Rights are the freedoms to act without government interference.
There is no such thing as a "right" which enslaves another person.
Go private. They have to issue vouchers that make the kids "worth" the same amount to every school in the area. This is because the property taxes are so irregular. Once the system gets going they need to slowly do away with the vouchers, end property taxes, and have everyone pay for their own kids to go to school. As it is an 80 year old can have their home paid off for 30 years and still have that same home confiscated for not sending money to the pathetic public schools.
1. de-unionize all public education.
2. fire 90% of administrators and 100% of consultants. fire ineffective teachers.
3. turn education over to the teachers and parents. require parental involvement. fine parents who are abusive or not involved. hand out dvd's for parents that provide educational guidelines for their children and what's expected of parents.
4. get sex education out of schools. make sex education available on dvd's for the kids to take home.
5. return education to the basics that were taught successfully when sat scores peaked in 1963. economics and business courses should be required of all students.
6. get anti-american texts out of schools.
Are you looking to teach as a profession? Or are you sending your child into the school system?
Very excellent first post and well worth a thorough discussion.
Because public education is "free" it is treated as having no value.
Parents should have to pay an "education tax" for each child. Then they would pay more attention to what their children are being taught in the public schools.
Parents have abrogated their parental rights to the public schools, their judgement to the welfare state and their values to the pop, rap culture.
Time to tax CD's, video games and movies to publicly fund college education and time for parents to realize that the most important investments in their own futures are their sons and daughters.
sp
Gates: Get U.S. schools in order
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1396969/posts
Home school.
This is the article that I intended to link.
A lesson for the education system (Gates donates $52 million to school without classrooms or exams)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1377026/posts
This is a great topic. Does anyone have the school ping list. I would bet there are lots of good ideas to be found there. I will add my two cents: Use a meaningful grading system, get rid of non-core course work, bring back music and the arts (chorus, band, orchestra, theater are really fun and worthwhile). Just a few thoughts. LS, anything to add?
I have two kids in public schools. Both of them are performing well above their peers. My seven year old, in second grade, is currently reading and spelling/"vocabbing" at a seventh-grade level.
Public schools are supplemental to what my husband and I teach our kids at home. Sadly, most kids aren't so fortunate. Fixing public education will only help so much.
Get rid of the Dept. of Education and the teachers' unions.
Bring back the paddle.
Existing case law, as interpreting the 14th Am "liberty" clause, gives parents the right to control their children's education (along with rights of the family, procreation, privacy, etc.). But, there is nothing in the Constitution saying that anyone actually has the right to receive an education.
As for public vs. private or the fate of the education system in general, others within the forum can tell you a heck of a lot more than I can. As for going to college, however, if you are in a public school and you are not in the top 10% of your graduating class, then you better have a really good SAT score to get into one of the big universities. It seems like the universities have the same grim outlook on public education as many people do.
What should be done?
First, the dept. of Education should be ABOLISHED, and then people should stop paying property taxes to support the drone mills that are the public schools, and then people can form private schools and teach whatever they want -- and pay for their kids to go there.
If people are too poor to pay, I'm sure that those who are concerned about uneducated children will volunteer time to educate kids.
And that would be the end of it.