An opinion piece in today’s Free Press sheds some light on the terrible state of our tax-funded public education, including this memorable quote – it has “bureaucracy” written all over it:

The federal government should mandate Detroit automakers to produce higher fuel economy standards for consumer vehicles…Ford is heading in the right direction by designing future cars to run on any one of these fuels: hydrogen, a mixture of 85% ethyl alcohol, or gasoline

Now, to my knowledge, Ford is doing this to differentiate its products from a nearly atomistic automobile market – and, this is key, nobody is forcing Ford to do this. The company will live or die because of the policies and programs they are currently putting into play. But before I’m accused of piling-on a bunch of seventh graders, understand that the content of these opinions, and the topic thereof is really not relevant. I do not intend to address the arguments as presented – but more to the heart of the matter:

Bearing in mind that these opinions were written largely by 12 year olds, two questions immediately come to mind:

1- “How is this sort of “journalism” even deemed newsworthy, by anyone, anywhere?”
2- “Who’s been teaching this economic nonsense to these kids – or at the very least, failing to correct their misgivings?”

And then I remembered… In addition to being the product of mis-management (have you ever seen a happy union worker?) unions are only as strong as the industry in which they operate – and insofar as the various teachers’ unions operate almost entirely within the state-imposed monopoly of Public Schooling, they are able to exact near total control. It’s a miracle that anyone who’s spent 12 years in “conforming” is ever able to escape that intellectual black-hole that panders to the lowest common denominator.