Posted on 03/08/2010 8:08:29 AM PST by reaganaut1
While government leaders attempt to tackle budget deficits that are ballooning to historic proportions, 55% of Americans say the government does not spend enough money on public education.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 20% think the government spends too much on public education, while another 21% say the amount it spends is about right.
Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Democrats and 55% of voters not affiliated with either party say the government does not spend enough, a view shared by just 42% of Republicans.
Among all voters, 45% believe it is more important for the government to aid low-income students than to help the best and brightest pupils, up four points from a survey last May. Twenty-six percent (26%) see helping the best and brightest students as more important. Twenty-nine percent (29%) more are not sure.
Most Democrats (63%) and a plurality (46%) of unaffiliated voters see aiding low-income students as the priority. Republicans are more narrowly divided: 41% say helping the best and brightest is more important, while 26% think the emphasis should be on low-income students.
Married voters are closely divided on the question, too.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of all voters say they have been following recent news reports about proposed cuts in public education funding due to state budget problems.
Last August, only 17% of Americans believed teachers should be asked to take furloughs or pay cuts to help deal with the budget crises that are facing many school systems nationwide.
President Obama has said U.S. children need to spend more time in school to make them more competitive with students from other countries, and 49% of Americans think the president is right. Thirty-seven percent (37%) disagree.
(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...
This is similar to polls that you see on incumbants.
Generally, Congressional approval ratings are always low. But if you ask a person how they feel about their specific congresscritter, the answer is positive.
Basically, we have a system where all spending is bad - except spending that I like. And all elected representatives are awful - except mine.
All public education: funding by federal, state, and local governments. And all levels: pre-K through college.
Yes.
I believe public education can't be fixed.
The only way to ‘fix’ public schools is for parents to be more involved in their kids education.
Here’s what happens when you attempt to get involved. Flash back ‘99:
I went through a background check - no probs. Children would arrive before school and sit in the hallways (No Talking!), no library, no playground - nothing. Some buses arrived over an hour early.
So, I went to the Principal and volunteered to shelve every book that any child removed from the shelf before school while in the library. Nope. “Union Workers only” who did not want “non union volunteers”. Then after the first 6 weeks, no child was allowed to check out a book. No one wanted to re-shelve them??! So again I volunteered - same response.
At a PTO meeting, I was the only parent who showed up. “Our property - Our Rules.” Against me? President of the Parents part, President of the Teacher part and Union Boss.
We began HSing the next year.
Parents are not wanted in the majority of the schools except for Parent/Teacher conferences.
They might just find out what really goes on there.
How about just primary and secondary? Start talking universities and you get into public vs. private, research vs. subsidies, etc., etc.
In 2006 they received $521 billion in state, federal, and local funding out of a GDP of $13,202 billion. That comes to 3.9%.
I believe there is a cause and effect relationship between money and achievement (above a minimum amount of money, certainly lower than now.) As money increases, achievement will decrease.
How many special needs students?
What kills public schools is the demands placed on them by special needs students and all state and federal hoops you have to jump through for them.
Busing, accessibility, extra aides, psyschologists, etc. That stuff adds up.
Find out where your local school district teaches its TMI students. Go to that classroom. Count the number of teachers and the amount of equipment in that room. Then divide that number by the number of students. Tell me what you get.
They don’t spend enough on education. They do,however, spend plenty on useless, extraneous crap like gay issues, Marxist doctrine, “even stupid kids are smart” programs, and the like.
The problem is not money, the problem is that the schools don’t teach. Just this morning I had a conversation with a student who is in the tenth grade, I asked him a few questions about history and government, he couldn’t answer a single one. The questions all concerned things that I was required to learn in the first seven years of school.
LMAO. Okay, lets tax ONLY those idiots who said we need to spend more.
It’s always seemed worse in education. Although, it doesn’t bother me that much because good teachers are definitely more valuable than any administrator. However, a new principal who lacks discipline can turn a decent school to absolute crap in a fairly short amount of time.
Reminds me of the old adage, "Those that can, do, those that cannot, teach, and those which cannot do either, administrate..."
the infowarrior
That’s also true, but any admin worth his salt would be pulling his weight.
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