No Wonder California is Broke

Daily Tech News Flash: An Anaheim California School District has been awarded $18,000 from a state grant to fund a six-week test program seeking to reduce unexcused absences by equipping 75 recalcitrant seventh and eighth grade student volunteers with handheld GPS devices at a cost of $300-$400 each.

Reducing the number of absences reportedly saves the school district $35 it otherwise would lose every time a student misses class. The students are sent an automated phone call every school day to remind them to get up and go to school. Then they must enter a code five times a day, and a coach is assigned to each student in order to make sure that they are where they're supposed to be doing what they're supposed to do.

Never-mind all the ominously statist collectivist implications of this unbelievably bizarre scenario; $18,000, it seems to me, is an awful lot of dough for a lousy 6 weeks of playing kiddie telephone tag games with a bunch of bored teenagers. I suppose the District can’t be blamed though, if they really do get $35 from the state government tit each time one junior high school kid shows up at class. That’s huge money: it’s like $250 for a movie ticket; $10 for a soda pop. I thought California was broke. How can they keep doing like this? It’s worse than outrageous; it’s obscene.

If only education in America were administered to kids like hamburgers at McDonald's, parents could get far better value, at far less cost, and many more of their kids would grow up to be PhD’s. That’s because private education would cater only to students who wanted to learn, and the focus would be on education – not socialization.

There is no good reason to force a small minority of kids to go to school every day, who aren’t even interested in a free education, much less a private pay as you go plan. Many good kids are just not suited for formal education beyond a basic level. They don’t like it; they don’t want it; and it’s not right for them anyway. They should get jobs, go to work, and contribute to the economy instead of wasting it.

California is a beautiful state. What a pity it has to come down because of nonsense like this.