Saved by…Tobacco?

Anybody paying attention knows that the state of the American public education system is dismal.  As standards of both performance and behavior in public schools lower each year, we are now, incredibly, below average among well-developed nations in math and barely average in reading and science, and have dropped out of the top 20 nations overall.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has the solution: “invest in early education, raise academic standards, make college affordable, and do more to recruit and retain top-notch educators.”

Oh, I see.  That would translate to throwing more money at the problem (as if a lack of funding is the problem), raising standards without an accompanying commitment to emphasizing and improving basic core skills (have you noticed the number of math “learning centers” popping up in the private market these days?), somehow reversing the massive government subsidies to education that have driven the cost of college to almost unthinkable heights and…hiring and maintaining only the most effective teachers in an industry dominated by almost omnipotent public unions.

Of course, if the last of those problems, the heavy hand and intractability of teachers unions, is not solved, the other points won’t matter.

That is where an all-too-familiar personal story comes in.  It is the sad but hardly atypical tale told by a teacher in the Philadelphia school system, Maria Ciancetta, finally crying uncle.  She wanted to be a public school teacher, and was for a time, until she just couldn’t take it anymore.  After seven years of teaching at a Philadelphia public school, she is calling it quits because “she lacked basic supplies, was ordered to teach in an area where she had no certification or training, and feared for her safety.”

After transferring to a new high school, she showed up only to discover that she was scheduled to teach a full load of special education classes – in Algebra no less.  This was, uh, a surprise because Ciancetta was not certified in special education and had no experience in it.  And this was not a mistake of staffing – the school district administrators knew she didn’t have the requisite experience or expertise but put her there anyway.  We learn that she felt “not even remotely prepared” to teach algebra to classes of 27 students, most of whom tested at first- to third-grade math levels.

As the parent of two special children myself, I can well understand her frustration, as neither the teacher nor the students can possibly benefit from an arrangement doomed to failure from the start.

This is just thin anecdotal evidence, some will undoubtedly say.  But in fact, it serves as a microcosm of a massive systemic problem, because the hard evidence is even more disturbing.  The dropout rate in these schools approaches – wait for it – 50%…despite spending $15,941 per pupil.  That is $3000 more than the national average.

But fear not – smokers to the rescue!  Yes, in Philadelphia, cigarette smokers are the last best hope for the children.  You see, only by saddling city smokers with an additional $2 per pack tax, will they be able to learn.  The tax money collected would benefit union leaders, administrators, teachers and – oh, I almost forgot – children whose parents are unable or unwilling to move them anywhere else.

Public education is dying in Philadelphia, and the powers that be are now counting on the Republican legislature and governor to save them.

Tobacco taxes are as old as the nation itself and have long been a cash cow for financially strapped governments, but this tax would put the per-pack price near that of New York City.  We can only hope they have not read much about Eric Garner.  He’s the guy who was just choked to death by the NYPD while being arrested for selling “loosies,” single cigarettes sold to people who can’t afford, or don’t want to buy, a whole pack of 20 cigarettes – which, thanks to the sin taxes piled on, now costs over $10 on average to purchase legally.  Setting aside how regressive and punishing to lower income folks this tax is, consider the implications of a huge tax increase.

Will the smokers of Philadelphia simply pay the tax, smoke at their current rate, or adjust their behavior?  Well, New Yorkers currently buy over 60% of their smokes illegally to avoid the tax, and that’s just what Philadelphians will do – buy their smokes outside the city, and confound the bean counters and the revenue numbers from the new tax they project will save the system.  Then we will be right back to where we started, with city officials alternately demanding and begging that others give them additional loads of cash to save the system.

Yes, Philly is nearing its seemingly annual school funding crisis, whereby we learn that unless the state or federal government “does something,” the sky will fall and the children will be forever lost.  “[T]he doomsday scenario city officials have predicted: layoff notices to more than 1,000 district employees next week and a delayed start for 131,000 students next month.”  Indeed, it is being portrayed as both a cataclysmic and perpetual situation, not for the children of the City of Brotherly Love, but rather the union reps and school administrators and their legions of consultants, paper-pushers and hangers on – pretty much anybody employed by the school district who doesn’t teach kids, or push a broom.

Philly is a union town, and the unions’ grip there is even tighter than in other traditional pro-union cities in the northeast.  The state’s teachers union owns the Democrat mayor and legislators from Philadelphia, and is doing what it can to get taxpayers who smoke to reach into their shallow pockets.

Philadelphia authorities were going to lay off teachers if the funding request didn’t come through.  They were going to let the dead wood go first – until the union got involved.

Typical of teachers unions around the country, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is vigorously challenging any plan that does not adhere to a strict seniority system.  First hired, last fired – automatically.  No performance evaluation permitted.  Is there any business or enterprise outside of government that could be successful with such a system?

Certainly, any revenue collected from Republican legislators and Republican governors for a school district like Philadelphia must come with heavy strings attached – think contract renegotiation for starters.  Only by breaking the grip of these public teachers unions and demanding accountability will Philadelphia and other union-controlled city education systems take the first step in the long journey back to respectability.