Submitted by Thomas Melillo, Sep 17, 2007 09:29

Alan Greenspan looks at the economic system from the top down, but most of us look at the economic system from the bottom up. With all the problems that he laid out the solution can be found in the last paragraph of this article, "The impact that fixing our school system would have on our future...., there is the answer.

We as a people create our own problems and we as a people can solve them . That takes education. Higher education.

How does one get a higher education? Unless your a brain and can get a scholarship or are from a affluent family the cost of higher education is out of the question. Even going to some sort of trade school is out of reach of the children in the inner cities where education is seriously lacking and is the cause of most of our inner city problem including crime and drugs. These are the people we need to reach in order to alleviate what Alan Greenspan stated as "Disaffection, breakdown of authority, even large-scale violence could ensue, jeopardizing the civility on which growing economies depend" The one thing I disagree with in that statement is "economies depend " s/b "Democracies depend".

But how, even with all of the educators coming together to foster a new program has done little to nothing to improve our school system. Children need to be inspired to learn.

Education takes money and where it is applied determines the result. Higher salaries for teachers although needed is not the answer. That will not inspire a child to learn. Only when a student knows that what they achieve today will have a direct effect on their future will things begin to improve, for them as well as for the nation.

So where do we put our money so that we get the most return for the buck, or in other words where will our money be most cost effective. With the student of course.

Just to guarantee free higher education is not enough, that will not be cost effective. What will be cost effective is to put limits on the amount of money available to each and every student. . How do we do that? Simple, place the money available on a grade scale. So that if a student average grade from 8th to 12th is an 85, then 85% of their higher education will be paid. The 15% balance due, something like a co-payment in Medicare is the student responsiblilty. Should they have a grade average of 70, 70% of their higher education will be paid for, with 30% to be their responsiblilty. So on and so forth. Once in a program of higher education the grade scale could continue so that if they achieve a grade average of 90, 90% of their college education will be paid, with 10% co-payment their responsiblilty. This grade scale system would contnue thoughout their education.

Democracy is not the Free Enterprise System and we all know where that has gotten us, where we end up depends on how smart we really think we are. !

Just a Thought

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