Sunday, May 16, 2010
What Do You Think About Our Government Run School System
Our school system is atrocious. There are some great teachers and some great schools within the system. The blame seems to always come down to MONEY. We have been told for decades that money will fix it. And every time we the people and tax payers are being told we just need to give it time and more money. If we don't give the money to the system we are told we don't care about the kids. We've tried this way long enough and it hasn't worked. I could go on and on and on about all the things that are breaking the government educational system. I'd like to know what you think we need to do to FIX the educational system. If you are a union teacher tell us what the union needs to do to FIX the problems within themselves. If you are a parent tell us what the parents need to do to FIX the system. And should we just scrap the whole system and start over again? It would be nice if at first you give your perspective. Mine is as a parent of a poor underfunded Lutheran school that gets the best grades in the school system by far. And as a parent of a public school child from pre-school to kindergarten. He has special needs. I have had a great experience with the teachers at his new school. But the school he was in last year was nothing to write home to mom about. The good teachers tell me how hard it is to be good when the system is against them. If I had my way I'd privatize the whole educational system with strict state government oversight and very little idf any federal oversight. Please speak your mind on the video of Stupid In America as well.
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Just to add to some of my experiances in education. I've had 1 Belgian,4 Japanese,1 Cambodian and 1 Mongolian live with my family as exchange students. I also lived in Japan as both a student and as a business man. I've done a lot with new immigrants to this country and have seen the excelence that comes out of rich countries and third world. The world is laughing at what we are doing to our future throiugh our educational system. And if you think things are going fine then you are kidding yourself. Teachers need to see what the succesful countries are doing and try and produce it here. We are the greatest nation in the world and we nee to get back to having the best educational system in the world like what we had 50 or so years ago when we were the best.
ReplyDeletePrivatize it.
ReplyDeleteShut down the department of Education and send the money back to the states where it belongs.
Privatize it, and the good, innovative teachers would reap a mighty reward, the bum teachers would have to find other employment, and our nation would get smarter.
A straight line to hell can be drawn from standing up the Department of Education until now. Our kid's academic rating compared to other countries is horrible. The teachers unions have dragged down our education system to third world toilet status.
Privatize it.
Privatize it! Privatizing has always worked. While socializing has never worked for the better. The 70's and 80's had the garbage strikes and the whole system was like our educational system. How did they fix the garbage problems? WM. When has a government monopoly worked better then the private sector?
ReplyDeleteJoining the choir,PRIVATIZE! For the same reasons as stated previously.
ReplyDeletePrivate Sector Has Track Record Of Working and Can Be Adjusted Without Politicans Getting Their Agenda Into The Mix.
ReplyDeleteIf You Think Teachers Unions And Politics Are Not In Bed With Each Other You Have Indeed Been Educated In The Public School System.
Through The Years As Unions Got Stronger In Schools Education Got Weaker. Their Is Also Lack Of Parental Guidence In Education System Which For Decades Also Has Been A Failure! Maybe Better Education In School Regarding Responsibilites Of Parenting Instead Of Political Orientation Would Make a Difference!
The Only Thing That CAN And SHOULD Be Changed IN Schools Are BAD Teachers!
Then what will happen to all those union teachers and schools? I think we need to pay the teachers more and see how that works. Smaller class size would also help. It's not all about the kids. It's about the teachers as well. If it wasn't for the unions teachers would be making $30K a year. If we pay them $100K we will get the best of the best.
ReplyDeleteAs you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some things that you should be aware of:
ReplyDeleteI am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a large SoCal high school which is designated a Title 1
school, meaning that its students average lower socioeconomic and income levels.
Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc., where these students are
protesting, are also Title 1 schools.
Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When I say free breakfast, I'm not talking a glass of milk and roll -- but a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make
a Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten.
I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least
moderately overweight. About 75% or more DO have cell phones. The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant
girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family
watch their kids.
I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything; my budget was already substantial. I ended up buying new
computers for the computer learning center, half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in
America.
I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students,
here in the country less then 3 months, who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them "Putas"(whores) and throwing things, that the teachers were in tears.
Free medical, free education, free food, free day care etc., etc, etc. Is it any wonder they feel entitled to not only be in this country
but to demand rights, privileges and entitlements?
To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants contribute to our society because they LIKE their gardener and
housekeeper and they like to pay less for tomatoes: spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the TRUE costs.
Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, overcrowding, new diseases. For me, I'll pay more for tomatoes.
Americans, We need to wake up.
It does, however, have everything to do with culture: It involves an American third-world culture that does not value education, that
ReplyDeleteaccepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by 15 and that refuses to assimilate, and an American culture that has become so weak and worried about “political correctness" that we don't have the will to do anything about it.
If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to everyone you know.
CHEAP LABOR? Isn't that what the whole immigration issue is about?
Business doesn't want to pay a decent wage.
Consumers don't want expensive produce.
Government will tell you Americans don't want the jobs.
But the bottom line is cheap labor. The phrase "cheap labor" is a myth, a farce, and a lie. There is no such thing as "cheap labor."
Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. He takes a job for $5 or $6/hour. At that wage, with six dependents,
he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return, he gets an "earned income credit" of up to $3,200
free.
He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent.
He qualifies for food stamps.
He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care.
His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school.
He requires bilingual teachers and books.
He qualifies for relief from high energy bills.
If they are, or become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI. If qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare. All of this is at (OUR) taxpayer's expense.
He doesn't worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners insurance.
Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material.
He and his family receive the equivalent of $20 to $30/hour in benefits.
Working Americans are lucky to have $5 or $6/hour left after paying their bills AND his.
Cheap labor? YEAH RIGHT!
THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS WE SHOULD BE ADDRESSING TO THE CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS OF EITHER PARTY. 'AND WHEN THEY LIE TO US AND DON'T DO AS THEY SAY, WE SHOULD REPLACE THEM .
Teachers are great. The unions and the government are the bad ones in this. And to blame it on the parents is just stupid. Most parents want to do what is right for their children given the proper tools. I'm for privatizing education. They can't do any worse then the government.
ReplyDeleteMake half pritate and half public and let the winner take all. My money is on the private schools.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of people commenting on the education debate that take an international ranking or some other comparison and run with it as proof that schools in the US are substandard.
ReplyDeleteIs educating our youth a worthwhile public goal? If so, than one must support some public resources being used to meet that goal. If not, than we have to accept that there would be a sizable segment of our population that would miss that opportunity.
Regarding the international comparisons-the reality of our schools are quite different from other nations, so comparing them on some standardized test is comparing apples to oranges. For example, the European model has students being segregated in the late primary years-with career pathways to follow. Some get the opportunity to be doctors and engineers, some the trades, others, more basic occupations. We have allowed all students to stay in the same system, attempt to given them all a well rounded education and let them decide. Maybe that's the wrong idea-but, that's what we deal with.
Asian schools are dealing with an entirely different cultural animal. Filial piety is a core precept of Asian cultures-they obey. Our very foundation is to question, to 'think outside the box.' Asians are VERY good at rote memorization. They are far weaker with regards to critical thinking, so while we might want to be envious of the Asian educational system, all it produces is hundreds of millions of automatons. Our goals should be loftier....
More to come...dinner time!
To Cali Teacher....your email is a copy of anti-immigrant tripe circulated via the internet for months. Being on the web does not make it true. That said, yes, illegal immigration is a cost to our society, but what is the solution? Closed borders and jingoism? That wasn't a good idea in 1850, 1900 or today. Rounding them up and shipping them out? Unfeasible. How about targeting the businesses that offer these people under-the-table jobs. If the jobs are gone, so are the people.
ReplyDeleteHow does that explain the fact that at one time America had the best educational standards. How is it our kids are above the other nations standards in kindergarten but the longer they are in the system the worse they do? Why is it our colleges and universities are some of the best in the world and the world comes here to use them? Why do pivate schools teach kids to read over the summer when the government can't do it with those same kids. Why are most of our government run schools doing worse. A lot of what you said is cherry picking and union spin. I like to look at the whole picture. Andy what do you think about no child left behind? What do you think of the video I posted for you to watch? I think it might give you some insight into what we see as parents and tax payers.
ReplyDelete