Betsy DeVos: I'd be 'fine' if we could ditch the Education Department

Indeed. I too prefer stupid, bigoted children who reject science as being our next generation.

 

Ok, well, lets dispel your idea that the right wing has a disdain for education. Ben Carson, highly educated, loved by the right. Hermain Cain, highly educated. No one is saying to get rid of schools, not a single person, so shove that nihilism crap. Also, comparing an almost homogenized country like China or Russia to the US is ridiculous. Our heritage and needs and backgrounds all change from not only state to state, but for zip code to zip code. Take Pinellas county in FL. What is good for the north end of the county is not what is needed education wise for the south end. I am sure the same can be said in NYC, Boston, ATL etc. A federal level education department is worthless to dictate that FL kids learn in the same manor that AL kids learn. States have always had DOEs, not a single GOP is saying we need to get rid of them.

 

I am more so anti authoritarian than right.

 

Betsy Devos wants in, Chile's thirty year failed experiment with charters is on its way out; https://saveourschoolsnz.com/2015/02/13/chiles-charter-school-experiment-is-almost-over/

And here, there has been massive corruption with the charter school system already. It didn't work in Chile, it certainly will never work here. https://weaponsofmassdeception.org/...s/3-3-why-charter-schools-are-fraud-factories

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...chools_corruption_and_inefficiency_video.html

 

I don't think it's inevitable. Most of the Education Department's power is in its incentives - it has almost no legal authority over state schools (although it has historically pushed the envelope with Title IX requirements). The problem with treating different education standards as "good enough" for some particular population or culture is that it means kids getting a third-world education never really get a chance. I mean that's like saying kids that grow up attending some madrasa that teaches them the five pillars of Islam is fine because that's what some Muslim community wants. If parents want to teach their kids Islam, that's fine, but schools should focus on teaching universal truths, not subjective truths.

Staff development days are for training the teachers in new techniques, but local school districts don't have the resources to actually research these techniques or experiment with new ones. They're busy running the schools on a day-to-day basis.

The problem is more about how a region would be affected rather than how individual schools would be affected. As it is there are regions where a vast majority of students are far better prepared for college than other regions. Stripping away the Ed. Dept. essentially says we don't care about such inequality.

 

Our Public educational system has failed inner city children.

Let parents have a choice.

 

You just don't get it do you? Some parents and some kids don't get the same choice. That's why it failed in Chile. Charter schools are nothing more than a segregation program that end up as a big tool for massive corruption. It's already been proven . Devos hasn't a clue.

 

You just don't get it do you?

Our Public educational system has failed our children. We are near the top on spending the most per child, yet our math, science, and reading are barely average when compared to other nations who spend far less.

The states can run their own state subsidized schools for the poor, but give parents a choice to choose something better via charter schools and vouchers.

And make Teacher unions illegal. They do nothing but protect horrible teachers and buy politicians with union member dues.

 

Past experiences and history tend to say otherwise though. And if there's anything you likely won't find dealing with the Feds, it's originality and creative thinking. They have "policy" and "the book" (as in "Let's take it by the book) for that kind of thinking.

And often, neither does the state. But what DOES happen is that some private think tank decides it wants to make a quick buck by selling a new educational program to a district or the state, the state/district buys it, the think tank makes a tidy profit by selling the program to the district which then implements a program that was likely tested out on a class of ten students with no behavior issues and run by someone who hasn't taught an actual class in twenty years while a bunch of DO officials gets free dinners and photo ops. And then in a couple years - and I mean it, two years later - the same thing happens again with a different think tank and a different program.

It's a great scam. And the only thing the feds would do is just cut themselves in for a slice of the pie.

Except that regions aren't really affected by the DOE anymore than individual schools are. Put bluntly, the DOE is a ham-fisted gov't agency with little power, no real accountability, and no way to enforce or even mandate anything of value to anyone. Doing away with it wouldn't say we don't care about regions - as it doesn't care about them now. What it would say is that we're doing away with a gov't agency that doesn't do anything that the states don't already do.

 

Sure, while Russia and China churns out kids who can do math, science and computers, we'd have idiots who can recite bible verses. Sounds like a program for success, right?

 

So the solution is to teach them bronze age fairy tales? For sure we need more knuckle dragging neanderthals who can recite bible verses.

 

Without federal standards of education, some southern states would be teaching jesus ran around with dinosaurs, the earth is 6000 years old, and climate change is a hoax by the chinese. That kind of ignorance cannot be allowed on a generation of American children.

 

just have a way to send tax dollars to the states, with no strings attached and allow the states and localities determine the education. Our educational system was better before the feds got involved, dictating what local schools will do, if they want the money. Doing this would shrink down the administration within the states, who exist to keep federal guide lines. My father in law was over the county schools here and ran the schools for years with one secretary. After the feds got involved, our superintendent of education now has a building the size of a walmart a hundred people doing what it used to take two people to run. Wasteful, and money does not make it down to the classroom, for it is sucked up in administration required because of the feds being involved, telling the states how to educate.

 

Nope, I got an actual education at an actual school.

 

Home schooling is an actual education with a state approved curriculum. Some many hours in xyz. Which is the the same thing you would learn if you went to school. If you as the parent want your child to have a quote diploma quote, you go by the approved curriculum.

 

Awesome! Just make sure you teach your kids to say "Do you want fries with that?" promptly. My wealthier and more educated kids are gonna be in a hurry.

 

The inner city kids are already flipping burgers. So much for your public education.

Give the parents a choice to get their kids out of the failed public school system.

 

My kids don't live in an inner city. They live in a country club on a golf course. And once Betsy does her work for us there will not only be no more public education but you'll have to get another mortgage just to put them through daycare. Education is a commodity and it is only deserved to those who can afford it. Getting an education will be a competition and only the most fortunate and the most wealthy, like my children, will be able to afford it.

 

I don't live in a country club and I don't play golf and I'm still able to put my child through college with my OWN money.

Do you know why?

Because I don't drink, do drugs, smoke cigarettes, smoke pot, and I don't buy jewelry, fancy cars, designer clothes, expensive vacations, etc... I worked my behind off and I saved for my retirement and my child's college education.

I took care of my family and expected nothing in return.

People should stop expecting me to work more to pay for their stuff.

 

Hey can you pay off my student loans?

 

By show of hands how many of the current forum members where educated in public schools.

 

Considering expenditures and the correlation between the quality of schools and the surrounding economic demographics within the current system, your argument actually compels the logical man to try something new.

 

These "feds" are just regular American citizens, and they have given us new ideas such as the internet, the global positioning system, and Tang. In fact, there's a pretty good argument that the bulk of innovation comes from government/academic partnerships; all the private sector does is exploit those innovations for profit. Both sides need each other.

This appears to be a criticism of private-sector companies creating educational programs, a criticism I agree with. But if you don't want the government doing it and you don't want private businesses doing it, does that mean you think we should not be trying to improve how we educate?

Seriously? That is what the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title 1 grants are for. I've lived in places where they don't get them (because they don't need them) and in places where they do get them. I know well-off families who will move to a Title 1 school zone (within the state) just because they know their kid will get more attention and better resources there. Then kids from less educated, lower-income families are exposed to new, healthier ideas and habits surrounding work and family. This is just the kind of thing the Brookings Institution promotes as a solution to end poverty - and I agree with them. Refusing to see how the Ed. Dept. could help with this (even if it isn't doing a good job of it now) is the equivalent of saying poor, uneducated people need to fix themselves.

 

Of course she is.

Federal oversight on education is directly in opposition to her goal to convert American children into good Christofacists.

 

Yes, and in my state, Florida, the charters are performing miserably--not even as well as the public schools. I'm all for intra-district school choice, and would be happy if my district started more specialized schools. That said, I'm all for the feds getting out of education. It's not their business per the Constitution.

- - - Updated - - -

Please research before posting. Harvard was never Jesuit, it was founded by Unitarians and Congregationalist protestant churches to train ministers.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, depends on the state. IN FL, the charters (per CREDO) are doing horribly. Their performance is significantly lower than the public schools. They do even worse with minorities than they do with whites.

- - - Updated - - -

Put it back with HHS, where it was before the Carter Administration. What is now the Department of Education used to be part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.