Day: February 10, 2011

Charter Schools: The Future

For the last couple years the media and many politicians have been pushing the concept of charter schools as the future and the program that prepares our children for college and then to retake our place in the industrial world that we have let slip through our grubby little fingers…….

Charter schools….that program where children are accepted to special schools that run differently than traditional public schools……it is a LOTTO!  The future of your child is in the hands of Bozo the Clown with a bingo machine……

Charter schools….the attempt to eliminate teacher’s tenure, attempt to break the back of the teachers union…all in the name of your children and education…..

But all the news and all the visitations have shown that the charter schools are a ripping success….at least according to the media and those pushing a lotto schooling for the kids…..but what is the real news about charter schools?

Let us look at those in New York since these are the ones that the media focuses the most heavily on…in a report issued by the Department of Education…….

the graduation rate in 2009, the last year for which figures are public, was 77%. But only 41% of high-school students were prepared for a career or college, the state said. The state defines students as college- and career-ready if they score at least an 80 on the state’s math Regents exam and at least a 75 on the English Regents exam. New York students receive a high-school diploma if they achieve a score of at least 65 on Regents tests.The state education department said that in New York City, only 23% of graduating high-school students meet the college- and career-ready standard, compared with a graduation rate of 65% among general-education students.

There was bad news for charter schools as well. Of the 49 percent of students who graduated from a charter school, just 10 percent were college- and career-ready, according to the report.

So, the hip new program is NOT…I repeat…..Is NOT, the glowing success that it is painted as being….the god-like charter schools NO more prepare grads for college than regular public schools…..PLEASE!  Stop the lies!  Find a real solution for a real problem……quit putting band-aids on gunshot wounds……

Education: The Only Future!

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Education

I wish Americans would hurry along and finally and totally be tired of the education merry-go-round…..The Pres gives it lip service…the Repubs have a plan….the media reports on it endlessly….and this is a thing that has gone on and on for 50 years or so ….and what do we have in return?  The 34th most successful education system in the world…..now there is something for the pigs in Washington to be proud of…all their hard work (that is sarcasm) has really paid off in 50 years…….

New York has been a corner stone of ed reform with the success of their charter schools….but wait it is so important that…..

Funding to New York’s schools and Medicaid program would get slashed under a budget unveiled by newly installed Gov. Andrew Cuomo Tuesday.Seeking to close a $10 billion budget deficit, Cuomo is proposing reducing school aid by $1.5 billion and Medicaid by $982 million.

So much for the importance of education……

But what about the truth……the truth is that if the Repubs get their way on education….then your children’s future will depend on a coupon book or the educational lotto…..where the future depends on a moron and a bingo ball machine…..now there is MORE to be proud of…….

But what about the American people?  Where do they stand on education?

In a recent Gallup poll on where should cuts be made in federal spending…the top place was Defense and further down the poll was education…..at the bottom….where 32% said that education should be cut….it was at the bottom of the list….good news, right?

Think about it…people!  That is about 1 in 3 that would cut education….or about 33% of the people…..in other terms…if there are 300 million Americans….then 100 million would cut education……NOW!  Does that sound like a country that is too concerned about improving the educational standards of the country?

This in a country that still is afraid to teach evolution in some areas…..from an article ……

Our data show that these teachers understandably want to avoid controversy. Often they have not taken a course in evolution and they lack confidence in their ability to defend it. Their strategies for avoiding controversy are varied, but three were especially common and each has the effect of undermining science. Some teach evolutionary biology as though it only applies to molecular biology—completely ignoring macroevolution of species. At best, this approach sacrifices a rich understanding of the diversity of species. At worst it lends credence to the creationist claim that there is no evidence for one species giving rise to others.

Others defend the teaching of evolution as a necessary evil, using state examination requirements as a convenient means to disassociate themselves from the very material they are expected to teach. These examinations have only been recently introduced in most states. Yet, many teachers told us that they tell students that it does not matter if they really “believe” in evolution, so long as they know it for the test. One Michigan teacher tells students that they need to understand evolution because the biology curriculum “is organized as if evolution is true”.

The president is concerned….the Repubs are concerned….the media is concerned….the people are concerned……but absolutely NOTHING proves that concerned.  The faux concern for education in the US is one of the most laughable positions of either party…….We may have a lot to look forward to in the future…..but a better educated child is NOT…repeat…NOT one of those things!