Do the reps want to abolish public schools?

We don't need that.

Sorry, but if you want a national identity, try some communist state.

 

Sorry? You think monarchies with nobility are communist states? Or republics? Ok.

 

Interestingly, both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, well . . . and Robert E. Lee considered themselves to be Virginians.

 

For what percentage of control?

 

I would have been surprised if they didn't have stronger separate identities back then. Some European states went through the same transformation.
There are two strong ways of creating national identities. Wars and schools.
It's not always enough with just schools. Italian mass national identity came with the first world war and the millions who went through the army.

 

Still the little problem with the constitution.

 

I attended base schools when in K-8 and I will tell you those are excellent schools the educators were committed, they had excellent special education for those with learning disabilities, they were professionals and didn't expect anything but the best from you as a student and they made sure parents were involved all the time either willingly or not (the principle could expect if a teacher sent a note to a parent they need to do things at the school their CO made them under orders if needed) and we all felt safe. And race, color, creed, national origins or if one spoke English well or not they taught you our school had those not native English speakers after a year they were far better. The difference is the entire base backed the school, they trusted the staff to teach the children and parents were involved but if a school has that shouldn't it be successful anyway?

So for Public Schools the main issue isn't money its to me politicizing the schools and not letting the teachers ,teach, but on the other side teachers need to be able to be fired if they are not good teachers if they want more money and liberty to work without oversight being so high. It goes both ways. And parents need to be involved for anything to work.

 

I think you misunderstood. There's a movement to abolish the US Department of Education, but that would have no bearing on the State education departments or on individual school boards/districts.

 

I'm a retired teacher and retired Army Ranger. The DOD schools get the pick of the best teachers. DOD schools don't have discipline problems because if little Johnny screws up in school little Johnny's daddy will be standing in front of his commanding officer the next morning. Half of the problem in public schools come from students who do want to be there and know there is nothing you can do to them. We could cure this problem by just expelling those students. Political correctness won't allow it.

 

I don't know if they do or not, the Republicans are an awfully big tent from what I hear. But, it wouldn't surprise me. There's no profit in public schools. Private for-profit schools are where the money is at.

 

There ain't a lot of money in education. Say, the per pupil expenditure is $10k/year. Give the money to the student. A teacher could make $100k/year with 10 students. The best students would get the best teachers, of course. No one would want to teach the retards and such.

 

They don't. But they do want to make sure as many as possible have a the choice to use alternatives to public education if they wish too.

 

If we start getting rid of political correctness, the solution to a good many problems will come into focus...

Yes. Education is best addressed as a local concern. The folks in Washington D.C. have no business trying to dictate policies and procedures for the entire country, especially given their rather dismal track record.

Exactly. If you really want to improve our educational system, let the free market determine winners and losers. I guarantee you that parents want the best for their kids; given the chance, they'll gravitate towards the best schools and teachers. If anyone can explain to me the downside of having a voucher system (and I mean the downside from the perspective of a student), I'm all ears.

 

The real Left called the Big Government "left" corrupt opportunists.

 

The Left likes top down control because left to our choices, we don't chose the "services" the Left wants to provide. I don't think they are much on self-rule by free citizens.

 

Some of us do, some of us don't. I do want schools to be totally controlled by the state/local government and parents. It's not constitutional for the feds to be involved in education.

 

Doubtful. It wouldn't take long for people to realize the importance of education. IMHO, one problem in education today is that it's forced on the kids and parents by the government.

 

There's plenty of profit involved in public schools--it's the education publication industry (books, etc.). Private for-profit schools rarely make money. It's a hard business model to actually make money at.

 

We're there now half of high school grads by some estimates are functionally illiterate. Colleges have been complaining for decades now that too many students are arriving on campus with out the basic skill set necessary to succeed. What used to be a four year degree now takes six because the first two years wind up being spent getting to the point where they kids were supposed to be before they started college.

 

About half of high school grads are not college material, I.Q. below 100.

 

Doesn't explain why many of those who do go haven't gotten sufficient of the basics in high school to give them a fighting chance to be successful.

 

Yes, actually it does. I taught one of the college remedial math classes. Most of the folks in that class had no business in college.

 

Math isn't the only determinant. One can be a successful elementary school teacher and suck at math. Hell one of my college English professors didn't know that 10% of 100k was more than 10% of 1k. There are a lot of journalism people who suck at math.

 

A big part of the problem is illiterate teachers. I'm a teacher (retired). I've seen teachers who couldn't average their grade, teachers who had never read a book cover to cover. The U.S. gets their teachers from the bottom of the barrel. Sad part is that it is easier to get rid of the competent ones than the incompetent ones.

 

In fact they seem more inclined to keep the bad ones. The incompetent generally fear the competent because they see them as a threat.