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If America Spends More Than Most Countries Per Student, Then Why Are Its Schools So Bad?
Business Insider ^ | 01/07/2012 | Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posted on 01/07/2012 2:24:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Spending Per Pupil International

Comparatively speaking, the United States does not starve its education system of revenue. The U.S. is one of the leaders in spending on Education, and yet it's schools are rated "average" by international bodies.  

The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.

Worse, out of 34 OECD countries, only 8 have a lower high school graduation rate. The United States' education outcomes most resemble Poland's, a nation that spends less than half on education than the U.S. 

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: education; liberaleducation; nea; spending; useducation; usschools
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To: SeekAndFind
I believe one of the reasons is that, other than a small group of students, for the vast majority there is no hunger for academic success.

Secondly, a lot of the teachers themselves are not properly qualified to teach tougher subjects like Math and Science, especially at the younger grades. They barely teach just what is necessary to get by. When these kids get into the higher grades, even if they are smart, they cannot understand what is going on because they don't have the proper foundational concepts. Then they start hating those subjects because they feel that they are hopeless them.

41 posted on 01/07/2012 3:03:47 PM PST by Moorings
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To: Farmer Dean
Here's a major reason: If a teacher can stab another teacher 16 times and there's still a possibility she can come back to the same school and teach again.

Almost a month after English teacher Ronette Ricketts was charged with stabbing fellow teacher Cynthia Glozier at least 16 times with a screwdriver at Poughkeepsie High School, city school board officials are silent on whether either teacher will return to her position and what, if any, disciplinary charges may be in store for Ricketts.
When asked Thursday whether the teachers would return to the school, Superintendent of Schools Laval Wilson of the Poughkeepsie City School District said he was unwilling to share “personnel” information on the two women.
He added, “All I can tell you is that there will be disciplinary action taken.”

42 posted on 01/07/2012 3:05:30 PM PST by Krankor ( spare time.)
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To: PapaBear3625

“You forget about “No Child Left Behind”. Even before the passage of that, school districts would get problems if the performance of white students was too much higher than the performance of minority students. Raising performance of minority students is hard. Crippling performance of white students is easier.”

I’m not sure about No Child Left Behind. I remember hearing the teachers screaming about it. About the only thing that would provoke a reaction of that level would be that they were being forced to actually teach something.

As to equal outcomes - I do have that on #7.


43 posted on 01/07/2012 3:07:58 PM PST by BobL ("Heartless" and "Inhumane" FReepers for Cain - we've HAD ENOUGH)
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To: All
If America Spends More Than Most Countries Per Student, Then Why Are Its Schools So Bad?

Because most of the money spent on "education", benefits the "teachers" union-parasites and the "non-educational" union-parasites in your local school districts.

44 posted on 01/07/2012 3:08:36 PM PST by ROCKLOBSTER ( Celebrate Republicans Freed the Slaves Month.)
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To: Doogle
Yep, bears saying again...

Unions


45 posted on 01/07/2012 3:08:36 PM PST by MCH
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To: Krankor

Speaking of stabbing...I have a new student who stabbed a fellow student at her previous school. They just get moved from one school to another. Legal rights of course. Special Ed...moat of which are behavioral.


46 posted on 01/07/2012 3:11:12 PM PST by Conservateacher
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To: SeekAndFind

The ranking reflects the fact that spending does not substantially improve performance among large portions of the American minority student population.


47 posted on 01/07/2012 3:12:45 PM PST by mas cerveza por favor
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To: Conservateacher

“Speaking of stabbing...I have a new student who stabbed a fellow student at her previous school. They just get moved from one school to another. Legal rights of course. Special Ed...moat of which are behavioral.”

Not just that, once the public schools are tired of them, they often get sent to the ‘private’ schools that are willing to take them. That’s what happened to one of the Christian schools that one of my kids went to. They started getting some real animals - but they had empty seats and needed to fill them. Needless to say, public money came with the kids.


48 posted on 01/07/2012 3:16:05 PM PST by BobL ("Heartless" and "Inhumane" FReepers for Cain - we've HAD ENOUGH)
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To: SeekAndFind

Toss together a healthy dose of lazy Dr. Spock parenting combined with liberal/marxist school systems and we get what we have: Lazi slobs not wanting to do anything, be anything, or be accountable for anything but wanting everything for free. That’s a typical Marxist.


49 posted on 01/07/2012 3:18:30 PM PST by CodeToad (Islam needs to be banned in the US and treated as a criminal enterprise.)
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To: Conservateacher

Wow! I’m surprised they even told you about it.


50 posted on 01/07/2012 3:24:49 PM PST by Krankor ( spare time.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I can tell you that No Child Left Behind ain't going to fix things, no matter what Teddy Kennedy or George W. Bush promised. Getting the feds involved with local matters rarely works out.

Turning our kids into drug addicts ain't going to fix things either. We have some friends who moved to the US, and they were pretty shocked at how many of their kids' classmates were taking prescription meds of some kind.

One thing that really bothers me, and I've seen this with my own eyes and heard horror stories from my daughter before she left her teaching job, is the number of parents with a sense of entitlement in regards to their kids. I saw a parent yelling at a teacher over their kid getting an A- on something instead of an A or A+, and claiming that their kid was having a bad day and should be able to take the test over.

This was in elementary school. You'd think it was going to keep the kid from getting into college from the way the parent was acting.

My daughter said parents harassing teachers over grades or their kids getting in trouble is a lot more common than some folks realize.

I just know I'd be in jail on assault charges the first time some parent screamed in my face that their 9 year old missed a couple of math problems because he was having a bad day and deserved to take the test over.
51 posted on 01/07/2012 3:26:50 PM PST by af_vet_rr
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To: Farmer Dean
Almost all the problems we have in American education could be rectified by common sense. It wouldn't take any more money, probably less. Most of the solutions have been known for years and a few moments' thought will enable the reasonable observer to compile a list of five or ten simple changes which would make a massive difference.
52 posted on 01/07/2012 3:35:58 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Krankor

I would have hoped that Ricketts would be charged with attempted murder.After a long prison sentence,her and her lawyer can talk about her going back to the classroom.


53 posted on 01/07/2012 3:37:32 PM PST by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: SeekAndFind

I am a teacher, so let’s see what comes to mind.

*Superintndents have unlimited access to their district’s money. We are labeled an “Impoverishd district” (believe me, that term has many meanings), but weirdly we have the funds to buy cars for the central office staff to drive around in, when they are not driving their his & hers Mercedes ( yes, the suprintndent’s husband has a cushy job in “curriculum” that he got while they lived together.). Friends of the superintendent from down in the delta are retired and have a consulting business that my district employs. We can only guess at the funds that are being thrown at this useless group of women who are getting state retirement & billing the different school districts they are working with. By the way, isn’t that why you ARE a superintendent, to do that?

* Making sure that your friends & relatives all have cushy state jobs.

* Make sure the board members will not ask any questions and rubber stamp whatever you request.

* Hopefully live in a district where the members of the community send their kids to private school because your school is so awful and the other members of the community are so apathetic that you CAN really do whatever you want.

* Maybe in other countries they actually raise their children and work w/ them. The majority in my district & districts like it don’t.


54 posted on 01/07/2012 3:40:42 PM PST by leaning conservative (snow coming, school cancelled, yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Schools are not for teaching kids, didn’t you know? I mean, you COULD teach kids there, it certainly LOOKS like a school and they have all the resources and facilities and such, but the real purpose of what looks to most people like a school is to provide jobs for the local population, particularly the teachers, janitors, grounds-keepers, cafeteria workers, and administrators. And of course all these jobs are financed by the taxpayers, so you have to have a Union to lobby the statehouse and make sure that the spigot of taxpayer cash never runs dry. And of course the Pols like taxpayer cash too, so they join with their Union buddies to make sure they have enough taxpayer cash to get re-elected. It’s a wonderful Win-Win-Win situation, right? People get jobs, Unions get dues, Pols get a cut and vote for more jobs? What could be wrong with a system like this? Ain’t life grand?


55 posted on 01/07/2012 3:44:36 PM PST by bopdowah ("Unlike King Midas, whatever the Gubmint touches sure don't turn to Gold!')
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To: SeekAndFind

We are teaching our kids about gay history, how to put a condom on a cucumber, black history, women’s history and making sure you don’t hurt anybody’s feelings. Learning 2+2=4? It isn’t the school’s job.


56 posted on 01/07/2012 3:45:34 PM PST by ExCTCitizen (If we stay home in November '12, don't blame 0 for tearing up the CONSTITUTION!!)
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To: BobL

“I’m not sure about No Child Left Behind. I remember hearing the teachers screaming about it. About the only thing that would provoke a reaction of that level would be that they were being forced to actually teach something.”

Let me help you make up your mind. The Nazis defederalized the Weimar Republic in order to have a completely unified totalitarian state. Look up the term ‘Gleichshaltung’. Part of their ‘coordination’ was the creation of a national school system, with curriculum content, standards, and personnel approved by the Nazis. As to how this relates to us, the Federal government has been usurping control of education for years, under the guise of providing money, or setting national standards, etc. But the end result in any case is always the Feds taking more power. Even an innocuous-seeming law like NCLB is merely a step in centralizing all power, despite what it appears to do. That, and would you approve of something that Teddy Kennedy approved of?


57 posted on 01/07/2012 3:57:39 PM PST by GenXteacher (He that hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Because “cause & effect”, rewards and punishment are no longer part of the public education of our children.

If little Johnny/Janie receive little or no benefit from success or negative effect from failure then where is the onus to perform better? Now after subsequent generations of publicly “educated” little Johnnys and Janies we now want to blame the parents for not getting involved? Why get involved?

They’ve been told for generations that they are just biological beings and that as Americans they hold no special promise. So why bother with extra effort?
And now they have a leader who wants to forgive any delinquent behavioral situation that they may have and reward them with sustenance from the “evil” successful people who have stolen there wealth from the rest of us. God help us.
58 posted on 01/07/2012 4:14:20 PM PST by John 3_19-21 (A lie told over and over again is still just a lie and the one telling it a liar.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Wow! We spend 50% more per student than Finland and almost twice as much as New Zealand, both world leaders in quality of education. So much for the ‘more money, better teaching’ argument.


59 posted on 01/07/2012 4:15:21 PM PST by tanuki (Left-wing Revolution: show biz for boring people.)
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To: SeekAndFind

IMO Unions, wrongheaded administration deciions ,and a total lack of discipline.

The one other thing IMO is that we look at education as a right, and it should be a privilege. Those who cause problems in class and don’t want to learn, holding back those who do need to be shown the door.Also we spend entirely too much on sports in school and not near enough on scholastic achievement.

Show me a school today and I will show you a football stadium, baseball field, soccar field, basketball court, showers ,uniforms, all the athletic appurtenances,-—— and a lone file cabinet in some teacher’s room for the National Honor Society.


60 posted on 01/07/2012 4:17:13 PM PST by Venturer
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