Are students in Texas so stupid that they have to dumb down TAKS?!! (Houston: low income, high schools)

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by crone

It will give control of the money to parents.

So do welfare checks.

[jasltx]

Originally Posted by cooltouch

Just how is that, given that the wealthy are a small minority in comparison to the people who have no choice but to use the compulsory school system?

The fact that the public school systems in the US are predominantly socialist in outlook is not theory, it is fact. All you have to do is look at the NEA lobby, the institutionalized bureaucracy of the US Dept of Education, and the educrat courses that primary and secondary teachers are required to take in order to receive their credentials. In Houston, school districts bloated with administrative deadwood build monuments to their own feelings of self-importance, and then they whine and complain that they are strapped for cash, and demand higher taxes -- despite the fact that they are already obscenely high.

Anybody who denies the predominantly socialist leanings of the public school system in the US is either ignorant or a socialist trying to distract attention away from the problem, which at its heart is the fact that it is a socialist system.

The public school system is kind of socialist - and I agree with you regarding the lame courses preservice teachers need to take. But by that metric, then UT, Texas A&M, the interstate highway system and many other universally applauded institutions are also socialist in nature. And you are aware that Baylor College of Medicine receives more money from the state per-student than the UT-Houston Medical School, right? Guess what? Government does have a role in daily life. As long as it is limited to things we all need and generally agree are important to everyone, like education and transportation, then I am OK with that.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by jfre81

So do welfare checks.

Stay classy jfre81

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by jasltx

. As long as it is limited to things we all need and generally agree are important to everyone, like education and transportation, then I am OK with that.

Food is important to everyone, why aren't they growing crops?

[TVC15]

Originally Posted by crone

Charter schools in Texas are 100% state funded. They do anything they dam_ well please. The state does not care. They do not even audit for how the money is spent.
The game in all of public funding is to get somebody else to be responsible. They now have honed it into a fine art.
Just like the feds and the stimulus money. Nobody makes rules, adheres to rules or monitors rules. Then somebody comes in 5 years later, says you did it wrong, give me my money back. By then the money is gone. Game over.

I watched a very interesting documentary titled Waiting for Superman which opened insight on Charter schools. It appeared that certain Charter schools put out the most successful students who do go on to college with a higher chance of success then students coming out of the public school system. I know that the education system all over America needs an overhaul. I highly encourage anyone who wants to better understand the system to watch the documentary. After watching it I think the teachers unions are definitely a good place to start.
Waiting For "Superman" | Trailer & Official Movie Site | Own it on Blu-ray and DVD Today

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

Stay classy jfre81

It's the only way I roll.

So yeah, if they really want to cut something, how about administration? It's the teachers on the front line with the kids, not administrators. Besides, the more they're farming out discipline to the court system, we might as well not pay for the same thing twice.

[cooltouch]

Originally Posted by jasltx

The public school system is kind of socialist - and I agree with you regarding the lame courses preservice teachers need to take. But by that metric, then UT, Texas A&M, the interstate highway system and many other universally applauded institutions are also socialist in nature. And you are aware that Baylor College of Medicine receives more money from the state per-student than the UT-Houston Medical School, right? Guess what? Government does have a role in daily life. As long as it is limited to things we all need and generally agree are important to everyone, like education and transportation, then I am OK with that.

Sure government has a role. Problem is it is never satisfied with its role and continually wants more. It was George Washington who said, “Government is like fire, a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Boy, did he ever know what he was talking about. Untended, government grows like fire and also consumes like fire, and all too often, leaves destruction in its wake like fire.

We have strayed way too far from first principles, and to make matters worse, we don't even realize it anymore. We have forsaken liberty for protection. We would rather have the overarching womb-to-tomb reach of the government than be left to our own defenses.

Here's a video I would encourage everybody to watch. I try to remind myself to watch it again at least once a year or so. It's several minutes long, but try to hang all the way through to the end because it points out more elegantly than I can what liberty is all about:

http://www.jonathangullible.com/mmed...of.Liberty.swf

[jasltx]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

Stay classy jfre81

It's a relevant point.

[jasltx]

Originally Posted by TVC15

I watched a very interesting documentary titled Waiting for Superman which opened insight on Charter schools. It appeared that certain Charter schools put out the most successful students who do go on to college with a higher chance of success then students coming out of the public school system. I know that the education system all over America needs an overhaul. I highly encourage anyone who wants to better understand the system to watch the documentary. After watching it I think the teachers unions are definitely a good place to start.
Waiting For "Superman" | Trailer & Official Movie Site | Own it on Blu-ray and DVD Today

Charter schools like YES and KIPP do turn out amaizing students. But they require a level of commitment above and beyond even schools like Bellaire HS or Memorial HS. They do offer a glimmer of hope for students zoned to the worst of the worst schools, but don't think for a minute that their results can be generalized. Like Clements and Bellaire, they serve the children of motivated parents. The only difference is that zoning is not part of the equation. Force all students in a given zone into one of these schools, and their stats would look a lot like Yates.

[Kanathia Tsuko]

While it is true we don't have the best educational system here in Texas it doesn't mean we have the worst. I have traveled across many states and trust me Texas is one of the better ones. Two specific states I can name right off the top of my head with much poorer educational systems would be Kentucky and California. I have attended school in California and audited a classroom in Kentucky. Half the people in Kentucky's school system are illiterate. I don't mean this in a derogatory way they simply are. Not to mention that within the last thirty years the standards of education have risen significantly. Many of the children in public high schools today can work math equations that their parents can't even begin to comprehend. So it's all in a matter of how you look at things. It could have been Dr. Seuss. There are far worse options than Roald Dahl.