August 21, 2012 - Ohio campaign stop.
Posted on 08/23/2012 6:49:34 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
What’s more important than ensuring that children get a better education? For most Americans this election cycle, it’s the federal budget.
As President Obama continues to assail the Republican presidential ticket for pushing a budget blueprint that could cut education spending, polling data that emerged Wednesday shows that the vast majority of Americans think getting the U.S. back on solid fiscal footing trumps increasing school funding.
A survey by Gallup and the Phi Delta Kappa International education association finds that 60 percent of Americans think it’s more important to balance the federal budget than to “improve the quality of education.”
The poll indicates a seismic shift in public attitudes toward education as a national priority, at least when compared with the pressing need to slash federal spending. In 1996, Gallup asked the same question, and nearly two-thirds of Americans said that improving K-12 classrooms was more important than the budget deficit.
Analysts said the poll doesn’t mean that the country cares less about education than it did 16 years ago, but rather shows a restlessness stemming from the weak economic recovery, annual deficits and the ballooning national debt.
“I think it reflects a degree of concern about the federal budget that just didn’t exist back in 1996, when the results [of the Gallup question] were the opposite,” said John Sides, a political science professor at George Washington University.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
August 21, 2012 - Ohio campaign stop.
One of Romney’s promises is to abolish the Dept. of Ed. I’m all for it and this education spending garbage will be a moot point.
I think the mispelling is worse than reported. The fourth guy is making sort of an “I” not an “O” — so they’re spelling the state OIHI.
The union’s annual convention starts today in Detroit, where more than than 3,000 delegates have gathered at a time when teachers and their unions have come under attack from school reformers.
Though teachers have been unhappy with many of President Obama's education initiatives, Weingarten's speech urges members to support him in the November election because he shares many of the same values as union members. As for GOP candidate Mitt Romney, she says, "His idea of education reform is vouchers, which study after study has shown do not improve achievement." The two candidates, she said, "couldn't be more different."
The convention will also be addressed by Vice President Biden, education historian Diane Ravitch and others.
Here is Weingarten's convention speech as prepared for delivery: SINCE WE LAST MET
I just don’t see it - this should be OIHI! There is no second “O!” So it’s not just backwards!
Sensible allocation of money IS
Problem one:
Schools are administered in most aspects by educators, not financially savvy money managers. In my school system the principal has the ultimate authority over all matters including financial. Too many schools have new gyms and media centers that are eye candy while 40% of the sudents drop out.
Problem two:
Educational money is spent on the trend de jour. Look at your own experiences over the years and realize there is no cohesive education plan only educational fads. Remember new math? Remember eubonics and phonetic spelling? Remember outcome based education?
Problem three:
Too many schools use technology as a substitute for teacher proficiency. The schools set up complex computer labs, to essentially entertain the students rather than demanding performance from them or their teachers.
If the education systems got computers out of the classroom and actually demanded acceptable performance from the teachers and the students, the cost would be far less.
Big education needs to realize that all students are not going to college. Training students in practical application of math and science and backing off feel good social awareness issues would make graduates more productive and employable right out of school. As it stands now, our graduates are woefully unprepared for entering the workforce or for going to college, but fully prepared to live with their mothers until they are 26 years old.
COMPLETELY agree with this statement. Our schools are trying to gear students toward college careers, when in reality, at least 40% are better suited for trades.
They need to go back to shop (wood AND auto) and home ec. in schools. There's not enough attention on the trades.
Our school programs offered auto trades (very popular), construction trades, law enforcement and healthcare trades as well as cosmetology.
Electronics as a case study, integrates science, math and communications skills presented in other classes. For most of my students, it brought those disciplines into focus. My students that went to college or the military told me they learned everything in my classes and they excelled at their higher education because of it.
I never see them on the street, they all have jobs...still.
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