Our National Education System: A $49 Billion Dollar Disaster

CNSNews.com ^ | January 25, 2002 | Alan Caruba

[mafree]

Good find- thanks for the ping.

[headsonpikes]

Thanks for the ping!

Bumping my #7.

[headsonpikes]

..er...#10. lol

[Stand Watch Listen]

bttt

[Rowdee]

FYI

[Keyes For President]

After you get through reading the 1000-page Education Bill, dubbed "Leave No Child Behind", you will have concluded that the Federal government is now so fully in charge of your local school system that you have only one option. You will either home school your children or you will turn them over to a system that so mirrors the Communist model for education, they will belong to Big Brother long after they have left home to create their own families.

I send my kids to a private Christian school. I do not believe in the public school system.

President Bush sides with Ted Kennedy on education. I wonder how many of the Bush and Kennedy children attend public schools? The American aristocracy wants to spend your money on public schools, take control away from the local taxpayers and the parents of the students and tell them how to run their schools, but they probably send their own kids to private schools.

They keep spending more and more Federal taxpayer money on a system that keeps failing. Private schools spend way less per student and produce a better result. Why not allow a tax credit for private school tuition? After all, I have to pay a significant portion of my property tax to support the local public schools which I don't use, plus the Federal government uses more of my tax dollars on public education. And Kennedy and President Bush want to spend even more.

But we should be careful not to be too critical of Kennedy and the President on their education policy. After all, they're just trying to be compassionate.

[LiberteeBell]

Thank you for the ping! Some excellent information here. I'm all for abolishing the Dept. of Ed. How? Just get rid of it and leave schooling to parents and local communities. The Bush-Kennedy liason is sickening.

[VRWC For Truth]

Following his years as a journalist, in the 1960’s Mr. Caruba joined the New York State Department of Housing and Community Affairs as a communications director, transferring to the New York State Housing Finance Agency.

In other words he's a Rat and he's writing this to cause trouble, not because he believes it. He's a PR whore. ROFL

P.S - also on the resume ->A New York Times writer

[Amelia]

I like your education plan!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Aw hell. Why don't we all just go along with the program and tell our kids to go into politics or get a gubmint job.

</sarcasm>

[Amelia]

Thanks for the ping, Rowdee. I'm really conflicted on this.

On the one hand, I do not think the federal government has any justification for being involved in public education.

On the other hand, as a teacher, I'm so tired of seeing high school aged students who can barely read and do math, because some administrator or teacher (usually an administrator forced it on a teacher) decided that it was more "compassionate" to socially promote a child who hadn't acquired the skills needed to succeed than to label the child a "failure" and have him or her repeat a grade.

The kids know it, too - they know they don't have to do anything to pass in the lower grades. Then they are really shocked when they get to high school and fail!

I don't know if it will take the Federal govt being involved, and I'll admit they've had no success at all with Title I, so I don't know what makes me think anything they do will work, but SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE, and President Bush is right on the money with his statement about "the soft bigotry of low expectations".

[Rowdee]

A teacher? Question......when you were in college taking the required courses for your teaching degree, were your subjects graded as "pass/no pass"? If not all, were some? Any recollection of ratio of one to the other?

[Amelia]

None of my education courses were graded as pass/no pass. On the other hand, many of them were ridiculously easy, especially the ones that included elementary education majors.

My most memorable quarter was when I was taking one regular biology course, and one teacher education course that included teachers of all grade levels (I teach high school). The biology course covered as much material in one class as the education course covered in a week, and some of the elementary education majors were still complaining that the professor moved too quickly.

[Calico]

Thanks for the ping. With all this good information, I have been able to change the attitudes of even the most reluctant members of my family to favor homeschooling. We have a few more years to go before starting, but please keep me posted.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

Do you ever wonder why home-schooled children consistently do better academically than those passing through this mind-numbing system? It's because they concentrate on the basics, on facts, on multiplication tables, on spelling things correctly, on learning how to express themselves, not to please Big Brother, but to please their parents.

Until the 1960's this was the way most schools taught children. After that, the "change agents" took over,......

D1, I would suggest that the word EVIL better fits for the word "despicable" in your ".....this education system is despicable." And, I would suggest that this EVIL we call education is one of the truly non-partisan issues of "the two wings on the same bird of prey". Peace and love, George.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

DWL, THANKS for the post!!! Peace and love, George.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

SWL, Another article by Sam Blumenthal At WND. Peace and love, George.

[DoughtyOne]

You are correct George. It is evil. And that's why I can't for the life of me understand Bush's reasoning behind throwing more money at it. Disband the DOE at once. Place the emphasis back inside the individual states. Get the federal government the he-- out of it.

Individual cities should privatize their schools. Teachers would need to reapply. This would bust up the unions. And if the teachers decided to unionize again, I'd fire the private company for not doing it's job and bring in another. Once again the teachers would need to reapply. And if you think a union member would be rehired, your not getting the picture.

The NEA would be history in six months if people would use a little common sense.