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Some reforms really could cost the taxpayer absolutely nothing, boost the economy, and save the student thousands.
1 posted on 07/04/2012 7:43:40 AM PDT by wintertime
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To: wintertime

-—1) Open up the GED to any child of **any** age. Remove all age restrictions on these exams! If they pass this exam, or similar private exam, award them an official high school diploma from their local government owned and run socialist-entitlement K-12 school.-—
They could prorate the cost of education based on student age and give the kid a percentage of the savings for opting out sooner.


2 posted on 07/04/2012 7:51:45 AM PDT by running_dog_lackey
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To: wintertime

The political elite are not looking for solutions. But thanks for playing.


3 posted on 07/04/2012 7:54:38 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Roger Taney? Not a bad Chief Justice. John Roberts? A really awful Chief Justice.)
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To: wintertime

First end all teachers unions - period - no exceptions.
Start reforms.


7 posted on 07/04/2012 8:02:17 AM PDT by svcw (If one living cell on another planet is life, why isn't it life in the womb?)
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To: wintertime

“Encourage employers to use SAT and ACT scores as measures of a young adult’s capacity to learn the job”

This would not replace one of the major reasons employers want a college graduate. It shows them a certain level of responsibility demonstrated over an extended period. IIRC, economists refer to this as ‘signalling’.


8 posted on 07/04/2012 8:09:01 AM PDT by Darth Reardon (No offense to drunken sailors)
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To: wintertime

It ain’t about education......it’s about control...and a 100-200 grand payoff- or up to 500 grand total if professional grad school is involved.

It’s control.


9 posted on 07/04/2012 8:16:31 AM PDT by mo (If you understand, no explanation is needed. If you don't understand, no explanation is possible.)
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To: wintertime
True story. My uncle dropped out of high school in the late 1940's, then passed the entrance exam to Harvard and was admitted. He later earned a PhD at the University of Illinois and went on to a successful career in business and university teaching.

What you are suggesting is nothing new. We actually did it at a time in our not so distant history when this country was still sane and the educrat unions didn't have a stranglehold on the industry.

10 posted on 07/04/2012 8:18:02 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: wintertime

Great idea, but the SAT doesn’t measure the student’s ability to get up on time, go to a place of work on a schedule (school/business), tolerate cranky people (teachers/co-workers), turn in homework, get along with others. In short, the SAT, an excellent measure of intelligence and knowledge at a point in time, doesn’t measure other aspects that are often required for work.

Question: if a certain element of society could NOT EVER pass the SAT test, would they remain in school forever? This SAT approach, perhaps supplemented with subject tests, would be great for many, but not all, students.

Your idea would be welcomed by millions of the 50 million students (US Dept of Education) who are trapped in dangerous urban s*** holes called (public) schools. Please, on a periodical basis, give the test to the teachers also.


11 posted on 07/04/2012 8:18:02 AM PDT by Hop A Long Cassidy
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To: wintertime

These are great ideas and I agree with them all. The nut to crack will be getting the embedded educational bureaucracy to agree. Unfortunately, that’s a stone wall.

I would point out that this all starts in the home. ‘nuff said.


16 posted on 07/04/2012 8:33:57 AM PDT by upchuck (FACEBOOK... Share pointless stuff with friends you don't know. Beg for intrusion into your life.)
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To: wintertime

If you spend no money, you have no money to skim off.


19 posted on 07/04/2012 8:38:13 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Corollary - Electing the same person over and over and expecting a different outcome is insanity)
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To: wintertime

Another money saver would be to let students drop out who don’t want to be in school and will never pass general requirements if they stay until they are 100 years old. The idea of forcing them to stay in the building until they are of a certain age is ridiculous. They are discipline problems that cause distractions for other students and cost the same as those who want to learn. Let them go find a real job if they can. Those who can’t would just wind up on welfare a few years earlier (unless they are already on welfare).


25 posted on 07/04/2012 8:49:04 AM PDT by Library Lady
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To: wintertime

(1) That test is racist because minorities tend to score lower.
(2) Those tests are racist because minorities tend to score lower.
(3) Those tests are racist because minorities tend to score lower.

Any other ideas?


29 posted on 07/04/2012 9:02:14 AM PDT by BobL
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To: metmom; verga; Westbrook; Clintonfatigued; Nachum; wagglebee; b9; miss marmelstein
Ping to a few friends: This may interest those who follow education issues.

Fundamentaly, all of our godless government owned and run socialist-entitlmen K-12 schools should be shut down for many reasons. These suggestions would help reduce the number of children attending these schools and, for some children, shorten the time spent in them.

These suggestions would also reduce the number of young adults attending the Marxist indoctrination camps ( mis-named “universities”), reduce their debt, reduce taxes, and increase their lifetime earnings.

30 posted on 07/04/2012 9:02:25 AM PDT by wintertime
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To: wintertime

Two decades ago, a younger relative realized in his senior year in High School that he didn’t want to go to college.

He tried to get into the GED program, and the school didn’t want to lose the daily $’s for him coming to school.

So he stopped going to school, and he got a good asst principal who lined him up to get into the GED program. He finished in about 6 weeks and scored very high on the test.

Later he went to a trade school where he learned how to work for a living in a specific trade.

He parlayed that experience into another industry and is making good money. Two of his cousins took a similiar route and are well paid “blue collar” guys.

Several o their cousins spent years at college getting instant unemployment degrees and are living at home with their parents or older siblings being waiters or something that doesn’t require a degree. They owe anywhere from a 100k to 250K in student loans for their instant unemployment degrees. Some have masters in instant unemployment.

Use the GED and trade schools and bust the teacher unions and their tax sucking grips on America.


35 posted on 07/04/2012 9:14:24 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS DESTROYING AMERICA-LOOK AT WHAT IT DID TO THE WHITE HOUSE!)
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To: wintertime

Liberals don’t like tests. Liberals (leftists) claim that using test scores is racist.
The Obama dept of education wants to eliminate testing and substitute apprenticeships for the last two years of education and base all union promotions on seniority, not testing. This would give the “disadvantaged” students who took the apprenticeships rather than the last two years of high school, above the high school graduate in seniority.

So, instead of someone applying for police academy after taking a two year community college course in criminology, we would have former gang bangers graduating from high school with a two year apprenticeship and completed police academy requirements. No testing.


41 posted on 07/04/2012 9:33:07 AM PDT by Eva
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To: wintertime
Here is my two point plan for improving education, at no cost to the taxpayer:

1.) In each school, and in each school district, eliminate one administrative position (and by administrative I do not mean support staff). At the state level, eliminate five administrative positions. Use the money thus saved to increase teacher salaries, hire additional teachers, and purchase needed classroom supplies.

2.) If, at the end of the year, student achievement has not improved significantly (as measured by standard tests, chosen at random to eliminate "teaching to the test"), repeat the process.

In very short order the administrators will figure out how to improve education in order to save their phoney-baloney jobs.

47 posted on 07/04/2012 10:03:02 AM PDT by sima_yi ( Reporting live from the far North)
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To: wintertime
(Honestly, why does the event's planner at the local Marriott need a bachelors degree? )Most of the work done in the U.S.A. does not specifically need a university level education, and most of the career skills learned is through on the job training.

Well, apparently this poster does not take into account that a first-level management position is the starting place where new hires are placed to start their climb to higher levels, for which a real college training is necessary. Filling these levels with candidates for which the level is terminal, blocks access to those who have greater potential.

Such trainees will get shorter assignments across the spectrum to prepare for greater responsibilities.

As a concrete instance, the poster here doesn't know enough grammar to properly use an apostrophe, and has made event's a possessive when the word events, a plural, is needed. An events planner writing notices and announcements for events needs to be a little more refined so the product is not marred by ignorance of grammar and spelling.

Lack of such polish isn't very important for FR posting, but is critical in presenting an urbane image for the employer. A diploma or degree is supposed to supply basic non-negotiable qualifications for career growth.

No employer seeking the benefit of his company wants to hire new employees into positions for which they barely qualify and above which they cannot rise. And his company cannot remain competitive if his employee base cannot grasp changes that require greater business acumen and technological advances going forward.

51 posted on 07/04/2012 11:11:31 AM PDT by imardmd1 (A father's wise counsel: "Get an education, as much as you are able. I'll help.")
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To: wintertime
Fewer teachers would be needed.
While I agree that's a great thought, the teachers' unions will be all over that with massive campaign donations to prevent it from ever happening.
70 posted on 07/04/2012 12:45:22 PM PDT by Bob
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To: wintertime

A better solution is to make public education illegal!!!


71 posted on 07/04/2012 12:51:58 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: wintertime
It would be racist.

The whole push to demand a college diploma came after the Supreme Court's 1971 Griggs v Duke Power case. Suddenly, any employment exam that flunked more blacks than whites was illegal. So employers used having a college degree as an expensive way to evaluate whether the applicant could read.

83 posted on 07/04/2012 4:45:29 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (If I can't be persuasive, I at least hope to be fun.)
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