Posted on 01/25/2012 10:55:37 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Bill Cosby on education: More funding is not the answer Caroline May - The Daily Caller 1 hr 41 mins ago
Shortly before President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union on Tuesday night, comedian Bill Cosby joined with school choice advocates to discuss the “State of American Education.”
According to Cosby, the country can try as many education reforms as it wants but the real key is getting parents involved and concerned about their children’s education. Cosby added that additional funding is not the answer to America’s education woes.
“Cuts, cuts, cuts, that is what we hear, but education is not a thing that big bucks happens to be the answer [to]. The answer is — with education comes teaching children to respect and love questions, looking for the answer, reading,” he said, explaining that these responsibilities fall on the parents, teachers, and school officials.
Cosby demanded answers from Education Secretary Arne Duncan, asking why, with so much money going into the schools, the taxpayers still cannot get the value they put in. Instead of whining about cuts, he said, schools and towns should be looking for solutions outside the box.
“Okay — we know there are cuts, then let’s work with it. Let’s go to churches, find retired teachers who would like to join us in the basement of the church to work with the child,” Cosby said. “There are ways we can work around this and we have to talk and we have to move.”
(Excerpt) Read more at old.news.yahoo.com ...
Cosby is one of the very few folks with an education degree (PhD, I believe) who actually demonstrates that he has knowledge about education.
Cosby is on the right track, but demanding answers from the Feds as to why kids can't learn is like asking your dog.
You disgrace my dog’s good name.
Education today is NOT about imparting knowledge from one generation to the next as it should be - It’s about social indoctrination. All you need to know about what’s wrong with education today is to see that unrepentant terrorist William Ayers is a noted expert on educational curriculum.
“You can lead a horse to water...”
Then he should understand the the curricula designed by the Billy Ayers marxists is designed to destroy cognitive function of children—deliberately using BF Skinner techniques which target individualism and “thinking outside the box”—to destroy it-—through strands and methodologies which teach moral relativism—that destroys logic and Ethics intentionally.
The Socialism of John Dewey and this “kill God curricula”-—particularly elimination of the Christian religion, is destroying all the principles of Just Law and Freedom of Religion and Conscience (as we see with the forcing of “sodomy is good” mafia and “abortion is a right” mafia. You can NOT have FREEDOM of Religion with a government that forces Evil as a Right. It is illogical—demeans human beings, and removes the right of parents to raise their children with Ethics and religious freedom.
Christianity is the most rational of all religions because of St. Thomas Aquinas and his reasoning that Faith and Reason should never be in disagreement-—in fact, they enhance each other. Atheism takes “faith” also and we have a government forcing God out of our children’s conscience and forcing Marxist/hedonist/atheism in.
Virtue since Plato has been known to be NECESSARY in ALL Civil Societies. Destroy the Virtue and Character of the next generation-—rot it with anal sex-—and you will destroy all respect for other human beings and reduce them to the Darwinism of dog eat dog. The Marxists Billy Ayers and his ACORN army have been working for this destruction of morality since the 50’s—Kinsey and Hefner and Deep Throat indoctrination forced by the Foundations, publishing companies, and University and media take over by marxists to destroy all reason and faith and morality in our children.
Bill Cosby is right. A major contributing factor to the success of private schools is the commitment the parents of privately educated students are forced to take on. Beyond the financial investment commitment, teachers hound parents about grades, assignments, meetings, participation, behavior. As a parent, you always know, what is going on in class, what is expected of your student and how they are doing.
When your child is not doing well, you hear about it long before you find a bad grade on a report card. My wife and I are proud of our daughters very good grades. But we recently received an e-mail and a note about a D on a science test because it was so unusual for out daughter to get less than a B let alone a D. We investigated and she confused a “focal point” with an “epicenter” on a test about “Plate Tectonics” (4th grade). It was essential knowledge to answer several questions correctly. She knows now and still ended up with an A in the class as she does extra credit.
We think the voluntary poverty and time is worth the investment for our children.
Try looking at education as a businessman.
In California, the state gives each school $9000 per pupil or something like.
There are 30 kids in the classroom.
Pretend that one child is attending one class for the day between 8am and 3pm.
Students attend class for roughly 185 days a year.
Now, let us do the math.
9000X30= $270000
One classroom is receiving $270000 a school year from the state for being open eight hours a day for half the year.
Try thinking what you could accomplish if you had a private school with that type of cash. Could you operate a school where each class was receiving $270000 a year?
The teacher’s salary and benefits probably equals $70000 a year
So that leaves $200000 per classroom after the deduction of teacher’s expenses.
And get this, the capital costs have already been paid for.
The school, classroom, desks, chairs, etc have already been paid for, and that money usually comes from a separate fund than what is used for teaching and classroom expenses.
Even when you figure that part of the these capital costs are included as part of the $200000, those are not yearly recurring costs.
What are the recurring operating expenses. basic overhead like electricity, insurance, maintenance, of one classroom?
Probably at most a few thousand dollars per classroom.
All the administration costs would be diluted, because each classroom would contribute a share of their $200K for the overall administration of the school.
So when you deduct labor, capital, operating costs, each classroom should be bringing in over $100K to each classroom from the state in theoretical profit.
But schools don’t make a profit, so where is that money going to?
This is an ongoing problem, but there's virtually no hope of turning some school districts around if this is the key. Not with multiple generations having come through the same system. Most of those parents are not capable of helping to rectify this problem.
Did the yahoo editors at Yahoo really think this sentence needed to be ended with a preposition?
Cosby is a pretty smart guy who knows how to speak. I doubt he would be ending his own sentence this way.
He is right about education, though. Kids from the past were taught a lot more with a lot less and ended up being pretty smart.
You sound like a "teacher." They all say that, but somehow then they argue that more teachers will make things better.
Anyone who cares about this should read John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education. You can even read it for free at Gatto's website.
(If you do want to read it for free, be sure to be sure to use the "Printer Friendly Version" button near the top of "page 1" of each chapter.)
ML/NJ
“But schools don’t make a profit, so where is that money going to?”
You’re in CA and I’m in CA.
Call your local school district, and pose the question to them.
I’m sure they’d be pleased to have the chance to explain and document the numbers for you.
/s
But you cant make it drink.
You can lead a child to school ,
but you can’t make it think.
He was right about black men needing to step up to being responsible fathers. He’s right about this, too.
Exactly, ‘gator.
Everything about the pretender’s speech last night was appalling, but no less his call for mandatory high school graduation or HS until reaching the age 18.
There are kids who simply do not want to learn. Keeping them in school like it’s a prison isn’t going to make them want to learn and it is NOT the job of the president or of government to hold them as hostages.
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