Posted on 08/17/2009 5:46:08 PM PDT by Kaslin
Government: States are scrambling to rewrite educational laws solely to qualify for federal stimulus payouts. Is this pork really about helping schools — or extending federal power?
With cash comes power. For the latest payout, $4.3 billion for a program called "Race to the Top," states have been told that to get their share, they'll have to accept two big changes.
One would link teachers' pay to student scores. The other would end all caps on charter schools. Both sound innocuous and unobjectionable, and indeed in some districts may be helpful.
But they may create other problems.
First, not all school districts are alike and don't need the same rules to achieve excellence. The narrowly defined linkage of teacher salaries to student test scores sounds good. But is it?
Teachers criticized President Bush for 2002's No Child Left Behind Act, saying it overemphasized scores and imposed too many rules. The Obama approach is even more rigid, making test scores more important to teachers by tying their paychecks to scores.
The problem is, schools differ. What about a California school full of gangbangers anxious to break a teacher by denying her a raise?
Preconditions coming out of the federal bureaucracy could easily backfire in corrupting ways. Worse, excessive preconditions set a bad precedent by expanding federal power in local schools.
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If this is true, the amount of money that governmenet schools will get depends in part on how many children are enrolled in them. The more homeschooling parents there are, the less of our money they will get.
Hugo Chavez is rewriting education walls too
“When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community’.”
Adolph Hitler Speech November 1933
http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=Gdnznz6UZu
They already have education
With so many folks out of work anymore, maybe it is the ideal time to start homeschooling. For the amount of money most spend on getting the recommended supplies and necessary clothes, they could have a curriculum. Mom and dad take turns doing the teaching, and, if you form a co op of other homeschooling families, it can be a great experience.
Don’t let them have your children! All they see is dollar signs every time they see a pregnant lady. One more number to bump their share of the DOE pie. Love them enough not to let them get indoctrinated. You will need them now more than ever to help in the garden, hunt, fish, and do other chores, as it was meant to be from the beginning anyway. I am pretty sure Mary didn’t send Jesus off to school, and he turned out pretty well........
Bankrupt school districts, e.g. Detroit, will jump through flaming hoops to get money.
Education of its residents should be the sole responsibility of each STATE and the Federal Government should have NO say-so. Let the Federal Government help fund COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES only, since graduates have to meet certain qualifications to be licensed nationwide.
Education, and particularly higher education, will be the next bubble to burst.
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