Stossel: Are American Kids Stupid?

NewsMax ^ | 1/7/06 | NewsMax

[derllak]

Lol! And you had nothing to do with it, right? ;)

[Squawk 8888]

Doesn't help when the parents don't speak English either

I don't think it's a factor either way and can actually be turned into an advantage. My old neighbourhood had a lot of immigrant families with parents who couldn't speak English and no services were available in other languages, so the kids acted as interpreters for them. They got lots of practice at reading because they had to read a lot of their parents' mail for them.

[Paul_Denton]

Thats easy: Because the left runs the schools.

[mc6809e]

Stossel asks South Carolina school official Dolores Wright, "How much money would be right?" Wright answers, "Oooh. Millions. And it would really make it right. ... The more, the better."

When the education system asks for even more money, they're admitting one of two things:

Either they willingly aren't doing a good enough job because they don't think they're paid enough (jerks), or they admit they're incompetent and need to pay more to get better (stupid).

I wonder which it is.

[sono]

The federal courts have ordered BILLIONS of dollars be spent, and there's been practicly no measurable imprivement in the last 25 years.

What I Learned In Public School

[Pharmboy]

This provides a crystal clear example of why powerful unions can do an incredible amount of harm. Their intransigence for real change, their constant whining about more money, their bloated bureaucracies, their socialist agenda, their lies, their focus on themselves and not the kids, etc. etc. need to end or we will never move ahead in education.

[Mark was here]

The true customers for todays public schools are the ones paying the freight. This is the taxpayers, some who have kids in school and some who don't.

The students are receiving a service, but they are not the customers.

Due to privacy laws the customers are not allowed to see what they are purchasing.

Any system where the customer is not shown what is being paid for is bound to be corrupt.

If the taxpayers are paying for little Johnny to take an 9th grade "read-a-movie" English class they have a right to know if Johnny got an "A" or not. They have a right to know if everyone in the class got an "A" or not. Johnny will also know that the taxpayers will also be watching to see the bang they got for their buck.

With the Internet it is now possible to let the taxpayers know what they are paying for.

[Beowulf]

The public school system must have failed. Look what we have in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Could it get any worse than that?

The government and the government schools ---
---a self-perpetuating cycle?

[68skylark]

Stossel asks South Carolina school official Dolores Wright, "How much money would be right?" Wright answers, "Oooh. Millions. And it would really make it right. ... The more, the better."

That quote is great! Congratulations to John Stossel for asking the simple questions that get great answers. I wish there were more like him.

[Aquinasfan]

Are kids in the United States being cheated out of a quality education?

Who cares? It's about free babysitting.

[derllak]

You got that right! Why is it that so many homeschooled kids outperform public school kids on just about every level?
When are people gonna understand that more money ISN'T going to solve the problem!
I saw a report on tv yesterday that showed that kids who were deemed to be "slow", when challenged with harder work, tutored and given the support they needed, improved their grades by leaps and bounds. I think there's a lesson in there. I think our standards for our children are just way too low.

[wagglebee]

The left's solution to everything (except national security) has always been more money. Nothing has ever been accomplished by this, they simply have more of our money.

[Philistone]

Misplaced premise. Last UNESCO data I saw showed that overall, US students ranked 15th in the world in Math and Science.

France (for all its posturing about its "great educational system") ranked 14th.

The UK ranked 22nd, and the vaunted Germans 23rd.

Finland (for what it's worth) ranked first.

Considering that unlike France (one curriculum - heavily geared toward "teaching to the test", one language - everything is taught in French) the US has to educate children from every corner and language of the globe, we're not doing too badly.

[Aquinasfan]

American schools spend about $10,000 per student, totaling $250,000 plus for a class of 25.

LOL! I'm familiar with these stats from years of working for school vouchers. The stats are hilarious, but never publicized by the MSM.

Another stat: the public schools of Washington D.C. have 100 times the number of administrators per pupil as the archdiocese of Washington D.C.

Another telling stat: public school teachers send their children to private schools at twice the rate of the rest of the population.

[Third Order]

Perhaps in some cases, but not at the schools where my wife has taught. Some kids do alright, others languish and the parents are helpless.

[Dustbunny]

Stossel: Are American Kids Stupid?

Only the ones that go to public schools where they are taught absolutely nothing of value. Including how to read, write, add, subtract, geography and history. If all children had the right to be home schooled or charter schooled we would not have to ask the question Are American Kids Stupid?.

The NEA is destroying our children!

[Beowulf]

Good point.

America has lost the plot by allowing liberalism to alter our traditions.

[Cobra64]

Don't ignore the culture at home. If the parents value education, the kids are more likely to do well.

Too many parents today are LAZY and let the little brats do whatever they want. These parents do not DISCIPLINE the little brats. And there is little sense of pride in earning good grades.

[-=[_Super_Secret_Agent_]=-]

website for your stats?

[oceanview]

this whole "american kids are stupid" theme is coming from the fact that education in technology and the sciences is imploding for american kids. but its not because they are stupid, its because the jobs in these fields are moving offshore. the free market tells us that many jobs requiring complex educations no long belong in the US, they can be filled for less cost offshore - so why are we surprised that fewer young people are matriculating into college for them or emphasing these studies in high school?