lewrockwell.com — Public schools are brain dead and on life support; so let’s pull the plug on them, give them a decent funeral, and let better alternatives take root and flourish. Education is what we must save & regenerate, not an obsolete proven flop that has been in a persistent counterproductive condition for decades. The time has come to slaughter a sacred cow
Oct 7, 2006 View in Crawl 4
tripwithOct 8, 2006
The main reason public schools are under performing while the funding keeps going up is Special Education. Towns spend up to as much as $500,000 dollars for individual children. If you ever get a chance to look at a school budget, take a look at how much money is alloted to special education, and students taught outside the cities and towns in "Special Schools." Cities and towns are on the hook for that money. We are allocating far to much of our education money to teach these marginally effective citizens. Schools are not promoting and pushing the best kids anymore. Most of our money goes to the botton 5%.
miseseanOct 8, 2006
"Where did you get that from my post?"ZenMojo said libertarians are crazy 'cos they don't like public schools, and you responded that the term "lIbertarian" has been hijacked and there are really "anticapitalist libertarians"; it seems reasonable to me to read into that the implication that your "anticapitalist libertarians" support public schools.[BTW, there are no anticapitalist libertarians. People who call themselves that fall into two categories: some are not actually libertarians at all, the rest (e.g., Kevin Carson) don't understand capitalism in the same way as "pro-capitalist" libertarians - they're anti-state-capitalists (as are all libertarians!), not anti-capitalists, they just read "capitalism" as meaning "state capitalism" and lack a proper understanding of property rights (the two are intimately connected)]
xevecOct 8, 2006
"You also have a much larger percentage of your population below the poverty line than any of the countries listed. Weird for such a rich nation. Maybe education does count for something after all."Problem is, our poverty line is MUCH higher than other countries poverty line. Our "poor" are way richer than europe's "poor." Practically all of our poor own TV's, Refrigerators, property, computers, cable, cars, cell phones, DVD players, you name it. Poverrty is a subjective term because it depends on the definition of poor. When you say our nation is below the "poverty line" what kind of measurement are you referring to? The amount of money they make?Seriously though, it doesn't matter if our country has a "gap between the rich and poor." We shouldn't strive to be equal. Actually, we CAN'T be equal since everyone has different desires and different goals. Also, what about those who CHOOSE to be poor? Are they too considered "in poverty?"
curthowlandOct 8, 2006
"...all this libertarian bulls**t how about we just get our s**t together and copy Finland's school system..."Interesting, because it's the Libertarians who are requesting that the public schools explicitly _not_ copy Finland.The Libertarian position is a complete separation of school and state.<a class="user" href="http://www.sepschool.org/">http://www.sepschool.org/</a>
mathOct 9, 2006
The public school system in Australia works quite well, but it is in danger of following the US an UK models because the government is constantly trying to reduce funding and channel the money into private schools.Of the top ten schools in Sydney, almost all of them are public.
objectivistOct 9, 2006
"We can't have people running around doing their own thing. Relying on their own selfish independent judgement. We need to keep the masses under control."Public Schools have an unholy alliance with the Management Class. They're needed to keep children "obedient" to authority so that they can be molded to fit the bankers....I mean states..I mean the experts ways so that they can continue their quest for world domination and One World Religion through the United Nations. Dump the management class and start your own system.
xevecOct 9, 2006
Right, because higher paid people = more productivity. Why not do that with other parts of production? I mean, if we force comapnies to pay everyone $100k a year, we should be a prosperous country!
arcticjklOct 9, 2006
Math,Do you have a link to information on the Austrailian school system?
arcticjklOct 9, 2006
I think we need school reform.To start we need to decide what students need to know at different grade levels.Then we create curriculum that teaches this information.Then we hire teachers to teach this curriculum. We fire teachers who can not teach this curriculum effectively in three yearsWe grade students on how they exhibit the knowledge they need to have a their grade level. Those who have the knowledge pass those who don?t fail. Additional schooling should be available for those within 70% of the required knowledge.We need to create exams (written and other) to test the students comprehension of the knowledge.Students who don?t want to learn should be transferred to trade schools.Students who can't learn should be sent to schools to assist them.Schools and teachers will be graded on what percentage of students pass.The above student groups will be excluded from samplings of schools and teachers.Part of public schooling is becoming a good citizen, teach that too.Health (physical check ups and obesity) and social services are not part of education, they will be removed from school.Each local school district will determine their own curriculum. Thus farming communities can specialize in biology while urban areas can work on industry and technology, or the other way around if they want.
Closed AccountSep 10, 2009
I don't think the pay has any bearing here. so you think the teachers aren't teaching the kids because they aren't motivated enough ?