Sometimes I Despair

I try to be hopeful for the future, and usually, I make it. Sometimes however, I see things in the world and I have to wonder if we’re all doomed. Before I start to list some of the most recent behaviors by humanity that make me wonder if we should just clock out and give the dolphins a chance, you should pour yourself a strong one. The booze is in its usual place, the tip jar is here, and food is on the stove. If you enjoy the work, please leave a tip or become a paid subscriber, it’s how we keep the lights on. Pull up a seat, pour a drink and let’s chat about that, and other things.

Let’s start with some morons right here in Tennessee. In a special session last year, the TN government passed a first ever universal school voucher program. It allows anyone who applies and makes the cut, (the first year, there were only 20,000 vouchers available) to get over $7000 towards school tuition at the school of their choice. Half was specifically gated for low-income folks, the other half was “first come, first served until we run out.”

Now, were there problems with the roll out? Oh yeah. Like any program, the first year there were some growing pains, issues with the website, etc. The press, of course made a huge deal of that, because even here in TN the MSM is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, and since this was Bill Lee’s idea, and he’s a Hard-Core Republican, they’re against it. For Example: /tennessees-expanded-school-voucher-program-launches-amid-glitches-parent-frustration/ and of course the ACLU and the NEA along with all the other teacher’s unions are against it for the same reason. “It’s a Republican idea, oh and it might just force accountability on school systems, thus putting some of our less able union members out of a job.” Heavens, can’t have that.

But: now we’re getting to the reason I am despairing about. Parents, in association with the ACLU and the NEA (et all) are suing to kill the program, claiming it’s a violation of the requirement in the TN constitution that the state 1) provide for an adequate education of the children of the state, and 2) provide a system of public schools free to everyone in the state.

Now the wording they’re claiming is:

By diverting public funds from already underfunded schools, the law prevents Tennessee from providing students with the adequate education guaranteed by the state constitution.

By funding schools outside the system of free public schools, the voucher law violates this Education Clause mandate. https://www.wsmv.com/2025/11/20/parents-taxpayers-file-lawsuit-challenging-tns-school-voucher-program/

For the record, the actual clause they’re talking about, reads: “The state of Tennessee recognizes the inherent value of education and encourages its support. The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance, support and eligibility standards of a system of free public schools. The General Assembly may establish and support such post-secondary educational institutions, including public institutions of higher learning, as it determines”.

So I have read both their claim, and the verbiage of the state constitution, and I can’t see where funding other schools on a case basis, without removing the public schools does what the suit claims it does. I invite you to judge for yourself.

The thing that bugs me, is parental involvement. Again, I understand why the unions are up in arms, they are seeing their cushy jobs threatened. After all, as Dr. Ray Stantz said in Ghost Busters: Personally, I liked the University. They gave us money and facilities, we didn’t have to produce anything! You’ve never been out of college! You don’t know what it’s like out there! I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results.

Heaven forbid that Teachers be held accountable for actually teaching!

But what I don’t get is why the parents are involved in this suit, other than someone paid them to be. In reality, this will make all schools better. It forces the schools to embrace the management concept of customer orientation. Public schools act like their customer is the teacher, or maybe the National Education system in the form of grants. See that’s what currently determines their cash flow. In reality, the customer is the parents. This forces that issue. Grades aren’t the only thing, there’s extracurricular activities, the school climate, safety, for college bound there’s acceptance rates (good universities long ago figured out which schools grades were meaningless), for those heading to the trades, there’s partnerships with industry and trade education, sports, music, and drama of course-- as some of the easiest ways of lifting a kid out of poverty, and many other considerations.

When public and private schools are in competition for the student and the dollar, everyone wins (except the unions, who win only if they can keep more and more faculty on the rolls, and keep them scared enough to donate more and more money to the union.) So why are the parents in the suit? The only reason I can think of (again, other than someone paid them to be) is they’re modeling the “Crab Bucket” behavior. In a bucket full of crabs, if one tries to crawl out, the others will drag him back down in the mistaken belief that they can get on top of him to get out first.

Am I suggesting that some parents (probably inner-city ones) are no smarter than a crustacean? Well, YES. Look at the hot takes by minorities against one of their own doing well in school, “You actin white” is a common refrain. Seriously? What the fuck is that, if not the crabs trying to drag down the one that’s managing to climb up out of the shithole?

This is not just a Tennessee issue of course, Trump has been making noises about something like this nationally. And of course, the same folks are against it. But let us look at the record.

National scores, for 2024 (the last year we have a report for) show: “The majority of students who took the NAEP were not proficient in reading or math. Only 35% of seniors were proficient in reading, and just 22% were proficient in math.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon posted on X, on this issue: “Today’s [NAEP] 12th grade math and reading and 8th grade science scores confirm a devastating trend: American students are testing at historic lows. Nearly HALF of America’s high school seniors are testing at below basic levels in math and reading. The status quo is failing our students.”

National Center for Education Statistics Acting Commissioner Matthew Soldner explained, “The drop in overall scores coincides with significant declines in achievement among our lowest-performing students, continuing a downward trend that began even before the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The Wall Street Journal reports, “Only about a third of high school seniors are prepared for college in either reading or math, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Colleges are adding introductory courses to teach what students should have learned in high school. Even Harvard teaches basic algebra.”

Overall the cost of an education per student for K-12 has increased 154% in the last fifty years (adjusted for inflation) while student competency has increased by less than ten points on a 500 point scale in reading, and less than 20 points on that same scale in math for the same time period. Bear in mind that these are all averages.

When you look at how much better the high end is on each, you’re going to be even more disappointed. The worst students have gotten slightly better. The best students have actually gotten worse. Maybe it’s time we quit throwing money at the problem thinking that more money fixes everything?

Furthermore, maybe it’s time we revisited the requirements to teach. The teachers’ unions, and the people with PHDs in EDU (who have real investment in the status quo) will tell you that it requires a master’s degree, to teach K-12. And, that degree must be in either education, child development, or child psychology.

Let’s be honest here. A masters in any of those fields is just a six year indoctrination camp on Leftism and Socialism/communism for fun and the profit of the chosen few. Shit, for K-5 an associate’s degree would be enough, and a case could be made that that degree would get you all the way through high school, in almost any curriculum. (yes, there are gifted programs in high school that would actually require a master’s but those need a degree in what they’re actually teaching, not in the fuzzy navel staring that is EDU.)

I’m tired of hearing “I have a master’s so I should be making what a master’s degree fetches in industry!”

Uh, listen here, you vapid twit (spelled with an ‘a’) the people that got those degrees (engineering, polymath, the pure sciences, metallurgy and all the rest) actually produce an immediately quantifiable and qualifiable product.

If they fail to do so, they don’t make that money. AND if they fail to produce quality, people generally die. Bridges collapse, submarines implode, aircraft fall out of the sky, people die of food poisoning, radiation poisoning, shit blowing up, and fifty-thousand other ways that failure of modern equipment can be deadly.

If you fail, we don’t even know about it, for a decade or more, and it’s written off as “well the kid was a bad student” or “the kid is misunderstood” or any of a vast number of other excuses. OR it’s just completely ignored, which is the most frequent result. Hell you can fail so badly that you produce a “Hunter Biden” and no one blinks an eye.

That ignores the fact that to get though those degrees generally requires something more than just regurgitation of the instructor’s philosophy back on to a piece of paper. It requires actual ability to do math, to reason, to test and evaluate… In other words it requires cognitive skills. Your degree does not, and in fact discourages them. “Don’t think for yourself, believe what I say” is the mantra for the school of EDU. A monkey can do that, and usually does.

Also from here in Tennessee, we have the “Christ, never say the quiet part out loud!” award, given this week to Tennessee Congressional 7th District Democratic candidate Aftyn Behn. Look, I already know she’s either crooked or not the brightest bulb on the tree… She’s a Democrat. But:

“I’ve been heavily involved in the Nashville mayoral race because I hate this city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music. I hate all the things that make Nashville apparently an ‘IT CITY’ to the rest of the country.”

Seriously? This is the city that she’s running to represent. Oh, and she’s a white girl, so she doesn’t even get points with the minority vote for that statement, like, oh say, Obama did, when saying something similar about the US. Now the only thing that would make my desperation worse, would be if, in spite of that stupidity, she wins anyway, because, well, she’s a democrat and running for election in a dot of blue in the sea of red that is Tennessee. https://fox17.com/news/local/i-hate-this-city-democratic-candidate-aftyn-behn-at-center-of-controversial-clip

Then we have the latest release of the “Triennial Survey of Consumer Finances” funded every three years for the last forty years plus, by the FED. https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf23.pdf

This study is what they use to determine monetary policy. IE do we raise interest rates or lower them, cool the economy or heat it? It takes 58 pages to do this.

The shocking determination of this study? First, Americans’ median net worth surged 37% to $192,900 between 2019 and 2022 — the biggest jump since the triennial survey began in 1983.

But that’s not the big news, not the Lede. The thing they felt was most important to talk about, the big news, is that… Wait for it…

Median and average net worth vary drastically by age!

Median net worth in America ranges from $39,000 for those under 35 to $409,900 for those 65-74, while average net worth ranges from $183,500 to $1,794,600 for the same age groups, respectively!

I wonder how much they spent to figure out, that a wage earner just starting out, maybe in the trades, in which case he’s just become really established as a prime time pro at 35, maybe as a college grad, in which case he’s still got crippling student debt at age 35, doesn’t have as much net worth (all of your assets, minus all of your liabilities.) Compared to someone who’s at the end of their working life, has made their nut, paid off their house, has their investments, pensions (if any) and so on, has been paying down all their debts so as to be able to retire.

Seriously, the guys that establish our monetary policy had to do a very expensive survey to figure this out? Oh, and when you start looking for “how much did it cost to perform the Survey of Consumer Finances?” You get the most amazing set of fan dances in the world. What you don’t get is an answer. Everyone wants to tell you how valuable it is, and what it tells us, why it’s vital, how nothing else tells us the stuff that this tells us. No one will mention a dollar figure. Not even a ballpark dollar figure.

Look if this is the level of intelligence that the people who determine our monetary policy have, it’s no wonder our monetary policy is little more than a beauty contest.

Well, I have work to do, and it’s quit raining out, so I’m going to call it for the day. May you have a fantastic Thanksgiving if you’re an American (yes, I was surprised to find it out too, but believe it or not, I have some folks in Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia that read this. And a Hat tip to you folks.)

QOTD: “Everybody talks about this place being a dadgum swamp. It’s not a swamp. A swamp is something cool God created. It filters water; animal life lives and flourishes around it. This is a sewer. This is created by man, and it needs to stop.” —Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) speaking about Washington D.C.

Yours in Service,

William Lehman