Quote:
Originally Posted by PhenomenalAJ
I don't understand the logic of why conservatives want to cut education...
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Because it is a failure.
Your K-12 education system needs to re-invent itself. It will not do that unless it is properly motivated and history shows that the only way to properly motivate the unions and administrators and teachers is to cut off the money.
History also shows that when the money is cut off, unions, administrators and teachers suddenly become über-creative.
It is true that "
necessity is the mother of invention."
It is also true that the rest of the world spends less money on education than the US, but turns out a superior product.
Historically, spending more money on education has done absolutely nothing in the US, so why continue to spend more money? That's just stupid.
I was in Burkino Faso where the "teacher" spent one semester at university, got paid nothing -- she lived in peoples' uh, "homes" in the village and fed her and offered her clothing and trinkets and stuff. The "school" was a lean-to -- no electricity, no running water -- yet those kids were better educated than American kids.
I put guys from Senegal and Ghana as line leaders because they could fill out the production reports in English in sentences that were legible and complete and made sense and didn't have 500 spelling/grammar mistakes.
Pretty sad when people educated in a jungle with no electricity and no computers are better educated than Americans.
A girlfriend's 13-year old brother brought an essay he wrote about baseball in English (he is German). Damn good for a 13-year old -- no spelling or grammatical errors, nice paragraphs -- years later I would be teaching International Relations at university and wishing I had kids who could spell and write as good as he could. How sad is that?
I've lived in a number of countries and visited many others; whatever the US is doing in education is just plain wrong and not working. If cutting off the money is the only way to force positive changes in the system, then so be it.
Another way of putting it would if unions, administrators and teachers don't want their funding cut, then start cranking out a superior product and prove to us that they are worthy of more money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhenomenalAJ
... and money for scholarships.
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You mean student loans?
You want an education system like Europe? Okay, I'm all for that. First let's cut the money, so we can be like Europe; then we'll test for TRACK at 13. Score well on the test you go to high TRACK, score low, you go to low TRACK. Everyone is graduated at 16 years. Those in high TRACK take a test, and if the score well, they get to go to college preparatory school for 2 years. If they don't do well, they go get a job. Those in low TRACK also take a test and if they score high enough, they go to vocational school and if they don't, they go get a job.
Those that complete college preparatory school take a test when they are graduated at 18. If the score high enough, they get to go to university and if they don't score high enough, they go get a job.
Now that you know how the education system works in Europe, why don't you ask a really stupid question like,
"How come university is free in Europe?"
Well, it is free
only to those who qualify.
If the US adopted the same program, university in the US would also be, uh, "free" but then only those who qualified could attend university, uh, for "free."
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhenomenalAJ
I don't understand why conservatives have fought Obama tooth and nail about infrastructure improvements like national high speed rail.
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Because it is wrong.
The correct course of action is to embark upon a program designed to shift 85% of US freight from over-the-road trucking to rail.
Had Obama done that, 3 Million to 4 Million jobs would have been created and you would be well on your way to meeting the 85% goal in 8 years.
That would have significantly reduced prices on diesel fuel, which would have reduced prices on crop foods and also helped reduce prices on all goods sold commercially.
Spending $800 Billion on that would have done more good for America, Americans and you economy than pissing away $800 Billion to feel-good groups as a bribe for supporting Obama's election campaign.
Revamping your rail freight system would also lay the ground work for high speed rail later. An intelligent person would see that, so I guess Obama isn't that intelligent.
If you do doubt, then you might want to ask the Brits, Germans, Romanians, French, Italians, Spanish, Russians and everyone else who built rail freight lines first,
and then built high speed rails systems.
Building high speed rail first is the wrong way to go about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhenomenalAJ
Is it because conservatives know better education would kill their support?
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Better education than what?
When you prove to me that spending more money on an education system that is obviously broken will lead to a better product, then I might be inclined to listen to your drivel.
Logically...
Mircea
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