Posted on 01/07/2012 2:24:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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 ...
Two Reasons:
SIGHT WORDS (i.e., Whole Language)
FUZZY MATH
Once we left teaching from the bottom up (i.e., phonics and math without calculators) we were DOOMED. And the people leading the charge knew it - and wanted it that way, so as to take us down a few notches in the world.
It’s the NEA.
Maybe because the most important factor in a well educated child is a home environment where a kid is encouraged to learn and their parents actively support their education? If it was otherwise, then the Wash DC school system would be a national model given all they spend (waste).
Lots of reasons. One big one is that schools have to take and keep every kid.
We could make them better by requiring certain standards of behavior.
It’s not the schools, it is the parents. American students, with very few exceptions, have everything they need to excel academically.
What they need are parents who demand results from their kids.
Maybe because we’re not paying to educate out kids - we’re paying union protection money.
We don’t educate kids anymore. It’s all about social indoctrination.
“Maybe because were not paying to educate out kids - were paying union protection money.”
That too. Albert Shanker (former teacher union president) had a famous quote that went something like this: “When the students start paying dues, we’ll start representing their interests too.”
Some schools are excellent. Others are not doing their job.
Some of our big city school systems spend the most per capita, and have some of the worst results.
Political correctness prohibits us from discussing why the schools of Washington, DC, Detroit, Gary, Indiana, Camden, New Jersey, etc. spend so much and get a failing grade in doing their job.
High wages, wonderful retirement programs, union support, and benefits package that can not be compared to in the world can't teach.
Too worried about “equalization”.
Unions
What we need is zero restrictions on who we choose we want to pay to teach our children without penalties in making that choice.
America spends the most money without results because the money is not actually spent on educating the students, but rather on the teachers, on the teachers’ retirement funds, on administrators, on administrators’ retirement funds, on new books updating GLBT contributions to society, on meeting federal and state regulations, on Tile IX, on Olympic size swimming pools, etc. etc...
Yes. But also:
— Special education csts
— Teacher benefits
— Bloated administrations
Maybe because teachers are trained by the likes of Bill Ayers and his ilk?
Then again, a lot of teachers feel that slapping a CD into the machine equates to teaching.
And when they aren’t playing “projectionist” they spend COUNTLESS classroom hours in rehearsals for the next school play. I first noticed this as a reporter, when I was sent to a fifth grade classroom for some silly production they were holding. It struck me that the singing was flawless and the choreography must have required a LOT of practice time. Hmmm.
Indeed; the purpose of the public school system is more about creating little dependent drones who will vote Democrat than about education.
Bureaucracy Cant Teach: Why American schools often fail
http://washingtonexaminer.com/special-reports/2009/04/bureaucracy-can-t-teach-why-american-schools-often-fail#ixzz1ioY7RnJQ
One simple four letter word:
U N I O N
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