Posted on 06/12/2014 1:15:19 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In education circles, universal preschool is hot. But it’s only half the answer. If we really want to raise a generation of employable kids, we need universal 13th and 14th grades too.
As taxpayers, we’ve decided to subsidize the education of every American child between the ages of 5 and 18. But current education funding structures reflect a bygone industrial age, when a high school diploma met or in some cases exceeded the needs of the local and national economies. Now, neither preschool nor college is a luxury, and families shouldn’t have to pay for the schooling that keeps society running.
Creating grades 13 and 14 would reduce student debt significantly, while also providing kids without college degrees a viable path to work. And it would offer students who need remedial courses a chance to catch up. Right now, those kids often pay out-of-pocket for classes that don’t count toward their degree.
Such a program wouldn’t be cheap. But the government already pays for 13th and 14th grade, in the form of hodgepodge student loans.
Instead, all students should receive a voucher they can use for middle colleges, community colleges, or four-year degree programs. State and federal governments should also begin to negotiate the amount of grants and loans given to colleges and universities to prevent tuition inflation....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
In education circles, universal preschool is hot. …Is that what they’re calling communist circles these days?
Considering these kids can’t even pass the 3rd grade in our educational system (but they get passed on anyway, I’ve seen teenagers who still can’t read), I don’t think 13th or 14th grade is going to fix it. What we probably need is to dismantle the educational system entirely and let the states handle it on their own.
I also don’t think that every kid has the same aptitude. No more one size fits all. I would consider opening up schools that actually include things like building stuff, how to construct a house, carpentry, working with metal, wiring up a house, etc. Produce students who can do working-man’s jobs, along with regular classes.
This plan won’t work. I’ve seen many people with college degrees that can’t craft a simple sentence with correctly spelled words.
There are community colleges from one end of America to the other Anyone wishing to attend grades 13 and 14 may do so now. We don’t need more overlapping waste in government , and we don’t need higher taxes to pay for it. ( perhaps the newsletter would do better to look at the low quality of so many of today’s grades 1-12)
We had those kind of high schools and the Left got rid of most of them. They want every child to go on and get at least a 4 year degree for some reason.
And look how many people are getting hired with their 4 year degrees in women’s studies and Mexican American literature, which they probably received with a C average too.
I have seen this also, and these people are still getting degrees. Then they wonder why they can’t get hired. All these college degrees, like inflated money, become more worthless with each graduate.
Indian kids are somehow able to graduate high school at 17 or so, and be fully capable of moving on to college.
If the current US system can’t get kids ready by age 18, how is doing more of the same going to make a difference? And, why even consider more grades rather than reforming the grades already in place?
Of course, kids in India are started on reading, math, and basic “social studies” i.e. history and basic knowledge of their culture, in preschool, and by Kindergarten are expected to not only be proficient in Hindi, but reasonably capable of English as well. By 1st grade, they’re doing all four basic math operations, and by 6th they’re doing algebra.
Meanwhile, for kids in the US, preschool is nothing more than daycare, even at the organized “schools”, and kindergarten is only the barest rudiments of exposure to things like the existence of numbers and letters. My 3yo daughter can already recognize the entire alphabet, write the letters in upper and lower case, is reading words, is starting to show signs of understanding how the “tens” place works in numbers, and can do basic addition and subtraction. When she starts school, she’ll probably be capable of skipping right to 1st grade at age 5, and I’ll have to get her enrolled in some outside institution so she gets actual instruction in academics like math and language.
What a load of crap!
In the ‘40s-’50s, pre-schoolers went to privately operated day care that parents paid for, if both parents were working, until they were 6-7 years old and entered the 1st grade.
In 8th grade, I had courses in electric, metal and wood shops. We learned the basics and used the equipment and materials to make things.
Remedial courses in college didn’t exist. If we didn’t make passing grades during the regular terms, we had to go to Summer school. ...I went after the 9th, 10th and 11th grades and made A and B grades because the material was so concentrated in a short time frame, rather than being strung out over so many weeks that students lost interest and focus.
These morons in academia that are pushing for higher level education have no concept of what the job market is needing in workers. They only care about furthering their cushy liberal jobs.
Full disclosure... Went on active duty in Navy about 4 months after HS graduation. After Navy, while married and with a child, went to night school at Community College. Earned an AAS and transferred to a State Univ., where I earned a BBA. A few years later, I went to night school at a private Univ. and earned a 48hr. MBA. ......Just because a student is bored in grades 8-12 because of lousy teachers doesn’t mean they are unable to excell.
Rant over.
Sure, when the socialist system turns out crap, they always demand that the answer be more socialism.
Right now, the state miserably fails at delivering a basic education in every year of school from pre-K to 12 (14 years), yet this idiot is certain that the answer is to add more failure onto the pile.
Sure, when the socialist system turns out crap, they always demand that the answer be more socialism.
Right now, the state miserably fails at delivering a basic education in every year of school from pre-K to 12 (14 years), yet this idiot is certain that the answer is to add more failure onto the pile.
The problem we currently face is not inadequacy of the frame work of the existing system, it is the deterioration and collapse of our existing system.
This deterioration is largely due to the erosion of standards and rise of socialistic teaching and attendant dumbing down of the PC curriculum currently taught in our schools.
Grades 13 and 14 will be where the kids actually learn to read, write, cipher, and do something useful.
Don’t we already have that? It’s called county jail. LOL
Why not have the taxpayers pay for education through a doctorate for every American — whether they’re capable of it or not? A person who reaches the age of 25 and still needs five more years of formal education to learn even basic life skills is considered a huge success story for the education industry.
Really? Dr. Perry, how did you manage to get your PhD (or is it EdD?) without knowing the basic truth that shifting the source of payment for a service to tax moneys does not make it free? Families *do* pay for school, and they aren't getting their money's worth.
I have an MS in engineering and work in a senior management position in engineering. Strange as it may sound, I've always said that I could have worked my first five years in this profession right out of high school.
Public school should not be daycare.
Public school should not be a means of wealth redistribution.
Public school should not be a way to make unemployment numbers look good.
Public school should be “achieve as you go”, not matriculated.
Public school should end when the kids turn 11.
We need to apprentice three-fours of these “students” to a coffin maker at age 12, for everyone’s good.
A 13th and 14th grade would just be throwing more tax money away. Many of the men who ran ashore on D-Day were 19 and 20-years-old. If you’re so lazy that you can’t read or write after 12 years of school then two more years won’t help.
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