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Generally speaking I don't think public schools should be teaching anything different, fact based non religious, non political, non anything unbiased teaching. If you're going to teach about religion you need to cover it all, the good the bad and the ugly. Same thing with politics ans science. My view and the view of many conservatives is that is not happening, and what is being taught is to fit an agenda on the left. One glaring example is an "Inconvenient Truth" which is nothing more than a political propaganda film that was shown to basically an entire generation of school kids as fact based science.
Having said that I don't have an issue with providing an outlet for parents that don't want their children in non religious schools. If we have to break few eggs by allowing kids to go to schools where nessie is being taught as science then I'm fine with that if we have a better overall outcome across the board.
If it were up to me the way we teach children in this country would get turned on its head and I can guarantee that we would have better results than we have now.
See that's the problem. How can you have a better outcome lying to kids about nessie? You complain about an Inconvenient Truth, then say that.
See that's the problem. How can you have a better outcome lying to kids about nessie? You complain about an Inconvenient Truth, then say that.
The better outcome comes from opening up better opportunities to every student, you're picking out an example of one religious school where there is an issue. That doesn't mean they are all like that, I'll again point out the Catholic school near me that had to close. Even for catholic school standards that school was above and beyond providing a great education and had the numbers to back up their claims. It's hard to argue when a great deal of the students are not only going onto advanced education but doing it at some of the most prestigious schools in the nation. You're not talking about successful students but highly successful students.
This is what I would like to see done with education:
Get rid of the Department of Education or severely cut back their budget. This isn't an anti education rant, it's cost saving rant. It's redundant and unneeded.
Remove all taxing bodies except one, the state level would be most appropriate.
Provide each student between kindergarten and HS age a savings account that the state will provide funds for, if the average student gets $12K of funding that is what they get in their account.
You will compile a list of what is acceptable purchase, is a trip to the Smithsonian acceptable? Yes it is.
This funding is dependent on one thing and this is where it gets a bit sticky, the student must meet some minimal grading requirements based on a formula of all students and their individual intelligence. Anybody that doesn't want to accept this testing or cannot meet these standards is on their own.
The parents choose where their child goes to school whether it's public school, private school or even home schooling.
Every school will have to accept X% of special needs students if they are going to accept government funds.
The public schools would be turned into non profits and directly compete with the private schools for students. If they cannot meet the standards or attract enough students they are disbanded and their assets are liquidated with half going to the state and the rest returned to the people in that schools old taxing district.
Back to savings account..... any funds left in this account after the child graduates can be used for a college education.
This is an overview, obviously there is lot for discussion here but the two key points is providing competition for these students and driving expenses down because not only will the parent be seeking the best school they will also be seeking out the best value.
Last edited by thecoalman; 06-26-2012 at 04:07 AM..
I have a simpler reform for public schools. Let them select which students attend. They would be teaching the kids that wanted to learn instead of riding heard on the stupid, disruptive and bullies. The concept of "universal" education is flawed because not everybody wants to be educated or have their children educated. Teach the teachable and forget the rest.
Greg I think you need to make sure children get educated or at least an effort. That does bring up another point, why are we spending so much money on special needs students? I'm not suggesting you kick these kids to the curb but it makes no sense to be spending 50K on students who are going to be the least productive people in society.
If school vouchers were implemented, there could be arrangements to keep those students using them out of any religious classes/activities unless their parents pay for those out of pocket. I went to Catholic schools after a few years of poor quality public schools. The extent of the religious activity was one class on religion that was more like a comparative religion class than anything else, once a month there was a prayer service or Mass, and there were crosses on the wall. All of the constitutionally objectionable religious activity could have been taken out for a student on vouchers and quite honestly none of the kids would care.
There are also many private non-religious schools. Obviously there are some religious private schools that would never be able to seperate religion from instruction (i.e., the example in the OP), but a school voucher system could be created IMHO. There needs to be something in the way of competition to improve the public schools.
There needs to be something in the way of competition to improve the public schools.
That's the conundrum. There is a pretty strong correlation between the quality of public schools and how we fund them. Schools in wealthy communities tend to be superior because they have a large property tax base and therefore more funding per pupil. These are ironically also the communities less likely to need vouchers, since 1) the wealthy can already afford private tuition if they want to pay it and 2) the public schools are already good enough to compete based on quality. In wealthy communities, private educational opportunities tend to be almost exclusively sectarian since religious instruction is the only significant difference.
Some states have tried to level the playing field by making education funding more of a state issue than a local issue. Distributing state funds on a per student basis markedly improves the funding of schools in those poorer communities. Vouchers (on the other hand) undo all those efforts by siphoning even more money from cash strapped schools. They are the catalyst for accelerating a downward direction rather than a competitive impetus to improve.
You and the OP sound like typical left wing conspiracy theorists
Fearmongering by the left? check
Many of the posts on CD are reasonable to use as a way to disprove the theory that humans have evolved
What in the world does this have to do with being a liberal or a conservative?
They are trying to teach that evolution is incorrect, that god created everything, and that humans lived alongside dinosaurs. They do so by lying. Not by re-interpreting something - by lying.
What twisted mindset do you have that you think it is alright to outright lie (and teach that lie) in order to convey a point?
Like I said in the OP, I have no problem with people believing or even teaching Creationism in a private school setting. I do have a problem if doing so requires lying.
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