Digging in the Dirt
by Kathy Brown on April 13th, 2010 | 0 comments
As taxes come due, we are compelled to wonder what happens to all those confiscated dollars? For many, the check to the IRS is a collection for compassion. They believe that, for another year, the world is a better place having supplied the needs of the less fortunate. Their offering is cradled in hope for the next generation. No one dares question if government social programs, especially child-focused ones like Head Start, actually work to lift up the disadvantaged. Only the hard-hearted would be so cruel as to dig into the dirt to discover whether tax dollars have successfully planted anything beneficial.
According to the Head Start Impact Study, which took six years to be released to the public, there was “no lasting impact” for Head Start children after first grade. Of over 100 potential benefits measured, the only significant outcome was negative: kids who started Head Start at age three—meaning they spent the most time in the program—were reported to do worse in kindergarten math than control group children. Despite this poor performance, taxpayers have been on the hook for more than $167 billion since the program’s inception. What’s more, the administration just increased Head Start funding by $1billion in its FY2011 budget.
Why is it that government ventures so often fail to address real social problems? At the root of poverty and the underclass is not insufficient money, it is a lack of morality. The government sows the ethics of a secular humanist and waters it with a vengeance. (Foundational Presupposition Chart) It should not surprise anyone that weeds come bursting forth; as long as we water them, they will grow. Nice intentions alone will not produce a fruitful crop that solves problems. To the contrary, ideas are like seeds. Even when they are carefully planted, the bad ones don’t somehow produce a crop of good.
From Matthew 7:18:
"A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit."
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