For decades now, and successive governments, we read about the dismal results  of the public educational system

around this time of year.

The relative Minister of Education then makes the rounds on talk radio and lots of ink is used in newspapers to explain the results.

We then get teachers and/or administrators calling in or posting at web sites, quibbling and being pedantic but not providing solutions.

Ideas that have been circulating for many years now like, longer hours, school choice/vouchers, charter schools etc continue to be dismissed out of hand by the public educational professionals.

Surely we cannot continue the dis-service we give so many of our kids by allowing them to leave school functionally illiterate?

Here's a few links that just might help, if only our public education officials would consider them:

Bahamian Youth: The Untapped Resource (pdf)
The Learning Crisis (pdf)
The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice
CATO Institute: Education and Child Policy

If there is one policy I would like to see the Ministry of Education try is vouchers. For those parents interested in trying to get their children a private education, the Ministry can provide them with a cheque for the amount of money it costs them for that student each semester payable to the private school of that parents choice. The parent(s) would have to make up the difference of course.

Seems as if we are defining insanity as Einstein put it, by pursuing the same policies for decades and expecting different results.