Sunday, September 27, 2009

First The Banks, Then GM, Now The Schools

It's becoming clearer and clearer everyday. Barack Obama is a BIG believer in BIG government. He thinks the federal behemoth should be in charge of pretty much everything, including our children's schools. And now Obama has come up with a plan to get America's kids ready for the challenges of the 21st century. Are you ready for it? The Great One wants to lenghten the school day/year. That's right. He wants our kids to be in school all day AND virtually all year. Brilliant, huh?

And why does Obama think a longer school day/year is a great idea? For the same reason he thinks universal health care is a great idea: all the other industrialized nations do it. You can't find a better reason than that.

Actually, on the surface, the idea that longer time in school will improve grades and test scores doesn't seem so farfetched. The only problem is that, according to Yahoo! News, American kids already spend more hours in school than the Japanese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong kids who consistently outscore them in math and science. So what are we to make of Obama's grand plan? It's just another big government liberal scheme.

If Obama really cared about the education of America's children he would, as I've said in another post, encourage parents to homeschool or send their kids to private school, as he himself does. If it's more and better learning he wants, homeschools and private schools almost always outperform public schools. So why not give vouchers to parents, especially poorer ones, to send their children to the private school of their choice? If Obama wants to spend federal money on education, that seems to be the best way to do it. The only possible drawback is that many private schools, especially parochial ones, might not accept the vouchers if they come with too many strings attached.

Also, if Obama really cared about reforming education he should worry less about the length of time kids spend in school and worry more about what they're doing while they're there. The Department of Education, established by Jimmy Carter, is over thirty years old. The US spends more on education than any other industrialized country, yet all that federal involvement and money hasn't resulted in better educated children. Maybe it's because the kids are spending too much time learning how to put condoms on cucumbers rather than learning math, science, and history. Turning public schools into centers of leftist social engineering is, I suggest, the real reason for the poor performance of too many American kids. And it's probably the real reason why Obama wants American children to spend more time in school.

It's time to rein in Obama and his ilk. Controlling education is not one of the powers the Constitution gives to the federal government. We've had over thirty years of increasing federal interference in education and the results are dismal. Obama is out of his place trying to dictate to local schools how many hours or days they must require kids to attend. He should leave the children alone and stick to what the Constitution says his job is. Novel idea, huh?

14 comments:

Skunkfeathers said...

Well, maybe Barry's scheme would have some merit, IF....and that's a huge IF...Barry would encourage the teachers' union to return to teaching basic education, and abandon the touchy-feely indoctrination to the moonbattery of AlGore, Saul Alinksy, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, et al.

*Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz* Not gonna happen. Doesn't fit the liberal/progressive/socialist/marxist/Janey-cakes playbook.

Sheeple are easier to steer to voting for Dumbocraps.

Tom said...

Schools have gotten worse, not better, ever since the focus was shifted away from reading, writing, and arithmetic to the touchy-fealy curriculum.

Jane said...

...touchy/feely curriculum WTF are you drones going on about now?

The reasons schools are doing so poorly isn't because of "marxist/socialist" propaganda (and really Skunky, you actually have the NERVE to call others dumb), or because young teens are putting condoms on cucumbers (SA, its funny how you continuously pull ideas out of your ass and your loyal readers lap it all up). Schools are doing so poorly because of standardized testing and putting aside subjects like History, and Science. Focusing mainly on English and Maths. 75% of Oklahoman teenagers didn't know who our first president was.

All of your complaining would be much better received if you provided actual evidence to back up your claims other than just rearranging sound bites you heard from Fox News, etc.

I really would love to hear you all explain your "marxist/socialist" propaganda, "touchy-feely" education and "sex ed with vegetables" theories. It would be quite entertaining. All I see from these posts full of garbage is Skunky's severe misunderstanding of anything having to do with socialism or marxism.

Seane-Anna said...

Jane, you're either deliberately lying or are just an idiot. Or maybe you're just young. Whatever it is, teaching correct condom use in schools has been a contentious issue all over this country since the '80's when the practice gained support in the name of fighting AIDS.

But don't take my word for it, Janey-cakes. Just google it and you'll find all the info you'll ever want. Then come back here and admit that I was right.

Skunkfeathers said...

I vote that Janey-cakes is losing brain matter, cell by cell. Her lib/progressive profs quit teaching American History some time ago, in favor of Howard Zinn's revisionist pablum of dubious antecedence and fact dysfunction. How Janey-cakes missed that is probably cuz her head is where her ideas are being pulled from, and there's a helluva traffic jam there when she defecates.

Example of your touchy-feely educrap, Janey-cakes, is your schools that teach kids to sing paens of praise to Barry, instead of teaching them proper English, proper written communications, proper math, proper history, proper geography, and other basics that benefit them in adulthood.

Teaching them to watch AlGore's idiotic and fraudulent movie to save the planet -- which is the biggest fraud you and yours have conjured up, until you find a bigger one -- is teaching them nothing useful or productive, Janey-cakes. That's how, for example, the DC schools cost more per pupil to run -- over $13k annually -- with among the worst education results in the nation. Oh whoops...and it's run by YOUR ideological chums, Janey-cakes. FAIL. And in every inner city run by your ideological chums, Janey-cakes, it's the same: FAIL.

Your arguments are a failure, your ideology is a failure, your logic is a failure. But you have the freedom to be and remain a failure, Janey-cakes.

As such, you're entitled to your WTF illusions of progressive reversalism.

Skunkfeathers said...

And another example you'll want to deny, Janey-cakes, but has been well-written of in Califorlornia, was the effort a few years back by the NAACP to get thrown out the tests used by the State to certify teachers. The test was written to a 10th grade level, Janey-cakes. Ya followin' this? That's a high school sophomore level, in case you don't know your classes by the numbers.

The NAACP argued in court that this test was "racist" and excluded too many minorities who deserved to be certified as teachers. Do you follow this logic, Janey-cakes? Do you understand what it is that they're saying, employing this kind of logic, Janey-cakes?

Of course, Janey-cakes, if you didn't outright support this dumbing down of the testing standards for people who want to, themselves, teach kids, then you'd have to disavow your oft-expressed support for the ideology you foolishly kowtow to now. While you claim all my ignorance is based on Fox News, I can say with greater confidence that yours is based on the dishonesty and disingenuous misjournalism of MSNBC, the New York Times, CNN, The Daily Kos, Moron.org, Mother Jones, The Nation, and the utter assinity of complete morons like Van Jones and Noam Chomsky. You crawl through the slime of the lies that Bela Pelosi spews, and you point to yourself as supporting this irresponsibility and dishonesty as making you of the caring, compassionate class, when in actuality it makes you intellectually bankrupt and ethically disgraced.

But if you wish to brand me a dupe of Fox News, I'm okay with that. I keep a better class of company than you've chosen to wallow with, Janey-cakes.

Tapline said...

Wow!! A lot of anger in these remarks.....Of course our schools are teaching a socialist agenda. can't we all just get along??? I mentioned it long ago when I returned to school, but our educational system had been politicized many years ago and it continues today toward Socialism. and we are almost there. We are just waking up to what has happened to our schools.....LOOK AT WHAT'S HAPPEMED TO OUR COUNTRY!!!! Stay well....

Anonymous said...

Well, one reason that the schools are not doing well with all that federal help and funding, is, look at the state of the federal government anyway? They are bankrupting this country, they keep passing laws to help them do things that should still be illegal. They pass new laws when they think the old ones are too hard to enforce *i.e. Illegal immigration*

Great post my friend.....and keep up the great work.

Anonymous said...

God, I love trolls that use the phrase "ilk". Such a sign of an original thinker.

Skunkfeathers said...

Anon, Seane-Anna's just keeping the words simple for you, so you can make an attempt at understanding what she wrote.

Anonymous said...

I won't focus on the stupid of your commenters SA, I'll just focus on the stupid in this post.

First off, stop blaming the "feds" for every damn thing that most of the time is the fault of wingnut driven agendas among state and local governments.

America's children are far less able to compete in an engineering/technology driven world than their counterparts in even lesser countries such as India, who have made education a huge priority, with a focus on technology and engineering that is giving the US a run for its money.

Anyway, aren't you rubes always saying that America's lack of available people to hire is what has caused corporations to flee this country? Now you say there's nothing wrong with our educational system, besides too much federal money? Which is it?

Just tell me SA, what the hell are schools to do with less money? Presently most schools across the country are forced to ask parents to bring in pencils, paper, even buy the books for their children. Schools across the country have had to cut back or reduce music, the arts and even physical education for lack of funds.

Oh, I digress; back onto defunding the arts and stuff. You know what? There was a study done not so long ago that found that the one thing that CEO's and human resource officials found sorely lacking among college grads was a lack of Liberal Arts Education. Yeah, that faggy stuff like reading, writing, critical thinking, self expression, sensitivity, awareness of other cultures. Damn, all that relative stuff! To understand and read Marx is to be a Marxist! FAIL!

You speak of home schooling. Who the hell makes sure that home schoolers are functionally literate, understand basic science (and not IT as truth) and can competently read? No department of ed? Who does that? Please tell me oh Miss Libertarian One. Because frankly, last I looked, there's a whole contingent out there of well funded corporations and their well heeled minions, employees, share holders, trust funders, etc., who'd like nothing more than a more ignorant and servile nation than what we have now.

Yeah Home Schooling!

And while we're on the subject of home schooling, who in the hell among the middle class and below has the spare cash to not work and stay home to teach little Johnnie and Susie? Who's gonna fund that? One of your wingnut think-tanks? Because last I looked around me and at the stats, it takes two earners to drive a household even slightly on top of the poverty line, much less in anything close to comfort.

Which brings me also to something that educators have been after for quite some time.

While you wingnuts were raging and hollering about them whores staying home on the dole, once they get out to work they gotta put the kiddies somewhere.

See, most times low wage work requires longer hours than the school day.

You say, why should I care?

Well, you see, because a large amount of crime occurs between the golden hours of 2:30 pm and 6pm on weekdays all over the country -- right around the time that mom and dad are killing themselves being proud to make 8 bucks an hour at Wingnut Nation Wal-Mart.

Or maybe they are struggling as public school teachers who work in a district filled with screaming wingnuts who hate funding edumucasion.

So, the extended time would kill a whole buncha nasty birds with one stone; keep kids in school to learn more, possibly study times, etc.; keep kids off the street and therefore keep ma and pa happy punching widgets for piece work (which I'm sure you don't understand what that's like) at Big Bubba's Widget Shop. And your precious property is protected and probably some child's life because they didn't get a chance to break into your damn gunsafe.

Hey but you keep on keepin' on there SA, cause us libruls, we're still pushing for what's good for you and your buddies regardless of how you keep fightin' it. Doncha worry.

Skunkfeathers said...

Anon "Janeycakes": you apparently focused more on the stupid of your arguments, because your argument is built upon the inane House of Stupid that Bill Ayers and outcome-based educraps have built for a generation.

No facts, like liberal/progressive bromides that, if not gross distortions of fact, are outright lies.

But that's what you do, Anon "Janeycakes"

Try again.

Tom said...

Boy, I go away for a couple of days, and everything goes to pot...

In response to Jane and Anon - I'm sorry that I cannot provide statistics to counter your argument, because all I have is my personal experience with my son in the public school system. I'm not going to hijack Seane-Anna's comment section with my tale of woe, but I will state that my son's classes focused more on social issues than actual learning. This is proven out by students "performing poorly on standardized tests" which emphasize reading and math comprehension.

Roadhouse said...

Jane,
Actually, the reason schools are doing so poorly is because of the power teachers unions have over the entire education system. Rather than focus on a practical effective curriculum, they focus on political campaigns and promoting liberal ideology.

Today, teachers are "encouraged" to teach about global warming, rather than teach about our founding fathers.