Throwing More Money at Schools is Not the Answer
Submitted by davidinliberty on Thu, 12/20/2007 - 13:00My man Walter E. Williams hits another home run:
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/07/aca...
For those who don't know him, Dr. Paul has mentioned him as a possible member of his administration WHEN he wins :)
American education will never be improved until we address one of the problems seen as too delicate to discuss. That problem is the overall quality of people teaching our children. Students who have chosen education as their major have the lowest SAT scores of any other major. Students who have graduated with an education degree earn lower scores than any other major on graduate school admissions tests such as the GRE, MCAT or LSAT. Schools of education, either graduate or undergraduate, represent the academic slums of most any university. As such, they are home to the least able students and professors with the lowest academic respect. Were we serious about efforts to improve public education, one of the first things we would do is eliminate schools of education.
-dave
Not a home run.
Not even logical! And, definitely not too delicate to talk about. This topic is talked about ad nauseum in all circles of education. And certainly using standardized test scores as away to measure the quality of future teaching should be as roundly condemned as using standardized test scores as measure of success for students.
Educators, public and private, may graduate from the "slums" of higher education but are still way ahead of the average joe. Many teachers have had other careers and go on to do all sorts of things.
Schools of Education are not really schools of education, rather, they are training schools. Some are tacked on to undergraduate degrees and some stand alone. Are there any states that don't require "student teaching"?
Williams is way off. Ask yourself, were your best teachers the ones with the highest test scores, or, the ones that established a personal connection?
h-daddy
As teachers....
Getting rid of schools of education is not necessarily the answer. IF we as a society, through either public or private funding, expressed our collective concern and placed appropriate importance on education with teacher salaries equivalent to that importance, you would have candidates for these positions battling it out.
Right now as a a society we value the stock market, World Series of Poker, plastic surgery and sporting events more than education for college age people. Is it any wonder that those whom enter the teaching profession are either saints or stupid????
"Luctor et Emergo" - Struggle and Emerge
Teachers are overpaid for not teaching well
You may want to check out Greene's Education Myths. Given your assumptions above, read especially the chapters on teacher salaries. If you annualize their salaries and add in their benefits, they make quite a bit of money, more than their current likely worth, relative to similar professions.
Government's schools do not try to attract and retain teachers who teach well. Government schools peg salaries primarily based on seniority and degrees and certification. Study after study has shown that these do not affect student performance.
If we keep government, which is largely captured by the unions, in control of education, and give it more money "to improve educatoin", it will only pay more for seniority and degrees. The teachers will get more money (or more free time or smaller classes). But student performance will not improve.
We have doubled our per student expenditures over the last 30 years with no improvement in student performance!! Doubling expenditures again, if keeping government in charge, will not produce performance gains.
The *only* answer is empowering the parents to become consumers of education. They select the schools that they want to send their children and they pay the schools. We allow anyone to open up schools and accept this money. You'll get much more specialization, with specific education techniques targeted to specific segments who can benefit from them (instead of one-size-fits-all). When parents are dissatisfied, they walk and the school if it wants to continue to exist must reform. (Today, the government schools can ignore parents entirely, except of course when spreading the blame.)
Then, and I believe only then, will we get revolutionary growth in education.
reLOVEution, Dennis
"The best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in nursery." - Disraeli
Don't Vote For Ron Paul for anything less than
Re[love]ution & Renaissance
Dennis
Missed a few things there...
First off, notice the heading of the post...my wife and I ARE teachers. Please do NOT kid yourself, or spread the notion that a teachers salary is even close to appropriate for the relative importance of a child's development. Exactly what price might you put on YOUR child's ability to critically think, evaluate, rationalize, digest and question all that they are bombarded with today? 1/30th of $40,000 per year??? (1 student in a 30 person class).
Second, I absolutely agree with you about getting the government out of education. BUT, that only has the potential to help, IF we, as the members of a SOCIETY, deem education worthy of concern, finances, etc. From what I see around us today, that is a relative exception, not the rule (and no, the financial well-being of your family is NOT a determinant of this). The RESPONSIBILITY of educating is what I was commenting on.
Removal of all controls, and the granting of true liberty is only as vaulable as what we would all make of it. Obviously to each their own, but few "islands" exist in the continental United States. Your well educated kids will have to interact with the rest of the masses sometime.
"Luctor et Emergo" - Struggle and Emerge
That is the real value of freedom
Currently parents are told, "Don't worry your heads. We're from teh government and we know best how to educate your child." They then step away and hand over the most important thing they have to others to indoctrinate and to raise.
Giving the power back to the parents will cause the parents to accept their proper role as the primary educators and guides of their children. Given choice, they will see that they do not have to accept weevily peanuts becaue they are 'free' or because the government has said that's the best there is. They can walk.
And teachers who teach well won't earn money just for seniority. They'll earn money for teaching well. They'll be in demand, for teaching well. And if they teach really well, they can start their own school using their own techniques. Regardless of whether the local board or local union approves. Only because the consumer-parent is demanding more of their approach for their child, whom they are properly responsible for.
BTW, you haven't read the Greene excerpts, I take it... ;)
reLOVEution, Dennis
"The best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in nursery." - Disraeli
Don't Vote For Ron Paul for anything less than
Re[love]ution & Renaissance
Dennis
Throw money here:
School of Ron!
For details see http://www.dailypaul.com/node/15968
$11,000 per student on the books
but after maintaining the bureaucracy:
$3 per student per year.
Kill the beast and then you will educate the children. Or as Bush says, "educate the childrens"
"It does not take a majority to prevail. But rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." ~Samuel Adams while plotting the Boston Tea Party.
http://disillusionedrants.blogspot.com/
20/20 stupid in america
John Stossel did a very good one here. Every Democrat that watch it agree that more money will not help. So show it to your liberal friend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4pN-aiofw
Yes, a marvelous show!
It doesn't usually change liberals' minds though.
I especially like Greene's book on Education Myths. It's eyeopening!
Here is a link to a good overview of some of Greene's analysis of the myths that hold education reform back.
http://p196.ezboard.com/fafterschoolersfrm47.showMessageRang...
reLOVEution, Dennis
"The best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in nursery." - Disraeli
Don't Vote For Ron Paul for anything less than
Re[love]ution & Renaissance
Dennis
He hit that one out of the park
Yes, Paul did mention Walter Williams as a possible member of his administration and I hope that happens.
The diry secret of education is this: It's cheap. 95% of what you learn in school can be learned by reading the right books. (The main exceptions would be things like lab courses, manual training, and arts like music, painting, and dancing.) Books are cheap. Even text books are cheap, when you price them on a per hour cost and figure how many hours are needed to learn the material. And most books can be borrowed for free from the library.
What education always requires is time, persistence, and concentration, and that is why people are always looking for an easy out that costs more money, such as learning via computer games or some similar silly idea. Our educrats are nothing if not full of expensive tom fool ideas about how to modernize education.
PRIVATIZATION!!!!
--SOB--
--SOB--
Yes, this is my area of interest!
We are spending 4 times more per student than we did in the 70s with stagnant quality while other countries quality has risen.
The rewards of government schools rewards bureaucrats who stay in the job (seniority) and who take other classes (certification, Masters). Both of these charateristics of teachers has been proven not to affect quality.
The exciting teachers who risk are shoved out the door.
reLOVEution, Dennis
"The best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in nursery." - Disraeli
Don't Vote For Ron Paul for anything less than
Re[love]ution & Renaissance
Dennis
Story
Interesting story, my brother in-law started teaching (science) last year. Hes an excellent teacher but he is also a take no crap kinda guy (grew up in foster homes and a lot of other problem, went on to get a college degree despite himself). The school he taught at last year didn't want him back because he was so tough on his students. He went onto a charter school. A few weeks ago he got a call from the school wanting him back because they just found out all his students nearly aced the FCAT (blah) when the rest of the school is a D or F school.
Who Should Be In Charge?
The key question is, "Who should be in charge of education?"
Since the federal government does not have the authority, they should get out of the business. Actually, as Ron Paul points out, they have authority over the schools an Washington, D. C., and these schools have a very poor reputation.
Be careful what you wish for. More money and more federal involvement isn't working very well in D.C.
IMissLiberty
You can reach voters in California, here: http://consequeries.com/California-voter-guide.php
Off track, MHO
Definitely NOT too delicate to talk about. This topic is talked about ad nauseum in all circles of education. And certainly using standardized test scores as away to measure the quality of future teaching should be as roundly condemned as using standardized test scores as measure of success for students.
Educators, public and private, may graduate from the "slums" of higher education but are still way ahead of the average joe. Many teachers have had other careers and go on to do all sorts of things.
Schools of Education are not really schools of education, rather, they are training schools. Some are tacked on to undergraduate degrees and some stand alone. Are there any states that don't require "student teaching"?
Ask yourself, were your best teachers the ones with the highest test scores, or, the ones that established a personal connection?
h-daddy
Hillary's "Universal Pre-K" scares the H out of me!
If we don't stop kids being separated from their parents at such early ages within one more generation the government will be waiting for babies at the delivery room door!
I'm so disappointed that the woman's lib movement fell for such a scam. They should have fought for the right to stay at home during the early development years of their children.
In 2005 the world government even got the Middle East women to leave their children at home and go work in Victoria Secret factories! These people are SO evil!
Monkey mothers take good care of their offspring! I wonder what the New World Order has in store for them!
Hey, they have to keep
Hey, they have to keep brainwashing us earlier and earlier if they want to keep us under their influence for life.
..................
"The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic..." —Alan Moore
Throwing money at it didn't
Throwing money at it didn't help Kansas City.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html