Education ... is there any way to fix this?

[Gerry Clinchy]

http://townhall.com/columnists/maryg...561/page/full/

When Race To The Top funding was accepted by states (45 now get that money), it came with strings attached. And the SAT tests are catering to the curricula of the program.

And who is behind this stuff? "Educators" (I use the term loosely) like Bill Ayres and Arne Duncan ... who did such a stellar job with Chicago's school system. NOT! When the context of an EPA regulation is put on a par with The Gettysburg Address, we are in deep doo-doo.

But the mandate to replace literature in English classes with “informational texts”—with only half the time allotted to literature, and reduced to only 30 percent by the last two years of high school—caught the attention of even the liberal media. They became alarmed that favorites like To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye are to be replaced by such things as EPA directives.

[Uncle Bill]

Only one way...eliminate the Cabinet level department of education. Send all the responsibility back to the individual states, and on to the individual school districts and their elected officials to get involved in their local programs, and stop sucking up to the fed and their one-size-fits-all programs that ALWAYS come with strings attached. It's time for the parents to get involved again...for a School board electee to take responsibility for more than just the crossing guards, and parking lot congestion.

So little of the entire budget of a particular school is managed by the local parents, it's astounding. What is mandated and controlled by someone other than the board of education for your individual school district is mind boggling. Time to get all that control back, and start requiring the parents of the kids being taught to become involved beyond just dropping them off and picking them up...and for those that don't do that, I'm for eliminating the school busses also.

People have got to understand it's time to become responsible Americans again. Stop handing off those responsibilities to the "other" person. Ot's all part of taking our nation back from the socialistic direction it's been heading for far too long.

UB

[sick lids]

Funny seeing this here I know a teacher that if I said that she leans way to the left would be a little of an understatement. She always complains how the government is interfering with how she teaches and that she seems to spend more time testing than teaching. So I asked her why she keeps voting for these ya hoos and her mouth dropped with disbelief. Four years later its still Bushe's fault. I have a feeling obummer will fix it for HER in the next four.

[Schmersal]

So eliminating school transportation for good responsible students of hard working responsible two income families that have no other way of getting their children to school in the morning is going to help our failing educational system. In my belief I think the government at the federal, state and local level should be more responsible for their actions and held more accountable. And the biggest problem with this country and its educational system and its government is that people just don't care anymore weather it be teachers, parents, school officials or even government officials. Our family votes for every tax levy that our school board puts on the ballot and are happy to do so because we know it will make things better for our children and the community, and will continue to after our children are out of school. This is more than a parent/teacher/teachers union/school board/government issue, it is a continuous degradation of morality, ethics, and economics in the U.S.A. Americans just don't care about the foundation of respect, compassion, and humanity any more and I am sorry to say that greed, self promotion and political correctness have taken their place. Our educational system in the last report I seen doesn't even rank in the top 20 of the world, that is unforgivable we owe our children and the children of all Americans more than that. I don't know how we can fix the issues facing our educational system or country for that matter but I think a good starting point would be to teach our children the golden rule and get adults to live by it. Just my .02 cents.

[Brad Turner]

So eliminating school transportation for good responsible students of hard working responsible two income families that have no other way of getting their children to school in the morning is going to help our failing educational system. In my belief I think the government at the federal, state and local level should be more responsible for their actions and held more accountable. And the biggest problem with this country and its educational system and its government is that people just don't care anymore weather it be teachers, parents, school officials or even government officials. Our family votes for every tax levy that our school board puts on the ballot and are happy to do so because we know it will make things better for our children and the community, and will continue to after our children are out of school. This is more than a parent/teacher/teachers union/school board/government issue, it is a continuous degradation of morality, ethics, and economics in the U.S.A. Americans just don't care about the foundation of respect, compassion, and humanity any more and I am sorry to say that greed, self promotion and political correctness have taken their place. Our educational system in the last report I seen doesn't even rank in the top 20 of the world, that is unforgivable we owe our children and the children of all Americans more than that. I don't know how we can fix the issues facing our educational system or country for that matter but I think a good starting point would be to teach our children the golden rule and get adults to live by it. Just my .02 cents.

The only problem with this statement, is that many other countries don't educate ALL their children as we do here in the U.S.

[Marvin S]

http://townhall.com/columnists/maryg...561/page/full/

When Race To The Top funding was accepted by states (45 now get that money), it came with strings attached. And the SAT tests are catering to the curricula of the program.

And who is behind this stuff? "Educators" (I use the term loosely) like Bill Ayres and Arne Duncan ... who did such a stellar job with Chicago's school system. NOT! When the context of an EPA regulation is put on a par with The Gettysburg Address, we are in deep doo-doo.

I am the product of testing - 6th in a class of 11, but in the top 10 of about 15,000 students statewide taking the Iowa test my senior year in HS. Needless to say that led to many offers, mostly by liberal arts colleges up to & including full rides. One school offered a 15K scholarship, 10K GIA & would have still cost 15K more in 1950. Had I wanted to go to MIT I could have, never heard of the school . Did have an offer to play BasketBall at Baylor which I would have taken had I known the school was challenging academically.

Until we allow charter schools nationwide, eliminate the DoE at the national level & emphasize STEM monetarily, which would include making aid for worthless degrees very hard to get. I have a GS with a degree in Architecture who will have to go back to school to get an Engineering degree to be employable.

I've studied the school thing seriously, as long as we rely on the politicians & the unions to guide the fix, it ain't gonna happen .

Only one way...eliminate the Cabinet level department of education. Send all the responsibility back to the individual states, and on to the individual school districts and their elected officials to get involved in their local programs, and stop sucking up to the fed and their one-size-fits-all programs that ALWAYS come with strings attached. It's time for the parents to get involved again...for a School board electee to take responsibility for more than just the crossing guards, and parking lot congestion.

So little of the entire budget of a particular school is managed by the local parents, it's astounding. What is mandated and controlled by someone other than the board of education for your individual school district is mind boggling. Time to get all that control back, and start requiring the parents of the kids being taught to become involved beyond just dropping them off and picking them up...and for those that don't do that, I'm for eliminating the school busses also.

People have got to understand it's time to become responsible Americans again. Stop handing off those responsibilities to the "other" person. Ot's all part of taking our nation back from the socialistic direction it's been heading for far too long.

UB

UB, I respect your opinion, but there are a lot of kids who would not be in school if it were a parental requirement to get them there , but true. & at a higher cost to the public!!!!!

So eliminating school transportation for good responsible students of hard working responsible two income families that have no other way of getting their children to school in the morning is going to help our failing educational system. In my belief I think the government at the federal, state and local level should be more responsible for their actions and held more accountable. And the biggest problem with this country and its educational system and its government is that people just don't care anymore weather it be teachers, parents, school officials or even government officials. Our family votes for every tax levy that our school board puts on the ballot and are happy to do so because we know it will make things better for our children and the community, and will continue to after our children are out of school. This is more than a parent/teacher/teachers union/school board/government issue, it is a continuous degradation of morality, ethics, and economics in the U.S.A. Americans just don't care about the foundation of respect, compassion, and humanity any more and I am sorry to say that greed, self promotion and political correctness have taken their place. Our educational system in the last report I seen doesn't even rank in the top 20 of the world, that is unforgivable we owe our children and the children of all Americans more than that. I don't know how we can fix the issues facing our educational system or country for that matter but I think a good starting point would be to teach our children the golden rule and get adults to live by it. Just my .02 cents.

I bet no one picked you 1st when choosing teams for the spelling bee . I think it's wonderful that you like to see money wasted & a blind loyalty to whatever the school administration wants will do just that. Prior to being appointed & elected twice to the School Board I followed that same loyalty, after serving that changed & I have never voted for a levy since. I'm fairly good with numbers & balance sheets so will tell you I know what I am talking about without even looking at your budget.

[Schmersal]

I bet no one picked you 1st when choosing teams for the spelling bee . I think it's wonderful that you like to see money wasted & a blind loyalty to whatever the school administration wants will do just that. Prior to being appointed & elected twice to the School Board I followed that same loyalty, after serving that changed & I have never voted for a levy since. I'm fairly good with numbers & balance sheets so will tell you I know what I am talking about without even looking at your budget.[/QUOTE]


I didn't get picked first for any thing but I turned out ok (that was before everything had to be fair so nobody got their feelings hurt), and its not a blind loyalty but I know what they have done for my children. If I were as close to the situation as you have been I might have a different opinion but for now being involved in my boys education and helping the school system any way I can including voting for levies is the best I can do!

[luvalab]

First, yes, I'm a teacher--private parochial, but believe me, we see it all, too.

Second, yes, the Common Core is about money. Big money. And like in most professions, the big money isn't always going to the most deserving circles.

All that aside--if anyone really thinks that the Common Core curriculum demands that English classes reduce their attention to literature and the classics, they are mistaken, for sure. That is simply not what the Common Core documents state. The suggested percentages are ACROSS THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM. I know that in reality a lot of the reading and writing in school falls on the English departments while other departments stick to overheads and lectures and synopses, and so the fear coming from English teachers is real in a sense--but that's not the fault of the Common Core as it's written.

What Common Core DOES do is ask that English classes teach and support non-fiction and primary source reading (which we should be doing anyway), drop most of the "young adult" category as the waste of time crap that it is (which we should be doing anyway), and require classes other than English to actually read (which we should be doing anyway).

Surely no one believes that an EPA document is equal in greatness and importance to the Gettysburg Address--but if most citizens could actually read, comprehend, analyze, and argue with or about EPA documents, we'd all be better off in the long run. The Gettysburg Address is short--there's no reason NOT to read it, every year, more than once--even if contemporary modern documents are included in the curriculum.

I'm not a fan of the Common Core because there's big money being made re-inventing the wheel and putting shiny hub-caps on it. I am also borderline furious that there will be high-stakes testing attached to it that has not been developed beyond "It's going to be super-challenging and all on computers," because everyone was so eager to get the (money) ball rolling--which is ass-backward. But what's new?

Common Core itself is fairly demanding and, really, what good teachers and schools are already doing and will continue to do. It's also a reality (for now), and I'd rather throw my shoulder out fighting other windmills. Or handling dogs, as the case may be.

But will Common Core make bad teachers and schools good? Heh. It might light a fire under a few butts here and there. Or not. It might tighten some curricula up here and there, if implemented wisely. Or not.

Just my opinions.

[HPL]

I bet no one picked you 1st when choosing teams for the spelling bee . I think it's wonderful that you like to see money wasted & a blind loyalty to whatever the school administration wants will do just that. Prior to being appointed & elected twice to the School Board I followed that same loyalty, after serving that changed & I have never voted for a levy since. I'm fairly good with numbers & balance sheets so will tell you I know what I am talking about without even looking at your budget.

I didn't get picked first for any thing but I turned out ok (that was before everything had to be fair so nobody got their feelings hurt), and its not a blind loyalty but I know what they have done for my children. If I were as close to the situation as you have been I might have a different opinion but for now being involved in my boys education and helping the school system any way I can including voting for levies is the best I can do![/QUOTE]

I think that I'm going to have to go with Marvin here. There is about as much evidence that increasing spending improves education as there is that assault weapon bans reduce crime. Increased spending simply doesn't correlate with better success in learning.

However, no one has addressed the real issue the author of the article brings up which is the way that the left has infiltrated the education departments of our universities (both major and minor) filling our grade schools and secondary schools with liberal ideologue teachers, who pass on the left wing mind set to their students in a self reinforcing feedback loop.

[luvalab]

...

However, no one has addressed the real issue the author of the article brings up which is the way that the left has infiltrated the education departments of our universities (both major and minor) filling our grade schools and secondary schools with liberal ideologue teachers, who pass on the left wing mind set to their students in a self reinforcing feedback loop.

Okay, I'll address it, sort of...

Common Core as an example is not a strong one, as the curriculum allows teachers to choose whatever texts they want, as long as the skills are taught. Further, although it points out some right-rankling examples, it is also so heavy on the classics and primary documents from the founding fathers and earlier, that I think it can be very balanced.

Now, if the TEACHERS are unbalanced, well... They are either good teachers that teach effectively and challenge students to refute them should their bias annoy--or bad, lazy teachers.

I really don't think left and right is as big a problem as overburdened, burned out, sidetracked by silliness, or just bad.

again--my overpriced two cents.