President Obama, like most Democrats, thinks the way to solve education problems in this country is to throw more money at them. Today he proposed giving $900 million additional taxpayer dollars to states and education districts that agree to drastically change or even shutter their worst performing schools. (source) The lesson he's teaching? Do a bad job or no job at all, get more money. Maybe that will prepare students for life in Mr. Obama's ideal socialist country but it doesn't work in what is still the USA.

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The $900 million for "School Turnaround Grants" is in the president's 2011 budget proposal and is in addition to $3.5 billion to help low-performing schools from last year's stimulus bill that was supposed to accomplish the same goals. To get some of the new money, states and school districts must do one of the following:

• Replace the principal and at least half of the school staff of a struggling school, adopt a new governance structure for the school, and implement a new or revised instructional program.

• Close and reopen a struggling school under the management of a charter school operator, a charter management organization or an educational management organization. A restarted school would be required to enroll, within the grades it serves, former students who wish to attend.

• Close a failing school and enroll the students in other, higher-achieving schools in the district.

• Address four areas, including teacher effectiveness, instruction, learning and teacher planning time, and operational flexibility.

I find the fourth criteria for getting more money especially interesting. Sounds like hold a few rah-rah meetings with the teachers' union and the bucks will start rolling in.

And if $900 million isn't enough to throw away on a problem that requires more than money to solve, the administration is putting an additional $50 million into dropout prevention strategies which include including personalized instruction, support to keep students engaged in learning and better use of data to identify students at risk of failure and to help them with the transition to high school and college. When did all that switch from being the responsibility of the parent to the responsibility of the government?

I tried my best in school and didn't drop out because I had a parent who supported my academic pursuits, encouraged me when I needed it and intimidated me when I needed that too. And before anyone tries to play the socio-economic card, I grew up in a single working parent's home with plenty of financial troubles along the way.

So instead of throwing more hard working taxpayers' money into more doomed-to-fail programs, I suggest President Obama use his famous eloquence and ability to connect with a large segment of the American people to remind them it is their responsibility to get involved in their children's education and make sure they graduate.