
Joseph R. Murray II
- Joseph R. Murray II is a junior high school educator, civil rights lawyer, and former speech writer for Pat Buchanan in western Tennessee.
- The president of Hillsdale University is just telling the truth, and the numbers show that.
- The classroom should focus on teaching reading, writing and math and prepare students for success.
“Teachers are being trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country,” said Larry Earn, president of Hillsdale College. “I’m trying to demonstrate that you don’t have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anyone can do it.”
Earn’s comments, secretly recorded during a meeting with Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, resented the educational community.
Dr. Earn is more than just a person – he is an adviser to Governor Lee.
And when Dr. Earn filed a complaint about public education, Governor Lee sat quietly.
In the weeks since the story hit, Governor Lee was under siege by an enraged public school bureaucracy. How could he just sit by when public-educated hardworking people give their all? Don’t the governors know that teachers just taught through the pandemic?
Guest essay:Hillsdale College President Larry Earn: Why I Defend Criticism of Secondary Schools | Opinions
reaction:What Readers Say About Hillsdale College President Larry Earn’s Defense | Letter
Tennessee students are better worth
To be honest, public schools don’t like charter schools because they don’t like competition. And if we’re being fair, it’s an imperfect competition because charter schools aren’t necessarily tied to the same requirements and academic standards that public schools are tied to. Charter schools have degrees of freedom that public schools do not.
But that directly applies to Dr. Arnn’s claim. The system is broken because it has too many connections with the system. Public educators are not upset because they want the Freedom Charter School to enjoy it. They are upset because they want to connect to the overweight, overwhelming system that they have run charter schools (if they wish) in the last century.
As a teacher, I can assure you that Dr. Ahn is right. Governor Lee should be commended for his efforts to think outside the box. Look at the number of volunteer states.
Just 36% of Tennessee public school students were proficient in the arts of English in 2022, according to data just released by the Tennessee Department of Education. The numbers are 30% in mathematics, 40% in science and 43% in social studies.
“But there was a pandemic” is now a universal kneeling line of defense. This is true; however, going back to 2019, those figures were 34% in English arts, 33% in math, and 39% in social studies. Tennessee did not have a national science exam in 2019.
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Teach 3 r again
In 2019, Tennessee spent about $10,000 per student, but was the highest grade a proficiency rate in the 30s? Couldn’t one of the four core subjects even crawl beyond 50% proficiency? If education is a private enterprise, management will be fired, new employees will be hired, and new operating manuals will be written.

But this is public education. It is one of the only professions in America that benefits from additional funding and faces continued failure from the continuation of the same failed policies.
In fact, the modern theory of education that Dr. Earn complained about is one of the most costly failures in American history. It began in the 90s when all students earned gold stars regardless of effort, continued through the 2000s with Common Core’s epic conformity, and entered its final phase in the 2010s with equity and inclusion. ..
What does this look like in the 2020s?
Teachers in California use technology to track students who may be considered LGBT, Arizona tells officials that babies are bigoted humans, Oregon is racist He said he decided.
Elementary school students are learning to be able to choose their gender, so students are no longer taught the three Rs. I am taught three genders. Meanwhile, only 36% of Tennessee students are fluent in English art.

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Prepare the children to achieve
Modern education policy is all about equity, and equity means leveling the playing field so that those suffering from injustice, whether actual or perceived politically, can thrive. Means to do (even if it means that someone else has to deny service).

In New York City, public schools were seen as racist, so they closed out gifted programs. What was Mayor Bill de Blasio really saying at the time? Black and Hispanic kids weren’t able to get the gifted status, so we turned off the gifted program. Boston and California agree.
Thus, in the name of equity, the golden calf of modern education, talented students are said to achieve too much and struggling students are said to achieve only with handouts. And when the lack of achievement is so great, it’s not the result of bad teachers, bad schools, or lack of effort. It’s institutionalized racism.
How is he wrong if we in public education make this possible and respond to Dr. Earn from the location of the victim?
Joseph R. Murray II is a middle school educator in West Tennessee, a civil rights attorney, and a former speechwriter for Patrick Buchanan. He is the author of “TakeBack Education”. He also started LGBTrump, the biggest gay in the Trump Facebook community, in 2016. He can be reached at jrm@joemurrayenterprises.com.
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