Posted on 03/10/2011 5:32:11 PM PST by Kaslin
Government: Education Secretary Arne Duncan blames — you guessed it — George W. Bush for the steep decline of public schools. How much failure does it take for politicians to recognize government as the problem?
It was shock time at the House Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Education unveiled an almost unbelievable number regarding the breakdown of the public school system: By next year, some 82% of all U.S. public schools could be failing.
Secretary Duncan, in warning the panel, actually echoed longtime criticisms of federal education policy.
"By mandating and prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions," Duncan charged, the Bush administration's bipartisan No Child Left Behind law "took away the ability of local and state educators to tailor solutions to the unique needs of their students."
President Obama's purported answer is a political no-brainer: cut the locals some slack from federal rules.
But what Duncan actually proposes has been described as "a single national assessment system" by critics like University of Arkansas professor of education reform Sandra Stotsky, who was a longtime commissioner in the Massachusetts public school system.
A year and a half ago, Duncan was telling the National Press Club that the various state educational benchmarks amounted to "a race to the bottom" because "we have 50 different standards, 50 different goal posts."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I can think of a lot of things I could do for the kids if I didn't have to pay my feudal serfdom fees (i.e., property taxes) to rent my property from the government and fund public schools.
Do my eyes deceive me? Is the Secretary of Education admitting that Central Planning doesn’t work for education? Why the alternative would be...
Free enterprise? No, that would be unthinkable!
“If every government school in this nation were to close tomorrow the **same** children who are getting an education today, would get one tomorrow. Why? Answer: Because all of the REAL work is being done IN THE HOME!”
Yes, that pretty much nails it. A large part of educational mythology is the belief that any gains that students make are a direct result of what goes on in the school. Educrats can’t fathom that people can learn anything on their own.
They have no incentive to get better, only incentive to get worse. The premise is always “We’re doing poorly because we don’t have enough money,” so the worse they do, the more money they need.
Central planning never has and never will work.
Limited human knowledge within the most brilliant of us keeps it from happening.
Another hand planned this life we live, and he must be laughing at our efforts to “plan our future”.
That is EXACTLY what is so great about the United States. We get 50 different models of experimentation. The best systems succeed, naturally. Other states emulate what works and eschew what doesn't work in the poorly scoring states. Plus, people and businesses both vote with their feet and move to the successful states.
With a one-size-fits-all federal model, every state is GUARANTEED to fail.
“By mandating and prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions,” Duncan charged, the Bush administration’s bipartisan No Child Left Behind law “took away the ability of local and state educators to tailor solutions to the unique needs of their students.”
Notice how fat boy Teddy skates on this one.
Yes, close it totally. Win-Win!
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http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/index.html
“ED currently administers a budget of $69.9 billion in discretionary appropriations (including discretionary Pell Grant funding) under the FY 2011 Continuing Resolution annualized level and operates programs that touch on every area and level of education. The Department’s elementary and secondary programs annually serve nearly 14,000 school districts and approximately 56 million students attending some 99,000 public schools and 34,000 private schools. Department programs also provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to more than 15 million postsecondary students.”
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Close it and all that spending goes away, and I am convinced that the quality of education would greatly improve...Win-Win!!!
“...demand the privatization of education...”
Yes. Privatization is what is needed. I believe that the crux of the matter is in our state compulsory education laws.
Compulsory education laws enable the states to appropriate tax money. Then we get people in various levels of government trying to figure out just how that money gets spent rather than what’s best for any particular student.
Does my reasoning make sense?
There was a time when local governments were in total control of their schools. They were public schools with local control, local hiring, local taxing, local funding, local supervision. That seemed to work with little resources.
That is not the case now.
Would private schools work? Possibly but there is no pattern that supports that now.
There would be absolutely no loss if this whole department were defunded and disbanded.
It’s amazing how far we are away from what you describe.
It’s hard to imagine the Federal and State governments loosening their control of the system. Lot’s of money at stake.
It just seems more practical for parents to homeschool, or afterschool. There may be opportunities for some teachers to work within that market.
They didn’t forget...
There was a time when local governments were in total control of their schools. They were public schools with local control, local hiring, local taxing, local funding, local supervision.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Let’s call the above what it was and what it would be if we returned to it:
**Collectivism,
**Socialism,
**Voter mob control over the heart and souls of the captive children and parents under the thumb of the government to use it, and the feudal serfs ( misnamed property tax payers) force to pay for it.
ALL compulsory attendance, compulsory funded, government schools are a First Amendment and freedom of conscience abomination! This is true even if the school district was the size of suburban housing development.
Solution: Begin the process of privatizing **all** education on every level.
:}
I’d like to add, stop it with that “Integrated Math” crap!
That just teaches kids to hate Math.
I can find a few...
and
and
This is hilarious beyond words. Of course Bush was stupid beyond words for allowing "partisanship (the old 'Rat definition)" to sucker him into signing on to this turkey. He should not have signed it; but...
Who wrote and pushed the Bill? and suckered or blackmailed Bush into signing it? Was it part of military appropriations?
I will have to back up are research that. But...
Conveniently for DemonRats, the media has forgotten that this was that grand educator, Ted “Killer Whale” Kennedy's bill.
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