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82% of US government run schools are failing
Rational Public Radio ^ | 3/15/11 | Scott Connery

Posted on 03/15/2011 3:39:03 PM PDT by Scottmkiv

There are many reasons why America's students are falling behind those in other countries. A recent comparison showed that America ranked 25th in Math, 17th in Science, and 14th in reading. This is out of only 34 countries.

Obviously, this poses a number of extreme problems.

If our graduates our inferior to the greatly more populous China (and they are), then inevitably our economy will suffer. The world's economy is dependent on highly skilled jobs, and a nation that perpetually turns out c students is bound to fall behind no matter the lead it started with.

The problems grow larger because we live in a representative republican. These same c students are going to be electing our politicians. Since they are poorly educated, and were never really taught how to think critically, they are likely to pick charlatans that make impossible promises. You need look no further than Obama's inauguration for evidence of this.

(Excerpt) Read more at rationalpublicradio.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: education; school; schoolchoice; voucher
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1 posted on 03/15/2011 3:39:05 PM PDT by Scottmkiv
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To: Scottmkiv
(Excerpt) Read more at rationalpublicradio.com ...

Why not just post it here?

2 posted on 03/15/2011 3:44:35 PM PDT by humblegunner (Blogger Overlord)
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To: Scottmkiv

What else would one expect? Almost everything government touches fails.


3 posted on 03/15/2011 3:44:57 PM PDT by mulligan
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To: Scottmkiv

The real question is, “how much of government is failing?”


4 posted on 03/15/2011 3:46:34 PM PDT by Obadiah (If you were going to shoot a mime, would you use a silencer?)
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To: Scottmkiv

Obama says changes are needed for NCLB, but offers nothing specific. Evidence is clear too much govermment involvement with education leads to poor performance, but idiots like Obamaa instead, think not enough government is involved. So like the true bozo he and the left are, they will once again throw more money at education and hope something good comes out of it. There is no plan except to spend more money on admistrators and changing the tests and standards for the 100th year in a row. Some plan there.


5 posted on 03/15/2011 3:47:02 PM PDT by bcr100
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To: Scottmkiv

Education with the union label.


6 posted on 03/15/2011 3:47:35 PM PDT by tractorman (I never miss a chance to tweak a liberal.)
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To: Scottmkiv

There are many reasons why America’s students are falling behind those in other countries. A recent comparison showed that America ranked 25th in Math, 17th in Science, and 14th in reading. This is out of only 34 countries.

Obviously, this poses a number of extreme problems.

If our graduates our inferior to the greatly more populous China (and they are), then inevitably our economy will suffer. The world’s economy is dependent on highly skilled jobs, and a nation that perpetually turns out c students is bound to fall behind no matter the lead it started with.

The problems grow larger because we live in a representative republican. These same c students are going to be electing our politicians. Since they are poorly educated, and were never really taught how to think critically, they are likely to pick charlatans that make impossible promises. You need look no further than Obama’s inauguration for evidence of this.

As if the old status quo wasn’t bad enough, the nations top education official, Arne Duncan, is warning that 82% of our countries schools are expected to fail in their educational mandates this year. Last year, only 37% failed.

Predictably, his answer is not to admit that government education doesn’t work well. Instead, he wants to lower standards.

“No Child Left Behind is broken and we need to fix it now,” Duncan says in prepared remarks for testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. “This law has created a thousand ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed. We should get out of the business of labeling schools as failures and create a new law that is fair and flexible, and focused on the schools and students most at risk.”

Right, so if we just avoid labeling schools as failures, and remove any accountability, then our problem is solved right? Anyone that thinks so is clearly a product of a particularly dismal government run school. Avoiding labels and lowering standards doesn’t fix problems it just evades them. America needs to face this problem head on, and any attempt to sweep it under the rug will just allow the problem to fester in the dark.

There is plenty blame for this shameful, and ruinous, state of affairs to spread around. The lion’s share belongs to our government, but the nations parents are certainly at fault too. The government manages these institutions and so obviously the failure like directly at it’s feet.

However, parents don’t make the government’s job any easier. When children show up to school with no motivation to learn, its terribly difficult to force them to. When parents aren’t actively involved in supporting and monitoring their children’s school work, the children quickly learn that it doesn’t need to be a priority. When parents scream that their children are being discriminated against whenever they are disciplined, it partially explains why today’s schools resemble nothing so much as giant prisons for our youth.

Ultimately, the fault lies with our nation’s voters, because they certainly are not making the right choices at the voting booth. America’s voters need to take their heads out of the sand, and realize that people like Arne Duncan will not get our schools back on track. Probably no man or agency can, so long as they are still run by the government.

We should fight for school vouchers as a stepping stone towards total educational privatization. The government has proven it simply isn’t capable of educating our nation’s students.

The reasons are as simple as they are inescapable. Our schools have no meaningful competition. Even if you send your kids to a private school, you still have to pay for public school. For that matter, even if you don’t have kids you still have to pay for public school. Therefore, no matter how atrocious a school’s performance is, they see increases in funding year after year. Thus, we end up in a situation were 82% of our nation’s school will fail to meet their already low standards.

This is exactly counter to the way the free market works. The market would reward exceptional schools, and effective methods of education. It would destroy ones that failed.

The profit motive would force schools to run streamlined businesses without masses of do nothing administration collecting enormous salaries and sweetheart retirement plans. This would lower the cost of education while improving it’s quality at the same time. In addition, it would place accountability where it belonged with the parents not with some distant bureaucrat.


7 posted on 03/15/2011 3:53:42 PM PDT by SunTzuWu
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To: Scottmkiv
82% of US government run schools are failing

I know the solution to this. We need to give them more money. We can knock this down to 79 or 80% failing with a couple extra billion. Just ask Obummer.

8 posted on 03/15/2011 3:53:42 PM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Scottmkiv
Depends on what your definition of 'fail' is.

If 'fail' means the kids are being graduated well versed in the major subjects capable of critical thought, and cognizant of their country's history, their rights & obligations under the US constitution & not little wards of the state, then the government schools are entirely successful.

9 posted on 03/15/2011 3:54:24 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: Scottmkiv
How do we **know** that 18% of the government schools are successful?

Maybe it is the PARENTS and the children, themselves, IN THE HOME that are doing a great job of AFTERSCHOOLING!!!!

Where are the studies that **prove** that these government schools are successful?

Where are the studies that separate out how much is due entirely to the parents, private tutors, and the self-study done by the child? How much is due to the school?

My guess: If there is a “successful” school it is because the parents, and the children themselves, are successfully **afterschooling**!!!!! The government is sending home a tution-free curriculum for the parents and child to follow.

10 posted on 03/15/2011 3:54:59 PM PDT by wintertime
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To: Scottmkiv
The problems grow larger because we live in a representative republican.

Which representative Republican do you live in?

11 posted on 03/15/2011 3:58:29 PM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA ("Elections have consequences...." Barry O. Thank you Scott Walker and WI Republicans!!)
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To: SunTzuWu
If government schools were to all close tomorrow, the **same** children who are getting and education today would get one tomorrow. Why?

Answer: Because...If there is an educated child in the U.S. today, it is because he has parents who are homeschooling or afterschooling.

Please read post #10.

Where are the studies that prove government schools actually teach children?

Where are the studies that separate out what is learned in the classroom from that learned IN THE HOME or through outside the school influences?

12 posted on 03/15/2011 4:00:50 PM PDT by wintertime
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To: bcr100

O will ban phonics and replace it with ebonics.

Anything else we need to know?


13 posted on 03/15/2011 4:01:08 PM PDT by Carley (WISCONSIN STREET NO DIFFERENT THAN THE ARAB STREET. UGLY AND VIOLENT)
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To: Scottmkiv
...a nation that perpetually turns out c students is bound to fall behind..

Not to nitpick, but a "C" is an average student. An no matter how hard you try, you will always have AVERAGE STUDENTS. This is as stupid as that senator who once said that he wanted EVERYONE to have an "above average income".

But what we need to do is do away with the stupid and costly "No Child Left Behind" program and instead become realistic and find the smart ones early and work on THEIR education and help THEM become even better. As it is now, the smart ones are held back by the slow ones to make sure that the slowest kids "don't get left behind".

14 posted on 03/15/2011 4:10:52 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
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To: Scottmkiv

“There are many reasons why America’s students are falling behind those in other countries”

I believe that the real reason is that the TEACHERS ARE FAILING to educate our students.


15 posted on 03/15/2011 4:18:21 PM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: Lazlo in PA

“Failing” is such a polarizing word.
The solution is to stop testing them for competence.
Assume they’re doing great, but just underfunded.
Feed massive funds into a giant unaccountable bureacracy.

Paste, copy, apply to Healthcare.


16 posted on 03/15/2011 4:18:57 PM PDT by schwingdoc
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To: Scottmkiv
There are many reasons why America's students are falling behind those in other countries.

Face it, the #1 reason our schools are failing is because we just don't spend enough money on education and government doesn't have enough control over it.

Increase the bureaucracy and the spending on it and our system will then generate smarter kids.

17 posted on 03/15/2011 4:21:51 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: humblegunner
Info from the site for those on dial-up or afraid to click:

Rational Public Radio is far more than just three guys in pajama's! Our purpose is to identify the radically immoral elements in our culture, both on the political left and right, and demonstrate there is a fully consistent moral solution to today's problems.

Rational Public Radio will find the most important news of the day so that you can avoid information overload and focus on what really matters.

We destroy the immorality of altruism and the irrational in a fun, engaging manner using the life promoting philosophy of Objectivism.

Scott Connery - RPR Host

Scott became an atheist when he was 10. He hated Sunday school, and looked for reasons to get out of it. The argument that won out was Zeus. No one believes in Zeus anymore, and what's the difference between the Christian God and Zeus?

He read Atlas Shrugged 10 years ago, and never looked back.

Today, Scott lives in Dallas. He has two dogs and a herd of goats.

He is a lover of fast cars. Scott is a huge 2nd amendment supporter, and has quite a nice collection of scary guns.

Jeffrey K. Meek - Scholar, Writer, Businessman, RPR Host

Born in perhaps the most mystical state in the American republic, Jeff, (as he prefers to be called unless you owe him money, in which case it's M’Lord), began reading and studying the works of Ayn Rand while still in his teens. This study provided a firm philosophical grounding in world gone mad on a orgy of self-sacrifice and instilled a profound respect for reason and love of knowledge. He currently resides in the southern United States, with two cats, many marble busts and a overflowing library. He suffers no fools.

Etsel Skelton - Entrepreneur, Radical for Capitalism, RPR Host

Etsel is currently working behind the scenes on technical and promotional matters here at RPR. He will join Jeff and Scott on the show soon.

18 posted on 03/15/2011 4:23:08 PM PDT by Bronzy (We Remembered In November.)
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To: Scottmkiv

But, but, I thought it was “All about the Children”. My Bad.


19 posted on 03/15/2011 4:24:39 PM PDT by radioone (Proud to be an enemy of Obama)
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To: Scottmkiv

Good post! Thanks!

I tried to post the following as a thread, but since it came to me as an email, I did not have a url for it. I am not wishing to hijack your thread, but thought that this article would dovetail with yours and add to your discussion. If this is true (I had not realized Prager is a school principal) this goes a long way in showing the way out of the failure of our schools. Thanks again!

A CALIFORNIA PRINCIPAL’S OPENING MESSAGE TO STUDENTS

From: Dennis Prager, principal at a high school in Redding, California, on the first day of classes in 2010: To the students and faculty of our high school: I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people.

I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school.

I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers, against your parents, and against our country.

Therefore: First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow, or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian, or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships.

The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity — your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans.

If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial, or religious identity through your school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity-, race- and non-American-nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America , one of its three central values — E Pluribus Unum — “from many, one.”

And this school will be guided by America ‘s values. That includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation, or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.

Your clubs will be based on interests and passions — not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism — an unhealthy preoccupation with the self — while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So, we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, math, carpentry, and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interested in are those based on ethnic or racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.

Second, I am not interested in whether or not English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America ‘s citizens for more than 200 years, and it will unite us at this school.

It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English-language skills, I will have been remiss in my duty to ensure that you are prepared to compete successfully in the American job market. We will learn? other languages here — it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English . But if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.

Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will reflect learning’s elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for a meal at a nice restaurant than they do for church or school. Those people have their priorities backwards. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.

Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school’s property — whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can’t speak without using the “F-word,” you can’t speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission plus epithets such as the “N-word,” even when used by one black student to address another, or “bitch,” even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few of your age to distinguish instinctively between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.

Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way — the way people attained it until the state of California decided otherwise a generation ago — by earning it. One immediate consequence of this is that there will be only one class valedictorian, not eight.

Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom-wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual, or not Christian. We will have failed, if any one of you graduates from this school and does not consider himself or herself inordinately lucky — to be alive and to be an American.

Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America .
As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.


20 posted on 03/15/2011 4:27:19 PM PDT by TEXOKIE (Anarchy IS the strategy of the forces of darkness!)
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