Florida's school-choice success terrifies the establishment.

[charrison]

linkage

Florida will be a pivotal battleground this November, but on the crucial subject of education reform the battle in that state is already joined.

In the past five years Florida has delivered real school choice to more American schoolchildren than anywhere else in the country. Which is no doubt why Jesse Jackson was down in Tallahassee earlier this month calling Governor Jeb Bush's policies "racist." He and his allies understand all too well that when poor African-American and Latino children start getting the same shot at a decent education that the children of our politicians do, the bankrupt public education empire starts looking like the Berlin Wall.

This is the backdrop to this week's wrangling in the Florida senate over a bill ostensibly aimed at bringing "accountability" to the state's vouchers programs but which is really aimed at regulating them to death. Yes, there have been embarrassments, notably a "scholarship" operator now being criminally investigated for siphoning off $268,000. As bad as this is, it is small beer compared to the glaring scandal of a public school system in which more than half the state's African-American and Latino teens will never see a high school diploma.


...

But perhaps the most innovative is a corporate tax credit that allows businesses to take a dollar-for-dollar deduction for every contribution to a designated scholarship fund. Certainly in terms of sheer numbers this is the most far-reaching, with 13,000 low-income students now benefiting and 20,000 on a waiting list. Because these corporately funded scholarships are capped at $3,500 per child in a state where the average per pupil expenditure runs around $7,500, each scholarship represents not only a lifeline for the recipient but significant savings for the taxpayer.

 

[burnedout]

Just a related comment. During the No Child Left Behind Leadership Summit two weeks ago in St. Louis, I noted a rather insightful comment by an educator from Oregon.

"Progress occurs one retirement at a time."

 

[glenn1]

Florida's school-choice success terrifies the establishment.

As they should be, since the establishment education system people absolutely completely suck at educating children. We'd be better off if the lot of them were fired en masse like Reagan did with the air traffic controllers, and started over from scratch.

That being said, i give it less than five posts to this thread before someone claims that the reason the public schools suck so horrifically is because we need to spend more money on it. Since evidently all the billions we spend on education is only enough to mostly, but not completely fu*k it up.

 

[conjur]

I think we need to audit the books of every school system in the nation. Find the waste and eliminate it!

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: conjur
I think we need to audit the books of every school system in the nation. Find the waste and eliminate it!

There is lots to find and cut out....

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: conjur
I think we need to audit the books of every school system in the nation. Find the waste and eliminate it!

There is lots to find and cut out....

My vote would be to start on the Administration side. No - not local level Admin - it needs to start alot higher than that. The Bureaucracy is a heavy burden on our system(not just for Education either)

CkG

 

[Zephyr106]

Originally posted by: glenn1

Florida's school-choice success terrifies the establishment.

As they should be, since the establishment education system people absolutely completely suck at educating children. We'd be better off if the lot of them were fired en masse like Reagan did with the air traffic controllers, and started over from scratch.

That being said, i give it less than five posts to this thread before someone claims that the reason the public schools suck so horrifically is because we need to spend more money on it. Since evidently all the billions we spend on education is only enough to mostly, but not completely fu*k it up.

Pray tell, how is our education system fvcked up? As I understand it, it's one of the better in the world. The US has alot of societal problems that result in poor performance amongst certain population segments. I think you personally should work to improve that.

Zephyr

 

[FrodoB]

The US education system is considered to be poor in relation to much of the developed world. Kids are just passed through the system. The system caters to the lowest common denominator instead of helping everyone reach their full potential - including the gifted kids. A high school diploma means nothing anymore. Many kids graduate with elementary school math and reading skills. It's pathetic.

 

[Zephyr106]

Originally posted by: FrodoB
The US education system is considered to be poor in relation to much of the developed world. Kids are just passed through the system. The system caters to the lowest common denominator instead of helping everyone reach their full potential - including the gifted kids. A high school diploma means nothing anymore. Many kids graduate with elementary school math and reading skills. It's pathetic.

I contend that the US has unique social issues that put it at a disadvantage with the more established, homogenous European nations and Japan. I also contend that the foreign methods of teaching to the student, i.e. no college prep across the board, are more realistic and should be emulated here. Realize that when US and foreign students are "internationally tested", a full sampling of US children take the test, and only the upper tiers of foreign students take the test.

We should do away with this No Child Left Behind, college prep for everyone, teach for the test mentality, and make high school meaningful for many more children with expanded vocational, technical, and business skills, so a diploma means more.

Please contribute to the solution instead of harping from the peanut galleries. Thanks.

Zephyr

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: conjur
I think we need to audit the books of every school system in the nation. Find the waste and eliminate it!

That could quite possibly take several decades. Seriously.

 

[SherEPunjab]

Originally posted by: glenn1

Florida's school-choice success terrifies the establishment.

As they should be, since the establishment education system people absolutely completely suck at educating children. We'd be better off if the lot of them were fired en masse like Reagan did with the air traffic controllers, and started over from scratch.

That being said, i give it less than five posts to this thread before someone claims that the reason the public schools suck so horrifically is because we need to spend more money on it. Since evidently all the billions we spend on education is only enough to mostly, but not completely fu*k it up.

 

[FrodoB]

Originally posted by: Zephyr106

Originally posted by: FrodoB
The US education system is considered to be poor in relation to much of the developed world. Kids are just passed through the system. The system caters to the lowest common denominator instead of helping everyone reach their full potential - including the gifted kids. A high school diploma means nothing anymore. Many kids graduate with elementary school math and reading skills. It's pathetic.

I contend that the US has unique social issues that put it at a disadvantage with the more established, homogenous European nations and Japan. I also contend that the foreign methods of teaching to the student, i.e. no college prep across the board, are more realistic and should be emulated here. Realize that when US and foreign students are "internationally tested", a full sampling of US children take the test, and only the upper tiers of foreign students take the test.

We should do away with this No Child Left Behind, college prep for everyone, teach for the test mentality, and make high school meaningful for many more children with expanded vocational, technical, and business skills, so a diploma means more.

Please contribute to the solution instead of harping from the peanut galleries. Thanks.

Zephyr

What makes you an such an expert? I hear all the real life stories that occur because my fiance is an elementary school teacher and most of her friends are teachers at all levels. The education system is basically a daycare system that does nothing to challenge students, especially the students that have ability. And parents, at all economic levels, no longer participate in their kids education, which compounds the problem even further. My fiance spends a disturbingly high percentage of her teaching time disciplining troubled kids (emotionally troubled, mentally retarded, abused, etc.) that shouldn't even be in a regular class. The whole class suffers because a few kids. The administration is required to go through a lengthy process to evaluate and remove these troubled kids. The parents of these kids frequently cry racism, prejudice, etc. Meanwhile the entire class suffers for months. It's ridiculous. And this is in first grade! She has one child that can barely talk or count to 10 that has not been sent to a special class.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: digitalsm

Originally posted by: conjur
I think we need to audit the books of every school system in the nation. Find the waste and eliminate it!

That could quite possibly take several decades. Seriously.

Not if we threw more money at it.

I know it would be very time-consuming and expensive but what would be the potential savings?

 

[SuperTool]

I am not falling for another "Bush education miracle"

 

[Zephyr106]

Originally posted by: FrodoB

Originally posted by: Zephyr106

Originally posted by: FrodoB
The US education system is considered to be poor in relation to much of the developed world. Kids are just passed through the system. The system caters to the lowest common denominator instead of helping everyone reach their full potential - including the gifted kids. A high school diploma means nothing anymore. Many kids graduate with elementary school math and reading skills. It's pathetic.

I contend that the US has unique social issues that put it at a disadvantage with the more established, homogenous European nations and Japan. I also contend that the foreign methods of teaching to the student, i.e. no college prep across the board, are more realistic and should be emulated here. Realize that when US and foreign students are "internationally tested", a full sampling of US children take the test, and only the upper tiers of foreign students take the test.

We should do away with this No Child Left Behind, college prep for everyone, teach for the test mentality, and make high school meaningful for many more children with expanded vocational, technical, and business skills, so a diploma means more.

Please contribute to the solution instead of harping from the peanut galleries. Thanks.

Zephyr

What makes you an such an expert? I hear all the real life stories that occur because my fiance is an elementary school teacher and most of her friends are teachers at all levels. The education system is basically a daycare system that does nothing to challenge students, especially the students that have ability. And parents, at all economic levels, no longer participate in their kids education, which compounds the problem even further. My fiance spends a disturbingly high percentage of her teaching time disciplining troubled kids (emotionally troubled, mentally retarded, abused, etc.) that shouldn't even be in a regular class. The whole class suffers because a few kids. The administration is required to go through a lengthy process to evaluate and remove these troubled kids. The parents of these kids frequently cry racism, prejudice, etc. Meanwhile the entire class suffers for months. It's ridiculous. And this is in first grade! She has one child that can barely talk or count to 10 that has not been sent to a special class.

I'm an expert because I'm not you.

I mentioned unique social issues, and here is what I meant:

Insufficient parental involvement in education, parents not pushing their children to excel in school, for various reasons. It's the parents fault- so criticizing teachers like your fiance isn't going to help it. Criticizing administrators may help a little if they promote stuipid policies. But you'll make the most difference by criticizing parents for not pushing their children to excel.

Zephyr