It appears a few children were left behind.
The Department of Education was created in 1979 and now has an annual budget of $73 billion, with 5,000 government bureaucrats roaming its hallways. When you include all Federal, State and Local spending on public education it totals about $700 billion per year, or $13,000 per student. The Department of Education was created to improve the education of our children.
After 37 years and trillions of dollars “invested” in our children, see below what they have achieved. The public school teachers who have been on the front lines for the last 37 years work 9 months per year, earn above average salaries, get awesome benefits, and have gold plated pension plans – all at the expense of taxpayers. And look what they have accomplished.
The tens of millions of illiterate drones think they deserve $15 per hour because it’s fair, even though they can’t count to fifteen or spell fifteen.
STAGGERING ILLITERACY STATISTICS
California
- According to the 2007 California Academic Performance Index, research show that 57% of students failed the California Standards Test in English.
- There are six million students in the California school system and 25% of those students are unable to perform basic reading skills
- There is a correlation between illiteracy and income at least in individual economic terms, in that literacy has payoffs and is a worthwhile investment. As the literacy rate doubles, so doubles the per capita income.
The Nation
- In a study of literacy among 20 ‘high income’ countries; US ranked 12th
- Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 44 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children
- 50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level
- 45 million are functionally illiterate and read below a 5th grade level
- 44% of the American adults do not read a book in a year
- 6 out of 10 households do not buy a single book in a year
The Economy
- 3 out of 4 people on welfare can’t read
- 20% of Americans read below the level needed to earn a living wage
- 50% of the unemployed between the ages of 16 and 21 cannot read well enough to be considered functionally literate
- Between 46 and 51% of American adults have an income well below the poverty level because of their inability to read
- Illiteracy costs American taxpayers an estimated $20 billion each year
- School dropouts cost our nation $240 billion in social service expenditures and lost tax revenues
Impact on Society:
- 3 out of 5 people in American prisons can’t read
- To determine how many prison beds will be needed in future years, some states actually base part of their projection on how well current elementary students are performing on reading tests
- 85% of juvenile offenders have problems reading
- Approximately 50% of Americans read so poorly that they are unable to perform simple tasks such as reading prescription drug labels
(Source: National Institute for Literacy, National Center for Adult Literacy, The Literacy Company, U.S. Census Bureau)
We can’t use facts in modern reporting because…
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My really good friend was a HS advance placement biology teacher. Gone are the days when to be in an advanced placement course, you actually had to qualify. Now, if your parents want you in the class, your in. You can imagine the results.
My teacher friend would practically tear his hair out because these students could barely read and write, never mind do ADVANCED work.
His tests were fill in the blanks and word puzzles because written answers that required thought and comprehension of the material resulted in the majority of the class failing and the parents coming in screaming to the principal that the work was “too hard”. Too hard? IT’S ADVANCE PLACEMENT. Apparently the parents can’t read either or they would know what the word “advanced” means.
I weep for our future.
We all have our ups and downs each day with events and news that affect our daily lives.
I want to thank Admin for injecting me with an extreme downer. I’m sure my attitude will be upbeat all day long.
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Why are we blaming the government for something the parents are responsible for? My kid went to public school and can read and do maff. He also works heavy construction and drives a C7 corvette.
At age 21
No jobs Bullshit.
Kids do not want to work BULLSHIT.
If it is the parents responsibility, why are we spending $13,000 per kid per year for this result?
Correction: Teacher work 8 month per year, with 30 days off for holiday breaks. My step sons other half is a gym teacher, she makes 72.000. per year. That works out to be 52.00 p/hr for throwing out balls. Not bad!!!!. I do their taxes.
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Children in public school have no time or peace to learn.
There are exceptions…as many know…but for the general
public? A shite storm. Classes might be organized by academic
achievement…but the certain groups would be outed as dumb as shite.
Offended? Say: Uncooperative and disruptive as shite.
then…I went to public school.
Jimski, if it’s the parents responsibility then why am I, a non-parent by choice, forced to pay as well?
If the feds are spending $13k per student how much do the states add per student? Regardless of the number, parents could choose some pretty nice private schools for that kind of scratch and end up with chirren who could read write and use a map.
I was a teacher and the article glosses over the public school problems.
“Now, if your parents want you in the class, your in.”
pup, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the reason for this is that all AP class enrollees are automatically reported as “Advanced” come test time.
In the early 1990’s Massachusetts went onto the ‘MCAS’ system in an effort to improve the scholastic aptitude tests of all Massachusetts public school students. The powers that be held a TOWN HALL meeting at the local Nauset Regional School district annex building. I arrived with my wife early to ensure a front row seat. The moderator cracked a few ‘clean’ jokes to loosen up the crowd. In the center of the floor was an easel with a pie chart on it. The moderator asked if before he began did any one have any questions. My hand went up, my wife immediately kicked my leg under the table (like so many times before) and I said “please excuse me, but your pie chart segments add up to 113 percent.” The moderator counted out load the indicated numbers and then admitted that I was indeed correct – the total was 113 Percent. Then, to my surprise and dismay hey made a joke of this by saying “it must be the NEW MATH” – to which most of the audience broke out in laughter.
I stood up, slammed my chair into the table I was sitting at, and when the laughter subsided said in a very loud booming voice as I pointed at him and the idiot parents “It is because of people like you, and parents such as these here that our children are failing in school”. I then left the auditorium and spent the next 2 hours sitting in my car mad enough to chew the leather off of the steering wheel – my wife stayed inside to observe the circus shit show. Needless to say, things have only gotten worse in the Massachusetts public school system since that fateful night.
I tried to get my daughter into the local Charter School that had just been recently established . The admissions to the Charter school was supposed to be a ‘lottery’ system, but that ideal was total bullshit because almost every child going to that Charter School in Orleans, Cape Cod was a child of the ‘whos who’ of the supposed ‘upper crust / movers and shakers of the local. Imagine that (don’t forget that important world moving persons such as Timmy ‘TUBE STEAK’ Geithner summer in Orleans – WTF ?).
A good friend of mine from West Virginia told me on several occasions – “Working man don’t stand a chance”- go figure
If they taught the kids, the kids might start thinking for themselves, can’t have that.
Admin
The fact that the government confiscates this money is a total unlinked topic. Asking a government drone to educate your kids is asking for failure. I agree that the money is wasted and I agree that we are forced to pay and send our kids to school ( unless we home school ) but again, my son and his friends and most of the scout troop we mentored are all doing well. No one in jail no one at age 20 has a child. Most went to advanced studies but for my kid he just could not stand the atmosphere.
I stopped going to school in the 6th grade. Drunk ass mother didnt give a fuck. But we lived across the block from the library, where I educated myself. Cant imagine what I missed.
Hold on. If we cut education funding, who’s going to hire all the women and minorities we sell college degrees to?
Deport the folks who populate department of education to an African country, seize their properties, detain their children, have them work in chain gangs. They are worse than useless. They are criminals.
Public schools are brain scrubbing centers. Private schools are not that much better, though better funded.
Destroy the whole education system in this toilet of a country and start over.
Up the Swannee folks . . . .
“Down Under” the situation may be similar. Parents (generally) expecting “everyone else” to do the harder aspects of parenting for them (seeing as both are in fulltime employment to pay off the astronomical mortgages on property / toys / lifestyle must-haves to keep-up-with-the-neighbours).
There is much variation across the Country – in the “Really” rural Outback townships, kids actually DO do well in the local State funded schools, whereas in the larger Metropolitan areas, there’s too much distraction, so things like homework are somewhat relegated, and the difference between State and (increasingly VERY expensive) Private starts to show, mainly because the Private schools HAVE to produce “Quallity Product”, and they have the legal right to expel disruptive pupils, a right the Public system lacks.
This is nothing new. A relative was a teacher, and they were themselves taught in the Private system, where the disruptive were quickly weeded out. She holds a (good Honours) Degree in Chemistry, and did her PGDipEd, since she fancied teaching at Secondary level. Stuck it a year at what was regarded as a “Good” Grammar School in the UK West Midlands (Parents of most kids were from Professional backgrounds), and even with a “better-quality student”, there were problems the Private system never faced, mainly classroom-level disruption. Gave up teaching, did a M.Sc. in Wastewater Management and spent the rest of her career working for the local Water Board (Sewage Management). VERY interesting job, and you’d be surprised what turns up at your local Sewage Works – accidentally, or maybe not quite accidentally . . . .
Public schools: once you enter the front door, you already failed the first test.
“It appears a few children were left behind.”(from the article)
Man, W is gonna be soooo pissed about this.
If you think students are ignorant, meet the Affirmative Action teachers.
We need to delete the Department Of Education for lack of interest and capability of doing anything
The States (except for Tennessee and Texas) can do it themselves. Texas and Tennessee are so full of idiot bible thumpers they are beyond help..
MA
OK. What do we do about it? How do we become competitive with the rest of the world again? Leave it to the States? 1/4 will toss out thier science books for God’s sake. Literally.
What is actually taught:
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=11375 (This teacher: https://www.johntaylorgatto.com/)
http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/
https://www.khanacademy.org/
Resist. Secede. Self-educate. The World-Wide Web is the single greatest tool humanity has yet devised.
If public schooling is so necessary, where did those first teachers learn what to teach?
“Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.” – Mark Twain
“OK. What do we do about it?”
In my experience, people who say “we” all the time don’t intend to do shit.
@Skinbag, there are online private schools as well as charter schools. We used online Charter k12 I understand it is available in most if not all states. For high school we switched to a different online program that was willing to allow us to augment their program with BYU Independent online programs. BYU Independent has great math programs. They have proctors all over the country. Our eldest child was able to enter university at 17 in an engineering program. At 20 the child has a job that works with the university schedule and pays $ 20.00 per hour. You can get around the brick and mortar but you do need to be involved. We can monitor the amount of time spent in actual work. We know immediately if an assignment has not been done and stay on top of the situation rather than find out at the end of the quarter when it is too late to make up. Are there some improvements that can be made yes, but the great thing is that you know what they are being taught and can augment or correct the indoctrination. The online programs works like real life. Your children learn to self start and they learn that if they get their work done and they learn it thoroughly the rest of the day is theirs to do what they want.
Administrator–“Why are we spending $13K/yr for this result?” A: Because it’s a bureaucracy. Bureaucracies are for employment. Their primary purpose is to take tax money and turn it into salaries. The stated reason for the bureaucracy is just a front. ALL bureaucracies exist for their own sake, not for the sake of their stated purpose. The idea is to grow the public sector at the expense of the private sector. This employs people (gaining their votes) and increases the power of public officials.
Ed–perfect answer. My answer would’ve been, “What do you mean ‘we’, Paleface?” But yours is better, because it exposes the collectivist mentality of the person asking the question. No sense in doing something on your own, right? That might involve SACRIFICE. And CONVICTION. Lefties are allergic to such. Their convictions only extend so far as being willing to use YOUR resources to accomplish THEIR goals.