Posted on 04/09/2011 6:29:39 PM PDT by BillKneer
Almost daily I continue to submit my requests to Congress, asking them to cut the federal funding of Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and the national assessments.
Besides the obvious — that CCS/RTTT is a federal takeover of the public schools and lies way outside the provisions of the U. S. Constitution — American taxpayers simply cannot afford it.
Besides the cost of states’ dumping their own textbooks, standards, and tests in order to implement the Common Core Standards, the cost of the national assessments alone would be horrendous!
An education technology expert whose name I shall keep confidential explained to me how expensive the national assessments would actually be, and the costs would fall squarely on the shoulders of local taxpayers.
To take the national assessments, every student in a school (K-12) would be required to have his/he own individual technology device because the multi-media, interactive assessments are to be given online; and students would continually be taking formative assessments (a.k.a., periodic, benchmarked) throughout the entire school year.
The USAC Universal Service Fund, which is presently tacked onto the price of all of our cell phones and home phone bills, already supplies Internet Access (IA) at a reduced fee for every public school and library in the country.
The USAC spends $2.5 Billion each year just on telecom, IA, and building infrastructure to these schools and libraries. Therefore, the costs are very substantial already.
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotstatesman.com ...
Thanks for the post. Hadn’t heard of it to this point.
Further reasons to defund, and follow with elimination of Dept. of Education, and most every other instrument of Leftist control in our government.
At this point I’m NOT for elimination of public schools, just Federal Control of them. I believe public education is for the States, and would prefer it a localized control. I believe the less government involvement, the more parental involvement, the better for all our children.
Thanks for your response as I’d never heard of this “We are one” teachers tool kit, which is quite obviously Communist indoctrination. I’m outraged, and I will pass this information on to many on my email list.
The crap reminds me of video of students in nazi Germany pledging their lives to the fuhrer.
The youth were where the nazis found their greatest success. It was a lost generation.
Great post Bill, thanks!
Education funding reels the mind. It’s all I can do to keep track of my property tax bill on my home, the largest share of which goes to State Education, with local Education running a close second.
Can you give us a thumbnail sketch of exactly how much money the Department of Education has access to in a year, and how much of that money goes toward nothing other than DOE Administration?
So often we get these numbers filtered down as per/pupil costs which diminishes how much we really are spending on nothing more than a Federal jobs shop.
Thanks again for a very informative post....
Elimination of teachers unions would go a long way toward fixing the schools and slashing costs.
The common core standards by themselves are fine. Not quite as good as Singapore’s math standards, however.
The youth were where the nazis found their greatest success. It was a lost generation.
The schemers always attempt to mold the children, because the formative years are when they are most susceptible to indoctrination.
Anybody with an agenda knows this. To myself, the filthiest pieces of trash are those who prey on children to advance their goals. When schools take an active role in usurping your parental rights, the State is not far behind.
Eliminating the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, HUD, and Interior would be a good start. Roll the federal budget back to FY 2008. Then cash out all Social Security funds to workers 55 years and younger. This cash out would be for the workers’ contributions, the employers’ marching contributions, and the interest for these funds set at the rate of the 5 year Treasury Bond.
There is another post about Seattle teachers renaming Easter Eggs. Easter Spheres. This alone is reason enough to eliminate Public Schools and the Dept of education. Before it is too late.
The school is the State.
“Unfortunately, there is not a cost-effective way to deliver IA to every public school student without their also paying a $30 a month IA fee along with the cost of the technology device. In fact, the cost of the device itself is becoming incidental to the monthly fees over which AT&T, Verizon, and other companies are salivating.”
If you have, say six children, at $30 a month per child that would come to $1620 a year. It might be cheaper to homeschool.
Ah! Crony capitalism! Another term is "education-industrial-complex".
In my county, there is no other business that has the number of employees, or size of payroll, of our government school. No other business comes even close. Then add to this the vendors and their employees who provide goods and services to the government schools. Even my dentist and his 5 employees depend on the dental insurance brought into the office by school workers and their families.
As conservatives we should stop looking to the church for help in getting our children out of the godless government schools. There are too many workers from the education-industrial-complex sitting in the pews. Few ministers will bite the hand that feeds them. That hand putting money in the collection plate is firmly attached to the education-industrial-complex.
Excellent article!
Of course, in an ideal world there would be complete separation of school and state, but the following are a few ways to help reduce school costs to the state:
1) Let any child of any age take the GED, or a similar private exam. If they pass they are awarded an official high school diploma from their local high school. As more children finish early, there will be less need for teachers, and possibly whole schools could be closed and consolidated.
2)Allow private or government qualifying exams for every subject in every grade. If a child masters a subject he could then move on to the next level in that subject. Again, the faster children move through the system, the sooner they can graduate. This means fewer teachers and schools will be needed.
3) Move all sports, theater, arts, and music to the county Departments of Recreation. In my county, it is impossible to have any chance of playing teen level team sports unless the teen attends the government school. Also, these programs create tremendous “rah-rah” support for the schools in the voting booth.
4) This year we received in the mail an advertisement of a state run On-line charter school.
All of the above will help remove children from the state system, reduce the need for school workers and schools, help foster private tutoring, and help parents understand that they can, indeed, take charge of their own children's education.
Good point!
School is what the state will be in a generation or two.
The first whack at the foundations of the family was in the mid-1800s when the first compulsory government schools opened. Doing this removed from the father his responsibility of educating his children.
Thanks for the correction. No sarcasm.
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.