The Common Core curriculum is intended to improve education in America so that our students can achieve high scores like the top scoring province of China, Shanghai, and the city state of Singapore.
But the Common Core standards can only do so much, and it is important that America adopt other policies from these high scoring nations in order to be truly competitive.
While immigration and the PISA exams might not seem to be related subjects, they are – and therefore they should be addressed in tandem. Unlike Singapore and Shanghai, the United States has a broken immigration policy that needs to be fixed.
First, to discourage illegal immigration we need to transform human smugglers into “job recruiters” whom potential foreign workers will use in order to gain access to jobs in America – just like in the top scoring city states like Shanghai and Singapore.
The migrant worker will pay a few thousand dollars for the “job recruiter” to bring them to America. If they cannot pay the fee upfront, the migrant will pay off the job recruiter over time – this will create a private entity with a financial stake in assuring that legal migrant workers stay clean, sober, and don’t cause any trouble. It is assumed that they will need to work at least 12 months to pay the “recruitment fee”
This proposal would be used to address the estimated 11.9 illegal immigrants in America who would be given legal migrant status under the new rules – and the new rules would basically mean no rules. It would be legal to work in America, but we will deny them basic rights, no worker protection, and pay them very little – or nothing when possible.
Under this modest proposal, we will increase the 11.9 million illegal workers to about 75 million legal workers. This would benefit America’s middle class who could then afford to have a domestic servant to whom they pay very little – and nothing when possible.
In Singapore, 1 out of every 6 families has a domestic servant – we should strive to make that 1 out of every 3 in American families having a live-in “domestic servant”.
While many in America may have someone clean the house or mow the lawn once a week – a real, honest, domestic servant will work a minimum of 6 days a week and 14 hours a day – for about $500 a month. This would be much more generous than the wages paid in very expensive city states like Singapore and Shanghai – and so America would be able to attract the best cheap labor available.
Cheap domestic labor would allow real Americans to spend more time with their children; and/or, Americans can work more hours and afford the approximate $6,000 a year in tutors spent by Shanghai parents – the other top scoring province in the PISA exams.
Shanghai – which is the only province in China where PISA scores are available – is similar to Singapore in that it has an abnormally high number of migrants from rural China to do the work Shanghainians won’t.
Like in Singapore, migrant workers in Shanghai have few rights to go along with their little pay – and it seems to work out well for the real residents of Shanghai, and their more intelligent children.
The residents of Shanghai also show enormous love for their children by keeping the children of migrant workers in separate schools. The superior children of real Shanghai residents shouldn’t have to feel embarrassed about their superiority – and poor children with special needs are a distraction when preparing for the PISA exam.
Tom Loveless, a former professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, notes that the PISA exams reflect some missing children in Shanghai. A city of 24 million, Shanghai has about 100,000 15-year-olds – the same number counted in countries with half the population of Shanghai.
Some might ask, where are the missing children in Shanghai – but who really cares – they’re poor, dumb, and would bring down the PISA scores. This is an attitude that America needs to embrace; rather than talk about about the 20% of American children living below the poverty line, Americans need to optimize whatever benefits it has to offer.
No social issue can be viewed in a bubble – and as America seeks to reform education and emulate the high scoring schools in Singapore and Shanghai, it is logical to look at the entire social and economic environment of these city states.
If American students are going to succeed, we must hold our noses, abandon our values, and open up our borders to workers whom we can exploit and abuse for our own economic and social well being….and more importantly, the next generation of Americans.
There are some who might find this proposal to improve America distasteful – but we can emulate Singapore and Shanghai by restricting freedom of speech, of the press, freedom of association and freedom of assembly. This will keep public dissent to a minimum and allow America – and Americans – to flourish.
Parents in Shanghai and Singapore love their city states, love their children, and they are willing to exploit and abuse whomever they can in order to provide better for their own; if we – as real Americans, truly love our nation and our children, we will do the same.
Come on, America! Let’s make our lives better and kick PISA butt in the process!
Submitted by Richard Saunders
Links:
http://www.ibtimes.com/singapores-city-future-ghost-tom-joad-1521908
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/08/singapore-s-exploited-immigrant-workers.html
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brown-center-chalkboard/posts/2013/10/09-pisa-china-problem-loveless
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-04/chinese-education-the-truth-behind-the-boasts