aside and to do what is possible to save lives now.

Common Sense About Preventing School Shootings

Sacrificing Children on the Altar of Gun Control

By: George Noga – September 25, 2022

In the wake of the Uvalde tragedy, we present a fresh look at what can be done to prevent school shootings. Sadly, the political reaction following school shootings has become a kabuki: progressives, captive to their gun control dogma, clamor for anti-gun legislation. That always is a non-starter. No meaningful changes are enacted, and schools are just as vulnerable as prior to the latest tragedy. That must change.

We begin with some perspective. Most gun deaths (55%) are suicides. Mass shootings constitute less than 1% of gun deaths. There have been 13 mass school shootings in the in the past 56 years, 1 every 4-5 years. Even though school shootings are rare, they generate great horror due to the nature of the victims. That, along with saturation media coverage, gives the impression they are more frequent than they actually are.

Solutions That Will Not Work

Gun control is a liberal shibboleth not shared by a sizable majority of Americans. That makes it impossible to pass stricter gun laws. Even if meaningful laws could be passed, they likely would be unconstitutional. Moreover, if they became law, they would be largely ineffective. By demanding gun control, liberals make the perfect the enemy of the good. They must put gun issues aside and do what is possible to save lives now.

Red flag laws won’t work. There were warnings aplenty prior to many school shootings, particularly Parkland and Uvalde. Red flags included summonses for police, foreboding social media postings, school suspensions, anti-social behavior, cruelty to animals and firearm purchases. Simply put, government can’t be trusted to enforce red flag laws; they would muck it up as they do everything else. Also, red flag laws take away a constitutional right from someone who has not been charged with any crime.

Solutions That Will Work

Universal school choice gives families control of where to school their children; they can choose schools with strong safety protocols, including the presence of firearms in the hands of trained school personnel. Competition will soon force other schools to follow suit. Perhaps some schools will advertise themselves as gun-free zones to accommodate children from progressive families. That would present an interesting dilemma for liberals. Would they risk their own children for their anti-gun religion?

Cultural pathologies and personal pathologies are inextricably linked

Harden schools to strictly control entry. A perimeter fence combined with only one point of ingress (with double doors such that a person could enter only one door at a time) could be effective both as a deterrent and for stopping shooters. The cost would be minimal, and it could be completed in weeks. It could be funded with leftover dollars from all the largess doled out to states for pandemic assistance.

Abolish gun-free zones as part of a well-considered plan. Guns in the hands of trained school personnel create serious complications for wannabee shooters. They complicate the calculus of a shooter looking for a soft target. Guns would be a powerful deterrent and a gigantic speed bump. They also provide an immediate response as opposed to waiting 10-15 minutes for police. Finally, it would minimize any casualties.

Other remedies include: (1) improve the culture; when the spectrum of acceptable behavior degrades, those at the margins go off the rails. Our highly toxic political culture of personal destruction, mainly as practiced by progressives, has removed the guardrails from our civilization. There is an inextricable link between cultural pathologies and personal pathologies. (2) reduce the copycat effect by dialing down saturation media coverage; and (3) institutionalize the violently mentally ill.

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Whenever there is a school shooting, America undergoes a national catharsis, but in the end nothing ever changes. Inevitably, we get derailed by progressive anti-gun paranoia. Regardless of one’s position on guns, let’s agree to separate the gun debate from school shootings. Liberals are making their idea of perfect the enemy of an immediate good. They literally are sacrificing America’s school children on the altar of gun control.

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Next week’s post about the spending crisis is one for the ages.

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Preventing Future Parklands

George Noga
The response to the Parkland attack is different from the other school shootings. Most Americans (except progressives) seem prepared to support realistic actions.
Preventing Future Parklands
By: George Noga – February 28, 2018

        Is it different this time? After Parkland, most Americans, for the first time, seem ready to eschew ideology and to embrace realistic preventive measures. The skunks at this garden party are progressives and the media, who are determined to regurgitate the same ineffectual and symbolic canards that are non-starters with the public and the Supreme Court. We owe the Parkland victims more than empty political posturing.

        In that spirit, we outline a practical plan to prevent school shootings; it involves gun control, mental illness, school security, media, law enforcement and progressives. The plan excludes banning AR type guns; this was tried and failed. It also excludes banning large magazines; that would make no practical difference. Groups pushing for banning ARs and magazines are simply posturing and are not serious about solutions.

Gun Control
  • Institute mandatory universal background checks
  • Impose a 3-day waiting period that sunsets in 5 years to permit NICS compliance
  • Loss of gun rights including confiscation for those subject to a court injunction
  • Ban on bump stocks and similar devices
Mental Illness
  • Increase hospital/institutional beds for mental illness patients
  • Force treatment/institutionalization for the untreated violently mentally ill
  • Take away gun rights including confiscation during period of illness
  • Criminalize knowingly or carelessly making guns available to the mentally ill
School Security
  • Train and arm school personnel including bonus pay for those armed
  • Make clear that schools no longer are gun free zones
  • Increase readiness via realistic planning and drills
  • Adopt relevant parts of the successful run-hide-fight business paradigm
  • Enhance school choice to permit parents to choose more secure schools
Law Enforcement/Criminal Justice
  • Change the culture at the FBI; hold accountable those who fail to respond
  • Enable courts to suspend gun rights, including confiscation, for cause
  • Enact penalties for failure to timely post to the NICS system
  • Fire and charge officers who fail to confront an active shooter situation
  • Penalize making guns available to anyone not permitted to own them legally
  • Charge chronic troublemakers with crimes that suspend their gun rights
Media  (Due to the first amendment, these must be voluntary)
  • Substantially limit coverage of all mass casualty attacks
  • Rarely, if ever, show pictures or use names of perpetrators
  • Do not use body counts, comparisons, talk about records or use superlatives
  • Honestly report instances where legally armed citizens prevent crime
  • Do its part to change the toxic political culture in America
Progressives
  • Cease politicizing school tragedies and promoting fake, feel-good measures
  • Allow treatment and institutionalization of the violently mentally ill
  • Do their part to change the toxic culture permeating America

      Nothing will prevent all school attacks, but implementing the above outline will go far. It is a non ideological, practical and effective compromise. There are virtually no attacks on businesses, theme parks, airports and sporting venues because they are highly prepared, have guns and are adept at understanding personality and risk. We owe our school children nothing less. Is it different this time? Only time will tell.

On March 4th post explains why intellectuals hate capitalism.