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There's An Educational Crisis in the US. Does Anybody Care?
Townhall.com ^ | November 1, 2019 | Sheriff David Clarke Ret

Posted on 11/01/2019 5:03:33 AM PDT by Kaslin

The downward spiral of learning in American K-12 public schools continues. Does anybody care? Where’s the outrage, headlines, or breaking news? Congress and Big Media are too preoccupied with the impeachment scam in Washington D.C., to notice a real crisis in America. Our fourth and eighth-grade kids can’t read, and they are struggling to subtract a two-digit number from a three-digit number to come up with the correct answer

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also referred to as the Nation’s Report Card, fourth-graders are the only ones to make a statistical gain and by only 1 point in math. Lest you see the light at the end of the tunnel by this increase in math, let me advise you that it is an oncoming train. That gain produces a score of 241. That’s out of a possible score of 500 — big deal.

But don’t take my word for it. Peggy Carr, the associate commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics, said, “over the past decade there has been no progress in math or reading scores.” She further noted that “we see lower-achieving students made score declines in all of the assessments.” Read lower-achieving students to mean black and Hispanic kids. The president of the Thomas B. Fordham education think tank called the outcomes, “disappointing.” I call them abysmal and predictable. They blamed the declines on the recession and cuts in education spending. Folks, that’s what I call a swing and a miss. 

In my home state of Wisconsin, state-mandated test scores were just as dreadful showing that “fewer than half of Wisconsin students are scoring high enough on state tests to be considered proficient in math and reading.” The achievement gap between white and black students continues to widen as well; all of this is occurring while education spending in the state continues to go up.

The educational system is so horrendous in Detroit that a former public high school graduate has sued his previously attended district for failing to educate him to a point he couldn’t pass any of the courses at his community college. He called attending high school a “big waste of time.” He recalled in his 11th and 12th grade English classes that students were given material to learn that was marked for third or fourth graders. Long-term substitute teachers also failed to teach, showing movies instead. The lawsuit included an eighth grader who, after his teacher quit, had taught math to his classmates for a month. Stories like this describe most large urban school districts attended by black and brown students across America. Sadly, there is very little uproar. 

These horrible scores are reflected internationally, too, as the U.S. continues to slide in comparison to 15-year-old students of other nations. Accordingly, the U.S. ranks 35th in math, 25th in science, and 24th in reading. Singapore leads all countries in each category. Hong Kong follows. I doubt that these nations spend on education per pupil what the U.S. does. Asian culture might play a role here too. I know that will rub some liberal apologists the wrong way, but too bad. I care about our kids' prospects to reach their God-given potential. 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, we spend $648 billion a year on education. We are getting nearly no return on our investment. Yet, all we ever hear from school officials and education advocates is that we need to increase school spending. Why? So we can produce more kids who cannot read? Kids who can’t read and are uneducated end up living life at the bottom. They live in poverty and in need of government welfare services to survive. They are more likely to engage in criminal behavior and make other poor lifestyle choices like dropping out of school, fathering kids they can’t support, becoming involved in gangs, or abusing drugs. I thought that the millions spent on Head Start, K4, and now K3 kindergarten was supposed to bridge the divide between black kids and their white counterparts. The test scores aren’t showing it. Why are we still funding these programs?

Recently, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced a new non-profit initiative to fight poverty. Here we go again. After over 50 years of the War on Poverty that saw taxpayers spend $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs, poverty increased. Yes, increased. Note to Paul Ryan: Unless a kid has a great cross-over dribble or can run a 4.4 40-yard dash and become a professional athlete, the best anti-poverty program is an education. It will equip people to thrive in a knowledge-based economy. That will lead to gainful employment. Instead, he’ll raise millions from foundations to finance white papers that will suggest more of the same like increases in education spending they now call “investments” and think tank-suggested experiments on new approaches to teaching. Federal grant money will also be sought for this junk. 

My suggestion is the K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach. Teach these kids to read, write, add, subtract, multiply, and divide at the appropriate grade level and make parents step up to fulfill their responsibility and role in the education of their kids. Stop letting school boards dumb down the curriculum that fills kids' heads with useless social justice nonsense and expect more from our kids. These school board social justice activists are no different than Nancy Pelosi or that creep Adam Schiff, or the rest of the like-minded members of Congress and Big Media, who are so obsessed over impeaching the president that they're clueless to the world around them. Or do they not care?  


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: arth; blackmales; davidclarke; education; educationreform; schools; trends
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1 posted on 11/01/2019 5:03:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The only thing that matters to schools is that their levies pass and money rolls in. Same with teachers... the unions at least, and they have the power... individual teachers care... mostly


2 posted on 11/01/2019 5:05:59 AM PDT by z3n
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To: Kaslin

Common core, social media, glorification of ghetto-trash culture, and most of all a lack of faith in God Almighty.


3 posted on 11/01/2019 5:06:10 AM PDT by vpintheak (I donÂ’t want to gain the whole world and lose my soul. - Toby Mac)
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To: Kaslin
Related...

First Common Core High School Grads Worst-Prepared For College In 15 Years

Kids are just grist for the nanny state's diploma mills.

4 posted on 11/01/2019 5:08:43 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: Kaslin

Common core. Another Bush piece of crap foisted on the US. That family is as disgusting as the Clintons and Kennedys. Obamas are looking to join that club.


5 posted on 11/01/2019 5:08:48 AM PDT by angmo
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To: Kaslin

“The educational system is so horrendous in Detroit that a former public high school graduate has sued his previously attended district for failing to educate him to a point he couldn’t pass any of the courses at his community college. He called attending high school a “big waste of time.” He recalled in his 11th and 12th grade English classes that students were given material to learn that was marked for third or fourth graders. Long-term substitute teachers also failed to teach, showing movies instead. The lawsuit included an eighth grader who, after his teacher quit, had taught math to his classmates for a month. Stories like this describe most large urban school districts attended by black and brown students across America.”

Most of our students today are “black and brown” - and yellow - since whites have had a negative birthrate for years now, but this occurs in “white” schools as well - the teaching caste itself is fairly uneducated, and to improve paper grades teachers have resorted to all kinds of BS to inflate them.

Much of the taxpayer population loss in NY/NJ and CA is caused by whites fleeing the huge burden of public schools with few white children in them; the states themselves have comparatively few white children in them.


6 posted on 11/01/2019 5:10:22 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: mewzilla

Consider it a small victory that the headline even saw the light of day; too many parents are willing to believe the nonsense grades rubber-stamped onto their children’s report cards.


7 posted on 11/01/2019 5:13:01 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kaslin
And given what Chicago's teachers just did to kids, parents, and taxpayers, I'll just throw this one in for giggles...

ILLINOIS HOUSE PASSES BILL TO MAKE IT HARDER FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES TO LEAVE UNIONS, RECOVER FEES

8 posted on 11/01/2019 5:13:20 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: kearnyirish2

Don’t get me started on parents.

Or teachers.

God help our kids.


9 posted on 11/01/2019 5:14:53 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: Kaslin
1. What is DeVos doing? Anything. I mainly hope she's keeping a low profile to keep the Dem media at bay while she fixes things.

2. I would like to see a breakdown to where that $648 billion is allocated. Specifically how much is wasted (yeah, wasted) on administration.

10 posted on 11/01/2019 5:15:11 AM PDT by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: Kaslin

To think how much better kids learned before the gov got so involved, before discipline disappeared, and before fathers disappeared...


11 posted on 11/01/2019 5:16:27 AM PDT by polymuser (It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. Noel Coward)
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To: jeffc

What is DeVos doing?
What is DeVos doing?
What is DeVos doing?

Bears repeating.


12 posted on 11/01/2019 5:17:29 AM PDT by polymuser (It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. Noel Coward)
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To: Kaslin

The State of Maryland just released the report from some Blue Ribbon (/s) commission that said...wait for it...A few billion more dollars will solve the problem.

So I did some research. Baltimore is majority black so I looked at black literacy.

In 1870, black literacy in America was about 20% with almost $0.00 education spending.

In a report released last week, the proficient reading rate among 8th grade students in Baltimore was 15%. Cost per student is about $16,000 a year.


13 posted on 11/01/2019 5:19:11 AM PDT by cyclotic (Democrats must be politically eviscerated, disemboweled and demolished.)
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To: Kaslin

Here in the DC area, the declines in scores is mostly attributable to the massive influx of uneducated, sometimes illiterate, illegals and their kids. They, in turn, bring down everyone else.

California used to have one of the best educational systems in the country, but is now near the bottom. The same thing is happening here.

And more money won’t fix it.


14 posted on 11/01/2019 5:20:16 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals.")
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To: polymuser

Before public sector unions...


15 posted on 11/01/2019 5:20:34 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: kearnyirish2

White kids proportion in the Public school population is also declining as they move to private, religious and home schooling alternatives. Murray’s Bell Curve wasn’t wrong either. A poor educational system with a declining IQ gifted raw material will do poorly.

Our poor educational system is the biggest problem we have as it feeds all the other social problems.


16 posted on 11/01/2019 5:20:52 AM PDT by JeanLM (Obama proves melanin is just enough to win elections)
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To: Kaslin

If you teach the way Sheriff Clarke suggests, you will have unequal outcomes.

The system denies that unequal outcomes are even possible, because racism.

The delusion that equal outcomes are even possible, never mind normative, is widely believed all across the land, especially by the voters who elect school boards, legislatures, and Congress. In fact, the voters demand equal outcomes and choose “reform of a broken system” when they don’t get it.

So, the system has reacted in the only way it can. The only way for outcomes of K-12 to be equal is for everyone to be equally stupid. Get used to it.


17 posted on 11/01/2019 5:23:20 AM PDT by Jim Noble (There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know)
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To: polymuser

There is very little the Federal Government is going to do about education.

Education is a state and local issue. Shoveling money at it from DC is not going work.


18 posted on 11/01/2019 5:23:49 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: kearnyirish2
Much of the taxpayer population loss in NY/NJ and CA is caused by whites fleeing the huge burden of public schools with few white children in them; the states themselves have comparatively few white children in them.

But there's nothing magic about white children. I live in the tristate area of ME-NH-VT, where all there are is white children, and the schools are just as dedicated to equality through stupidity as they are anywhere else.

Imagine if all-white public schools stood out? They would be discovered and destroyed before you could say Jack Robinson.

19 posted on 11/01/2019 5:27:22 AM PDT by Jim Noble (There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know)
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To: Kaslin

Trying to care ... trying to care ... deep breath ... trying to care ...

Nope.


20 posted on 11/01/2019 5:29:47 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Down with the ChiComs! Independence for Hong Kong!)
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