By Samuel Strait – Reporter at Large – January 20, 2022 It seems like a half century ago that some people in this Country noticed the affect that public education was having on the American people. This awareness spawned a host of books and articles giving each author's reasons why this was happening, not that it might be happening. Many very qualified authors covered the gamut of reasons from lack of public finding to teacher's unions. In the years since, the dumbing continues across most of the nation, where the United States, once the "gold standard" for education was being passed by many nations to the point the United States has been consistently ranked at the bottom of developed nations for years. California, depending on how progressive the source, has been ranked among the states anywhere from 21st to 42nd. Quite a spread. The Del Norte County Unified School District was not found in the listing of the 780 top ranked districts in the state's ranking system. There are 1,037 school district's in the state as of 2019-2020. Not a pretty picture. The only school in the Del Norte Unified School District that breaks the forty percentile is Bess Maxwell at 43.6%. The most dismal performer is in Klamath, Margaret Keating, at 6%, several are in the teens and low twenties. The exception is Del Norte High School at just over 70%. Before you start thinking that the High School is a shining example of success, be aware that most low performing students have been shifted out of the high school to alternative education programs where their low performance does not impact the over all rating of the high school. These scores while abysmal actually have improved slightly over many previous years going back twenty five years or more. From the "No Child Left Behind Act" in the eighty's to the more recent efforts by Governor Hair Gel in 2018, public education has been on the down hill slope for decades. The birth of teacher's unions in the sixties was thought to make a huge course correction, and it has proven otherwise, as the decline became more noticeable when California's National Education Association gathered money and political power to affect many things other than those that benefited teachers. Proposition 13, and the control of revenue, much of it going to public education was thought to be the problem. California's Supreme Court decision to even the playing field between rich districts and poor was ticketed as a reason, yet none of the "solutions or causes" have made a difference. We've been told that social and cultural difference have made the "apparent" dumbing down phenomena worse than it really is. Examinations from years prior to the 1940's make even PhD's wilt with frustration. Eighth grade examinations in order to graduate in 1918 are all but incomprehensible for even the brightest in today's world. The youth of today do not appear to have had a regular diet of "stupid pills", nor did they at any time over the last half century, so what is the problem? Fully 19% of young adults cannot read. A further 20% read at a fifth grade level, and an additional 23% are not much better off. Could it possibly be that public education no longer educates, but indoctrinates? Is money more important to public education than learning independent and critical thinking skills? More importantly, particularly if there is a movement away from public schools, are the alternatives any better? In all of this, are the local public schools worth the enormous out lay, 40% of the State's budget? That's $115,200,000,000 of Empty Suit's 2022-2023 State budget proposal. Over $55,000,000 for the local school district for performing below state average and well below that of the nation. Looks like we should be asking for a refund…. Next up, Could poor performing public education be the reason behind all of the modern examples of public dysfunction and discord?