Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle wants to do something extreme. She wants to abolish the Department of Education (DOE). Is she crazy?

Absolutely not. Abolishing the monstrous department with a proposed 2011 budget of $77.8 Billion (yes, that was Billion), employs 4,800 people and garners little-to-no academic results year after year is far from crazy. It is common sense.

National Review writer Mona Charen wrote an article this week on the exemplary success of our astute iGeneration (I should copyright that...). She explains how well the billions of tax dollars are helping to further the academic development of the youth:

"All of this spending has done nothing to improve American education. Between 1973 and 2004, a period in which federal spending on education more than quadrupled, mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress rose just 1 percent for American 17-year-olds. Between 1971 and 2004, reading scores remained completely flat.

Comparing educational achievement with per-pupil spending among states also calls into question the value of increasing expenditures. While high-spending Massachusetts had the nation’s highest proficiency scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, low-spending Idaho did very well, too. South Dakota ranks 42nd in per-pupil expenditures but eighth in math performance and ninth in reading. The District of Columbia, meanwhile, with the nation’s highest per-pupil expenditures ($15,511 in 2007), scores dead last in achievement."

So for those thick-headed politicians out there let me make it really easy: more spending does not produce greater academic results. No, really, it doesn't.

What would improve the quality of our educational system? Returning to the classical, patriotic, principled education that previous generations learned. Those generations that established American governance, abolished slavery, defended liberty through two world wars, survived the Great Depression, and ushered America into the greatest industrialization the world has ever seen.

I have a few places we can start.

Remove the negative connotations in history textbooks of words like capitalism, U.S. military, patriotism, and founding fathers. Include negative connotations when teaching about Karl Marx, Hugo Chavez, socialism, and progressives. Remove chapters that discuss Oprah Winfrey and Survivor, and replace with chapters that teach the unabashed principles of George Washington and Ronald Reagan.

In math, get rid of word problems that ask students to come up with the percentage of Arctic ice that will melt if the global temperature continues to increase one-tenth of a degree over the next 50 years. In science, remove the pictures of polar bears sitting on a 4x4 chunk of floating ice and pelicans covered in oil with a caption that includes the word "capitalism" from the classroom walls.

In composition, stop asking students to write about the greatness of China's culture and the lessons Americans can learn from their enlightened society. And finally, at recess, allow the children to hang from the monkey bars, run with a shoelace partially untied, and return the real dodge balls and get rid of the foam balls that cannot fly against the slightest of breezes.

These are humorous examples, but sadly, they are also true. Our American education system continues to fail our children. Abraham Lincoln said it best: “The philosophy of the school room in one generation is the philosophy of the government in the next.” How can we expect to change the path this country is traveling down if we do not change the way the next generation is learning? Education is more than learning, it is discipleship.