Can we be ready to open schools in the Fall?

For government it would be an impossibility. So I guess we have to give up.

 

We probably weren't pre-Trump....

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-disbanded-nsc-pandemic-unit-experts-praised-69594177

 

Super.... Cambodia 1977.... Year Zero....

Good plan...

 

A very bold proposition. I agree the current system needs gutting, but is paying people to teach their children just unleashing potentially unprepared adults into society? I don't know too many kids today that can do math without a calculator or even with pen and paper, let alone focus on concepts or formulate a cohesive plan to do anything that involves more than five minutes. This is not to say ALL of them are falling by the wayside, but it's not unfair to say many are especially in areas with at-risk youth.

 

I would never expect "the government" to run this show. The only possible chance seems to put the tasks in the hands of the local and State school authorities, staff and parents.

 

FROM ARTICLE...

This is what frightens me the most. Nobody reasonable expects ANY president to know everything about everything, but that's the point of having staff members, specialized teams and experts overseeing parts of the whole. Admittedly, I'm too new to paying attention to politics (interned in a political office in college and hated every minute of it so I walked away from it all) but there just seems there were better ways of getting in front of this thing long before action actually took place.

 

By now everyone knows that the US education system is just another failed obsolete government boondoggle. Given a chance parents and teachers will vote to redistribute the education budget through parents and guardians of children to liberated teachers running local micro schools in every neighborhood in America.

"A new survey has found that a third of young millennials in the U.S. aren’t convinced the Earth is actually round. The national poll reveals that 18 to 24-year-olds are the largest group in the country who refuse to accept the scientific facts of the world’s shape."

"Another nine percent said of young adults said they thought the planet was spherical but had doubts about it. In a disturbing display of indecision, 16 percent of millennials said they weren’t sure what the shape of the planet was."
CBS, A Third Of Millennials Aren’t Sure The Earth Is Round, Survey Finds, Angela Lang, April 5, 2018.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/04/05/millennials-flat-earth-survey/

 

The Earth is not perfectly round... that's been known since the time of Newton...

It's a poorly worded survey question....

If that's your best case the US education system is fatally flawed, it's a failure... there are some problems and it's much worse in some areas, but there is no clear mass alternative, which is why every country in the world continues to use it...

 

This was my suggestion for substantive school reform which does not address home schooling:

"The Left used to believe in eliminating the "middlemen" until the middlemen were government bureaucrats, politicians, and contractors. Real reform would be politically popular, but, IMO, neither party really wants a better education system.

1. Transfer control of the entire education budget to parents and guardians of children -
14K -20K/student/year in most school systems.
2. Eliminate the administrative parasites including the school boards.
3. Let college grads, including teachers, form their own small schools 15 - 20 students for each teacher from homes or offices using the resources of the internet.
4. Teachers who are able to control and educate "problem" students could charge far more for their special talent." Ddy

Here is the latest news on the subject. DJT is apparently receptive to my approach to reform.

"An outspoken school choice advocate, the president during a Thursday press conference said that if schools do not reopen parents should be able to use the funding to have their child educated elsewhere through homeschooling, public schools, private schools or charter schools, including religious institutions."
JUST THE NEWS, POLICY, EDUCATION, New school choice? Trump wants education funds to go to parents if schools don't reopen, By Alex Nitzberg, July 26, 2020.
https://justthenews.com/politics-po...-and-calls-school-choice-if-institutions-dont

Just provisionally credential teachers to start their own little independent schools and test the results.

 

That statement rings so true and scares me to death. Funneling barely adequate people into the adult world is uncsoncsiouable, in my opinion.

1. I understand the concept. I don't know how well that can work in practice. Then, again, I've seen the distrastrous ways people handle money.

2. I agree the school boards are part of the problem. But, WHO should oversee all this? There has to be some type of governing board in place.

3. This is a nice idea. It could be possibly be modeled after current homeschooling and unschooling groups.

4. This is a definite plus. I can't believe that people talk about how important children are but balk at raising teachers' salaries.

I guess anything is possible at this point. I just hope it doesn't come at a cost (development, social and economic) too high for our students. I guess we will know when those kids start funneling into the workplace.

 

LOL! IOW, you finally agree with me: CBS = MSM = Fake News.
Progress - at last.

 

There is no limit to the amount of tax revenue all these failed government boondoggles can flush down the Crapper and into the political swamp.

"The city of Baltimore would be required to nearly double its spending on public schools over the next decade under a $4 billion statewide education funding proposal that a work group advanced Tuesday."

THE BALTIMORE SUN, POLITICS, Group recommends $4B in funding for Maryland’s public schools; Baltimore would need to double spending, By PAMELA WOOD and LUKE BROADWATER, OCT 15, 2019.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/politi...n/features/booksmags/rss2+(Books+&+Magazines)

Parents and guardians of children would be far more likely to protect the interest of children than our politicians and bureaucrats. Transfer the education budget into vested education accounts and let the parents and guardians negotiate a better deal for their children.

 

I especially liked this part...

Studies clearly show that education attainment has a direct impact on crime and incarceration.

Thanks for sharing the article.

 

LOL... I don't call that fake news... it's a poorly worded survey question... people can interpret the results any way they like.

Fake News will turn out to be the most overrated and misused phrase of the decade of the 2010's...

 

The American education so bad now that almost any change would be an improvement.

"Still, the percentage of city students who passed the state test remained remarkably low. Less than one in five earned a passing score, and Santelises cautioned that she is not “holding a parade” for the results.

Statewide, student pass rates increased by about 1 percentage point in English and math in elementary and middle schools on the PARCC, a rigorous test instituted for the first time in 2015. Before then, the state used other standardized tests.

Despite the increase in pass rates, more than half the state’s students did not pass either the math or English tests. Only 31.4 percent of students statewide passed the math test in grades three through eight, and only 41.6 percent passed in English."
THE BALTIMORE SUN, EDUCATION, Maryland PARCC test scores inch up, with Baltimore City schools leading improvement in region, By LIZ BOWIE and TALIA RICHMAN, AUG 28, 2018.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-parcc-scores-2018-story.html

Don't say I never share any "good" news about schools.

 

Then you are still in denial of the obvious: MSM = Fake News.

Of course, it took a long time for journalists who actually bias the news to start admitting what they were doing.

"Most Journalists, of course, don't like to think of themselves as *anybody's* advocate, but that's most likely because advocacy of elite interests comes so easily that it scarcely seems like bias at all." Jonathon Cohn, quoted by James Fallows in "Breaking The News," at p. 79. (emphasis Cohn's)

 

While I am happy to read they raised their overall percentage point, it's not surprising it wasn't enough to actually pass the math or English tests.

I don't know about anyone else, but it drives me up a wall when I hear people shouting about how Americans are superior to every other country. I am not saying that we don't have anything good here, but other countries are rapidly approaching and passing us in many area, especially academically.

Here's a funny for you: Several years ago, I was in a store and went to buy an item. Just as the cashier went to check me out, the cash register malfunctioned. She was beyond flustered and just handed me the item AND my money. I calmly told her that I had no intentions of stealing the item so she would have to take the money. She practically begged me to move along exclaiming that she wasn't good with subtraction. I explained that she didn't need to subtract and could all the numbers from the total price to the amount I gave her. The funniest part is there were no coins involved. The total cost was $6 and I gave her a $20. I had to help her count out the correct change. <smh>

 

Yup. Item is $4.75. I give a five. Cashier is baffled while the register is down.

 

Local and state school authorities are government.

 

Yep. I should have written "Federal" in there somewhere. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

I went back and reread my comments. I was leaning more toward removing all governmental control and allowing the school leaders, faculty and parents become their own governing board. Admittedly, I have no clue how that can be done.

 

One thing I can say for sure is that federal government has no business at all involved with schools. The public schools belong to the local government, not the federal government.

 

100% agreement. I have been trying to figure out anything the Feds have handled that turned out well. I'm stumped.

 

Federal government is always the least competent, least efficient and most expensive way to do anything. Every time. For as long as I can remember. If I had my way the great majority of federal government would be moved to the states, the private sector or the trash can.

 

There are many things wrong with America. Hence the Tea Party movement, and now the AntiFa/BLM insurrection. Anyone who actually reads the complaints that have activated the Tea Party and AntiFa/BLM will find more common ground than either side will be comfortable with.

The USA has always been very exceptional, the nature of that exceptionalism is seldom taught, acknowledged or understood.