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How do you define the problems?
#1 Parents are not as actively involved
with their children's education either because there are busy working two jobs and
/ or don't have the basic skills themselves.
#2. People are graduating from
High School, without the ability to read.
#3. People are graduating from High
School without basic math skills.
#4. Public schools have been turned into a
strange cross of juvenile detention centers and day care.
#5 Teachers have lost the drive to teach under these circumstances.
Q: So what are our alternatives?
A: We could all do what our representatives in
D.C. do, when faced with some of the worst schools in the country, send our children
to private schools. We could also embrace home schooling. Of course the only way
to provide equal education, would be for the country to have one teacher for each
subject and one book for each subject. Technology gives us this option, through the
internet or television, but is it really practical? Are the American people ready
to accept that 90% of the knowledge that those degrees represent is available free
on the internet? and all you have to do is know how to read...
The Republicans
are trying to blame the current situation on the Clinton/Gore years, but it is obvious
that the real problems grew immensely when the federal government started to chip
away at school funds to build more prisons ie: Reagan/Bush years. The Democrats are
touting the nineties as the growth years of education,
because now 90% + of high
school graduates now go on to college. Is this good?
People are graduating from
college who can't read, make change for a dollar or even calculate taxes in their
head. So now we have College grads who don't have the education that I had when I
finished sixth grade. Is this what we deserve for $100,000 education? Those same
grads are expecting $50,000 a year jobs for their worthless piece of paper... Around
50% of the current jobs in this country are still in Food Service ie: at or near
minimum wage. People are going $100,000 in debt before they start their adult life
and having to work 2 or 3 jobs just to get by... Now instead of two income families
we have four income families who still can't get by, and have no time to teach their
children basic math and reading skills, the cycle continues and there is no end in sight.
Some Solutions
#1. No child should be allowed past fourth grade without the ability to read and reason out words and meanings.
#2. No child should be allowed to pass sixth grade, without demonstrating the four basic math
skills addition subtraction, multiplication and division.
#3. College entrance should be made much much harder, anyone who is not in the top 40% of their class
should be excluded from college and start their working career earlier without the debt$ of a useless education.
#4. School funding and teacher shortages, can be solved over a two or three year period. If we bring our education standards up to
the rest of the industrial world's, we should have our children prepared to graduate
by tenth grade. This could be accomplished by doubling up first and second grade
teachings into first grade and third and fourth grade into second grade teaching.
These early years are the peak years for curiosity and learning. By moving each grade
back two years we have high school graduation at 16, when minds turn to other things.
By eliminating two entire grades, we automatically cut the cost of high school in
half....
#5. Exclude from college anyone under 18, this will give high school
grads a chance to work, or explore self education and decide just exactly what they
may want to do with their lives.
#6. Scale minimum wage to education level.
Example
For those without a high school education $7.50 per hour minimum
For those with a high School education $8.00 per hour minimum
For those with
community college (2 years) or vocational education
training $10.00 per hour
minimum
For those with a full four year College education $12.00 per hour minimum
For those with Masters degrees $14.00
For those with Doctorate degrees $15.00
