Posted on 10/12/2021 6:11:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
What is the greatest threat to educating children today? Is it COVID-19, or ignorance? I'm going for number two. There is growing evidence to back me up.
In August, Oregon Governor Kate Brown privately signed a bill ending a requirement that high school students prove they are proficient in writing, reading, and math before graduating. The law lasts for three years. The pandemic was blamed for students falling behind, but the real motive was revealed by the governor's spokesman, Charles Boyle, who said existing standards failed students who don't test well and that new standards would aid the state's "Black, Latino, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal and students of color." I'm surprised he didn't include, as President Biden often does, the LGBTQI-plus demographic.
In New York, outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered the elimination of the city's gifted and talented program. You can probably guess the reason. Critics of the program claim it is racist because white and Asian students are overwhelmingly represented. De Blasio will let children currently enrolled complete the program, but no new students will be accepted. Instead, reports The New York Times, "The system will be replaced by a program that offers the possibility of accelerated learning to students in the later years of elementary school." Who will qualify for that? And who gets to say? What if it is the same racial and ethnic imbalance as now?
De Blasio ludicrously claimed, "I bet you a lot of parents are going to look at this plan and say this is a reason to stay in public schools." Quite the opposite. Enrollment in city public schools has fallen below 890,000 students — down from more than a million kids a decade ago, according to internal Department of Education (DOE) records viewed by The New York Post. COVID-19 is only part of the reason. Home-schooling and people moving out of New York are likely bigger contributors to the exodus. Over the past five years - starting before COVID - New York City public schools shed at least 10 percent of their students, according to DOE figures.
The decline in American education is not a new trend, but it has been accelerated in recent years by certain politicians who allow their ideology and politics to replace outcomes.
I've written about the Children's Scholarship Fund (CSF) in the past because it has a record of success, which ought to be the primary goal, not pleasing politicians and teachers' unions. According to CSF's website, "In New York City, 99.4 percent of CSF alumni responding to our alumni survey graduated high school on time in 2018, compared to the most recent average NYC public school graduation rate of 77.3 percent. Of the CSF alumni who graduated, 87 percent indicated they planned to enroll in college." The same gap between CSF students and public schools exists in other cities where they are active.
What is - or ought to be - especially pleasing is the testimonies given by the mostly minority students who have been rescued from their failing public schools and given a chance at a real education, not to mention a moral framework for how to live a good life. Read some these stories on the site.
Since their founding, CSF has provided $885 million in scholarships for 185,000 children. In the past school year, CSF and local partners distributed $46.9 million scholarship awards. More children could be rescued if more politicians adopted school choice, which is a growing trend, along with homeschooling.
Cutting a gifted and talented program and not requiring kids to read, write or do basic math flunks the test of what education is supposed to mean and limits a child's job and career opportunities. That is a form of child abuse.
The decline has been going on for about four decades now.
We need to find Con Men and have them teach classes at all of our schools.
Our kids need to be able to immediately know when the Democrats are running another con game.
You can teach the kids Trigonometry and how to balance chemical equations and how to diagram a sentence, but they’ll still be stupid and vote Democrat.
The kids need to understand human nature and how it can shape their lives.
The Education Industry is like an industry — it wants to make money.
If the school systems were turning out huge numbers of extremely well-educated students, then the teachers unions would certainly receive a pat on the head — but would they receive more money? Why would we do that? If they are all excelling with the current budget ... no increase needed.
How to maximize the money? Have a lot of failed students. If many students are failing, the answer to the problem must surely be: “Throw money at it”.
The system is designed to fail. That’s where the money is.
It is the parent’s fault, you trusted teachers and schools. An education is quite easy. Books are still free at the local library, the internet is an unending well of actual education material. If your little snowflake or dewdrop is uneducated, YOU failed as a parent. Same as if they are little liberals. YOU FAILED. Read, Write, Math. Everything can be boiled down to if you taught your child how to read, and how to write, and how to do Math. Books are an unending source for education. Most used book stores can sell you the classics of western education for less than the cost of your kids public education supplies.
Stop with the public schools already, teach them at home. Don’t tell me you don’t have time, stop watching television and use that time for something useful.
Once the GOP in states do the right thing and foster school competition, it’s over for the failed government schools. The problem is, they have not done this. They need a charismatic leader and hard worker at the federal level to assist and cheerlead and do whatever the federal government can do to assist. Just being a “believer” is not sufficient, we need a leader. Mega wealthy Betsy DeVois had the heart, but not the leadership skills.
Even unschooling is better than public schools and most private schools.
Not that I disagree, but I’m guessing you don’t have kids.
An understanding of human nature is achieved through age, like, and as part of wisdom. It cannot be taught.
Children need a faith and confidence that the commies in our schools are unwilling to teach. It is too much to even go into, here, but they need to be aligned with what the parents want their children to learn.
The parents need to learn that they do not live in a Chicago ghetto, if they don’t. Too many want to pretend that they do, thus insuring they will.
Low-Tuition Cost Private School Models
Many of our fellow Americans live in areas where leftists have poisoned the school systems.
TRADITIONAL TEACHER MODEL
My primary model would have about twenty kids in a class and a tuition of around $3,500/year/student.
Each teacher would set his/her tuition rate and maximum class size and handle student admission. Homeowner associations might host hook-up events for teachers, parents and prospective students. Tuition might be paid monthly for affordability and two months in advance (so it won’t be problem for the teacher if the parents have a major car repair bill one month).
Men and women who have good English and math skills but lack high-value technical skills might choose to become such teachers.
Teachers might provide their SAT scores and college transcript information to prospective parental customers. Independent certification authorities might thoroughly test the teachers and issue report cards.
Classrooms might be set up in commercial space no longer usable for retail stores because of excessive minimum wages or shrinkage.
A classroom might have four rows of five students each and might be around 1,000 square feet in size.
The curriculum might be based on a traditional state model, a current state model, a proprietary model or the teacher’s own handiwork.
PARENTAL ASSISTANCE MODEL
The Parental Assistance Model would have a parent of each child assist the teacher for a period of two weeks each school year.
The teacher would provide necessary training for the parents during several weekends prior to the school year.
Parents who don’t have the time or skill to fulfill their responsibilities would have to pay and arrange for substitutes. At 35 hours a week for two weeks at $30/hour with employer taxation, hiring a substitute might cost $1050. High-income parents would often seek low-income household parents to substitute, thereby helping the low-income household parents pay tuition.
PARENT TEACHER MODEL
The Parental Teacher Model would be the lowest cost form. It would have a parent of each child be a teacher for a period of two weeks each school year.
Parents looking to participate would obtain the necessary training and certification from a specialized training organization over about 100 classroom hours prior to the school year. This organization or another would obtain and maintain the physical classroom space.
Parents who don’t have the time or skill to fulfill their responsibilities would have to pay or arrange for substitutes.
PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITION FUNDING by SCHOOL PROPERTY TAX REBATE
To assist parents in paying tuition and to be fair to the parents, the amount of school taxes they (and perhaps the parents’ parents) pay on their residence(s) might be rebated.
Eventually, rebates might be paid for past year tuition as well, so if parents pay $7,500/year tuition for two kids and $3,000/year in school taxes, the $4,500/year difference could be rebated to the parents in the years after their kids graduate.
It is no longer possible for Republicans to reform systems at the federal level, so Republicans must enact state-level reforms.
Answer: PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
What a completely arrogant and ignorant thing to write.
That’s one of the first crazy things I’ve seen you post (I like your posts).
Education in America is divorced of money, now at all levels. It is the Devil’s playground for destructive ideologies because there is no accountability, financial or otherwise.
Its isolation from free market incentives drives it to select the un-American in what it teaches - Commies teach Communism.
Can you elaborate? I wasn’t trying to insult. I think an understanding of human nature cannot be taught in school, that’s all. It doesn’t sound arrogant, to me.
Strike two.
“The Decline in American Education”
This is a PERFECT EXAMPLE for the “Can’t get any worse (troll) crowd here”.
We all thought the schools sucked 10 years ago (except, of course, the schools we send our kids to), but now they suck even more, and if left unchecked (meaning in full control of the Left), they will suck FAR MORE. We can only guess what’s coming, but I expect the kids will soon be taught how to spy on their parents and be given devises to assist that (such as microphones to hide), thus enabling ‘authorities’ to more easily identify the ‘troublemakers’. Just one prediction, but likely many more bad things ahead.
So as people here get more and more angry at RINOs, you may want to consider just who you’re EMPOWERING by your anger...and, no, you have not seen ANYTHING yet, regarding what they plan to do with our side.
One hundred years ago American high school students were being taught Latin. Today, American college FRESHMEN are being taught remedial math and English.
Maybe we need to go back to the way things were in the American classroom. Oh, and another nugget. In my local high school (which is in a rural town in SC) they have dropped the level of passing or “mastery” to 60%. So now if a student gets a 60 on something they pass. Last year, no one was allowed to fail to prevent them from graduating. So you had students with grades in the 20s being passed and “given” high school diplomas.
I certainly agree that ideology is the main problem with government schools.
I think government schools stay in use, and expand, because they fail, and the non-voluntary customers (taxpayers) convince themselves that funding additional government schooling is a solution (it isn’t).
I think the real solution is ending all government involvement in education and going strictly to a real for-profit education system at all age levels. If the new school pushes a bad ideology, take your dollars elsewhere. Many people don’t really have that option today, but they deserve to have the option.
The current situation seems driven by higher costs aimed at a worse product. It’s a very bad circular situation and we need to get off that wheel.
Note to ELON MUSK:
PLEASE find a partner with a solid ONLINE education system.
Give the kids a discount on STARLINK.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.