International test results tell us the American education system is mediocre compared to the rest of the world. In the past decade the U.S. educational system has proven to be costly, bad and showing no signs of reversing the trend. Sadly, this trend is a response to the continued experimentation of our children’s education, experimentation that is never fully evaluated or properly vetted prior to implementation.

The American Medical Association guidelines require that experimental treatment “have a realistic probability of benefit equal to or greater than standard care,” and that the risks of using the experimental treatment are “reasonable” compared to the risks associated with standard treatment. Informed consent is the cornerstone of clinical medicine. In both, American and common law, each person “is considered to be master of his own body” and has the right to authorize or decline medical treatment.

American education took an immigrant nation and forged a world power in less than two centuries. In just four decades the education of our children evolved into a cultural, social and psychological experiment abandoning all sound proven methods. The recent legislative session discussed Pre-K programs which to date has proven to be anything but inspiring. Common Core is an educational product to institute a narrow belief system using standard testing to assure central planning moves forwards. Only in America can academia take a proven prescription and subdue it through instilling one’s individual bias and prejudices.

The Department of Education should mandate school districts create an educational informed consent document detailing the advantages and disadvantages of the system being forced upon their students. In the absence of vouchers, Maine children are held hostage by geography, thus the need for the districts to assure parents be fully cognizant of the educational experience being exposed to their children.

Bill PerfettoGardiner

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