[Vision2020] NYTimes: The Uneducated American

[Joe Campbell]

I love this plan. It is clear from this logic that the best way to  
improve government programs is to cut funding, not by throwing away  
more tax dollars.

We all want to improve the military don't we? Well let's just apply  
the Schwaller plan to it. Just think how efficient our Army would be  
if we cut spending in half, or down to the pre-Bush days. I'll bet we  
just might win a war for a change if we stopped throwing money at that  
problem!

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 9, 2009, at 1:29 PM, Glenn Schwaller <vpschwaller at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> In the early 1980's the country was entering a deep recession amidst a
> continuing downward spiral in the "quality" of education.  The 1990's
> was a period of tremendous economic growth, yet education continued to
> spiral down despite infusions of cash into the system.  So $$ = A's?
> This seems to be what Paul Krugman suggests to be true, to the extent
> of demanding more dollars for education.
>
> The two major problems are what does the nation define as "education"
> and how is success for this undefined entity to be measured?  The
> current standards of measurement seem to show a dismal trend in
> educational success (low test scores and high drop-out rates) which
> has been going on for 20 years.  Are we measuring the proper "thing"?
> Do we even know what this "thing" is??  Again, looking at the boom
> 90's it certainly isn't lack of money.
>
> Dare we say it could be the quality of our educators? Is it lack of
> motivation on the part of both students and teachers?  And (gasp!)
> should education be "nationalized" so everyone is receiving the same
> level and type of instruction?  Should students and teachers be
> evaluated at the start of each school year in an effort to determine a
> proper and meaningful direction in what is being taught?  And are we
> "allowing" mediocre students to move forward in their mediocrity such
> that basic reading, writing and math skill are lacking as these
> students move into our universities and workforce?  One has to wonder
> considering the number of university students on the Palouse enrolled
> in remedial courses to correct these deficiencies.
>
> No, I do not think the answer is more money.  The underlying cause is
> more insidious than that, and the problem is no one seems to know what
> it is nor how to look for it.  Or do we really care??  Between the mid
> 80's and the mid 90's hundreds of educational reform proposals have
> been suggested.  Why has nothing worked?  Could it be as simple as
> collectively we know there is a problem - but so what?  There seems to
> be no incentive to get or give a "good" education - and this, I think,
> is the major problem.
>
> GS
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 7:54 AM, Joe Campbell <philosopher.joe at gmail.com 
> > wrote:
>>  From The New York Times:
>>
>> OP-ED COLUMNIST: The Uneducated American
>>
>> Education in America, suffering for years, is about to get much worse
>> thanks to cuts caused by the financial crisis.
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/opinion/09krugman.html
>>
>> Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
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