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First 100 Days: Day 9 - Of Cocktails and Cocksuckers
I find it a little ridiculous how much Teachers/Instructors get paid. I know I enjoy/learn more in a class if the instructor is into what they do. But it's really hard to do that if you have to work two jobs (one to make a paycheck and the other is to teach) to maintain your sanity. I was really disheartened to hear how much my high school teachers were making in comparison to what I would be making right out of college.
But I guess their "paycheck" probably includes feeling good about themselves at the end of the day. And I'm dragging this further OT I'm sorry guys!
Yeah, it seems like a stretch to be good with supporting infrastructure improvements but not education. I guess the benefits to education might be a bit more long term, but education seems like a fairly rock solid area to put money towards that will increase production.
It's not effective stimulus spending, period.
Yeah. It's a great idea for long-term economic viability, but it's not going to create any jobs in the immediacy.
I guess a case can be made that money that goes into education will help bouy the textbook industry or something, but those people aren't really hurting at this point anyway.
Maybe, I guess it would depend on whether or not you think the people who will be getting these loans would have been able to attend university otherwise? If not, then you have more people going into a workforce where we're already not able to provide enough jobs, so in the end this could help stabilize the unemployment rate?
lazegamer on
I would download a car.
0
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited January 2009
Wasn't there some crap about a teacher shortage in the last few years?
I find it a little ridiculous how much Teachers/Instructors get paid. I know I enjoy/learn more in a class if the instructor is into what they do. But it's really hard to do that if you have to work two jobs (one to make a paycheck and the other is to teach) to maintain your sanity. I was really disheartened to hear how much my high school teachers were making in comparison to what I would be making right out of college.
But I guess their "paycheck" probably includes feeling good about themselves at the end of the day. And I'm dragging this further OT I'm sorry guys!
As Sarah Palin said, their reward will be in heaven.
The thing is that higher education is one of those few things that you can just throw money at. How much would it cost to give 400 dollars to each college student going to a state or community school?
The thing is that higher education is one of those few things that you can just throw money at. How much would it cost to give 400 dollars to each college student going to a state or community school?
I thought that's what the Lifetime Learning Credit and the Hope credit were for?
As Sarah Palin said, their reward will be in heaven.
Oh jeeze that's a name I never wanted to hear again haha.
Yeah, it seems like a stretch to be good with supporting infrastructure improvements but not education. I guess the benefits to education might be a bit more long term, but education seems like a fairly rock solid area to put money towards that will increase production.
It's not effective stimulus spending, period.
Well, that's not a very helpful response. Perhaps you would be willing to elucidate?
Well, I guess I was a bit hasty, because it really depends on how (and when) it's spent. I don't imagine you're going to see it being spent until at least the coming school year, so you're going to see no effects until September/August. And if it goes to construction of school facilities it could be effective if it goes to shovel ready programs that have already been drawn up and approved, but just lacked funding. If it goes to anything they havnt already approved, that wont be built for more then a year, at which point it's effectiveness becomes dubious.
Tyler Cowen had an interesting post the other day - If you put Larry Summers and Jason Fruman in a locked room with no internet and only a single crayon and some paper for an hour, you'll almost certainly get a better stimulus bill then Congress could craft. And the current bill is basically what they would come up with, plus lots of stupid shit congress is responsible for either directly or indirectly to appease them. So parts of it could work, and other parts are just bullshit.
The thing is that higher education is one of those few things that you can just throw money at. How much would it cost to give 400 dollars to each college student going to a state or community school?
Yeah you could up federal grant money or give tax credits for students
still doesn't solve the bigger problems of failure in our primary school system.
i just hope some of that education money makes its way down to florida
it's pretty insane that every county around orlando (Orange, Seminole, brevard and voulsia for sure) is currently in a hiring freeze thats been going on for 2 years now
keep in mind that most schools in florida already dont have enough teachers, and this just seems a tad bit insane
What would cutting out a day (or two) delivery do for the due dates of bills? Its pretty much assumed at this point that when you mail a letter, you can get it anywhere in the us within 3 days of the postmark. And I have noticed a trend lately of bills arriving VERY close to the posted due date.
I know this is usually companies being dickish, but what response is the post office going to give if you ask where your letter is ?
Do people still pay bills via mail? Every bill I have is paid online.
I pay everything I can online, but I have to mail in my student loan payment. When I was in IL I had to pay extra to pay my electric bill online (WTF?). I actually mailed in quite a few bills there...
The thing is that higher education is one of those few things that you can just throw money at. How much would it cost to give 400 dollars to each college student going to a state or community school?
Yeah you could up federal grant money or give tax credits for students
still doesn't solve the bigger problems of failure in our primary school system.
I think that the primary school system is bleeding right now and we need to breathe some life in it. It's sad to walk around my old high school and notice the same desks I was sitting in back in '02. Old books (not normally a bad thing, but if they are still using 90's books there's a problem) are still being used there too.
And every year they bring up that they need to improve the education system, but to do so they need to raise taxes in our area. And every year it gets voted down almost unanimously.
The thing is that higher education is one of those few things that you can just throw money at. How much would it cost to give 400 dollars to each college student going to a state or community school?
Yeah you could up federal grant money or give tax credits for students
still doesn't solve the bigger problems of failure in our primary school system.
I think that the primary school system is bleeding right now and we need to breathe some life in it. It's sad to walk around my old high school and notice the same desks I was sitting in back in '02. Old books (not normally a bad thing, but if they are still using 90's books there's a problem) are still being used there too.
And every year they bring up that they need to improve the education system, but to do so they need to raise taxes in our area. And every year it gets voted down almost unanimously.
Yeah it'll never change but the whole local taxes = public education thing is bullshit
People who don't have kids don't want to pay taxes on the education system. Places with more older people on fixed incomes will always vote down the budgets.
Day 9 - First piece of legislation signed: Ledbetter.
David Axelrod: "Days like this is what it's all about. This is what we were working for." -- Nia-Malika Henderson (10:34 a.m.)
Double thumbs up from Michelle, and she taps her heart after POTUS is finished. -- Carrie Budoff Brown (10:31 a.m.)
The bill has been signed; POTUS and Ledbetter embrace. -- Alexander Burns (10:29 a.m.)
i just hope some of that education money makes its way down to florida
it's pretty insane that every county around orlando (Orange, Seminole, brevard and voulsia for sure) is currently in a hiring freeze thats been going on for 2 years now
keep in mind that most schools in florida already dont have enough teachers, and this just seems a tad bit insane
I got certified to teach general science in Central Florida a couple years back. It's totally insane to think that their in a hiring freeze when just 2 years ago there was a critical shortage of teachers in the area.
Day 9 - First piece of legislation signed: Ledbetter.
David Axelrod: "Days like this is what it's all about. This is what we were working for." -- Nia-Malika Henderson (10:34 a.m.)
Double thumbs up from Michelle, and she taps her heart after POTUS is finished. -- Carrie Budoff Brown (10:31 a.m.)
The bill has been signed; POTUS and Ledbetter embrace. -- Alexander Burns (10:29 a.m.)
And the Chamber of Commerce has a collective heart attack.
Day 9 - First piece of legislation signed: Ledbetter.
David Axelrod: "Days like this is what it's all about. This is what we were working for." -- Nia-Malika Henderson (10:34 a.m.) Double thumbs up from Michelle, and she taps her heart after POTUS is finished. -- Carrie Budoff Brown (10:31 a.m.)
The bill has been signed; POTUS and Ledbetter embrace. -- Alexander Burns (10:29 a.m.)
Day 9 - First piece of legislation signed: Ledbetter.
David Axelrod: "Days like this is what it's all about. This is what we were working for." -- Nia-Malika Henderson (10:34 a.m.)
Double thumbs up from Michelle, and she taps her heart after POTUS is finished. -- Carrie Budoff Brown (10:31 a.m.)
The bill has been signed; POTUS and Ledbetter embrace. -- Alexander Burns (10:29 a.m.)
And the Chamber of Commerce has a collective heart attack.
If we'd known that cabal was so easy to kill, we'd have done this years ago.
Day 9 - First piece of legislation signed: Ledbetter.
David Axelrod: "Days like this is what it's all about. This is what we were working for." -- Nia-Malika Henderson (10:34 a.m.) Double thumbs up from Michelle, and she taps her heart after POTUS is finished. -- Carrie Budoff Brown (10:31 a.m.)
The bill has been signed; POTUS and Ledbetter embrace. -- Alexander Burns (10:29 a.m.)
i just hope some of that education money makes its way down to florida
it's pretty insane that every county around orlando (Orange, Seminole, brevard and voulsia for sure) is currently in a hiring freeze thats been going on for 2 years now
keep in mind that most schools in florida already dont have enough teachers, and this just seems a tad bit insane
I got certified to teach general science in Central Florida a couple years back. It's totally insane to think that their in a hiring freeze when just 2 years ago there was a critical shortage of teachers in the area.
There probably still is a critical shortage, but of both funds and teachers. The latest round of budget cuts by the Florida legislature have been pretty brutal. Then again, thanks to the housing bubble, our state revenue is going down faster than Phil Gingrey on Rush Limbaugh.
i just hope some of that education money makes its way down to florida
it's pretty insane that every county around orlando (Orange, Seminole, brevard and voulsia for sure) is currently in a hiring freeze thats been going on for 2 years now
keep in mind that most schools in florida already dont have enough teachers, and this just seems a tad bit insane
I got certified to teach general science in Central Florida a couple years back. It's totally insane to think that their in a hiring freeze when just 2 years ago there was a critical shortage of teachers in the area.
There probably still is a critical shortage, but of both funds and teachers. The latest round of budget cuts by the Florida legislature have been pretty brutal. Then again, thanks to the housing bubble, our state revenue is going down faster than Phil Gingrey on Rush Limbaugh.
Hey-o!
Really, though, I'm hoping like hell to see some education reform under this administration. The United States educational system was a disgrace even before school vouchers and NCLB, now it's more like a horrible punchline.
i just hope some of that education money makes its way down to florida
it's pretty insane that every county around orlando (Orange, Seminole, brevard and voulsia for sure) is currently in a hiring freeze thats been going on for 2 years now
keep in mind that most schools in florida already dont have enough teachers, and this just seems a tad bit insane
I got certified to teach general science in Central Florida a couple years back. It's totally insane to think that their in a hiring freeze when just 2 years ago there was a critical shortage of teachers in the area.
There probably still is a critical shortage, but of both funds and teachers. The latest round of budget cuts by the Florida legislature have been pretty brutal. Then again, thanks to the housing bubble, our state revenue is going down faster than Phil Gingrey on Rush Limbaugh.
Oh, I know there is still the critical shortage, that's what I think is so insane
The thing is that higher education is one of those few things that you can just throw money at. How much would it cost to give 400 dollars to each college student going to a state or community school?
Part of the problem with the cost of higher education has been student loans.
The government makes more money available for students, and makes it easier for students to get, and then tuition is increased by the school. The federal government is genuinely well-intentioned in their efforts, but they're part of the reason tuition costs are so out of control.
I'm honestly not sure how to handle the problem, though. Students need the money. Universities need to get paid. Every time the students get easier access to money, the universities decide they deserve to get paid more. It seems that something like pegging university tuition increases to inflation or something like that might help (i.e. rent control for tuition), but I'd hate to see every public university essentially become interchangeable. Or effectively frozen right where they are at the moment that legislation goes through.
I honestly think one solution might be to stop sending people to college. It's not necessary in most cases; people don't value the well-rounded education. They're looking for job training at a university. That's what technical schools are for!
So we're sending more people to college, getting more people this "education" (if you can call it that, given how low the bar has been set at your average public university), and the people neither want nor appreciate this education. Maybe creating more emphasis on two-year colleges and technical schools would help the whole situation out; less cost, less debt, less government reliance, and really, let's be honest: for the vast majority of people, a two-year college degree is still more than they want or appreciate.
Discussing the plan that the House approved on a strictly party line vote, Pelosi acknowledged Republican criticism that large sums of money are set aside for favored Democratic programs such as aid to education and Medicare. But she said "we are definitely stepping up to the plate to say we'll be accountable."
I dunno... Those sound like good things. Why would they be opposed to it because it supports education? They don't want kids to get learned anymore?
because only states should do anything regarding education, and this is wasteful spending in the middle of an economic crisis
No, I'm not kidding.
I am all for the philosophical appeal of making education strictly a state-level-and-lower thing. In a perfect world, that's totally what I would like to see. But pragmatically, there are many states that are poor, unorganized, or flatly stupid when it comes to educating their children. Yes, I'm pretty much talking about the south and parts of the midwest here.
While it's tempting to say "Fuck 'em, let them drive their schools into the ground if they suck too bad to do otherwise," especially coming from a state with decent schools, doing so is both A) unfair to the children in those states, and suboptimal, as it has effects spreading well beyond the borders of those retard states. And so I think we should, to the most limited extent possible, provide funding to the poorer states, on the condition that they follow certain federal education guidelines.
What I would like to change is the amount of funding given to schools in non-poor states. If you're in some shitty district in a wealthy state, you shouldn't go hitting up the fed for money. You should be hitting up your state. There's efficiency in getting the money to schools from the most local sources possible. Money should come first from the district, second from the state, and lastly - if all else fails - from the fed. You lose a lot more of a dollar funneling it from some guy in Deleware through the fed and back down to some school in Georgia than you do just taking that dollar from the guy living down the street.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
American consumers are awash in debt, drowning in it. This is the fundamental issue with the stimulus proposal. We're trying to borrow our way out of debt. Unfortunately, we need a recession. That is, consumption must decline because for some time we have been consuming more than we produce or have reasonable prospects of producing. Monetary policy has been used to inflate a series of bubbles to avoid the consequences of excess debt, and the more we try to hold it off, the worse it's going to be. Bourbon works as a hangover cure, but only for a while.
Unfortunately telling people that their standard of living has to go down isn't a very tenable political position.
And it's not to say that we shouldnt have a stimulus plan, we should. But only to avoid an over correction, not to just push our day of reckoning farther into the future.
The thing is that higher education is one of those few things that you can just throw money at. How much would it cost to give 400 dollars to each college student going to a state or community school?
Part of the problem with the cost of higher education has been student loans.
The government makes more money available for students, and makes it easier for students to get, and then tuition is increased by the school. The federal government is genuinely well-intentioned in their efforts, but they're part of the reason tuition costs are so out of control.
I'm honestly not sure how to handle the problem, though. Students need the money. Universities need to get paid. Every time the students get easier access to money, the universities decide they deserve to get paid more. It seems that something like pegging university tuition increases to inflation or something like that might help (i.e. rent control for tuition), but I'd hate to see every public university essentially become interchangeable. Or effectively frozen right where they are at the moment that legislation goes through.
I honestly think one solution might be to stop sending people to college. It's not necessary in most cases; people don't value the well-rounded education. They're looking for job training at a university. That's what technical schools are for!
So we're sending more people to college, getting more people this "education" (if you can call it that, given how low the bar has been set at your average public university), and the people neither want nor appreciate this education. Maybe creating more emphasis on two-year colleges and technical schools would help the whole situation out; less cost, less debt, less government reliance, and really, let's be honest: for the vast majority of people, a two-year college degree is still more than they want or appreciate.
Our country just doesn't appreciate education.
Brandeis was forced to liquidate the Rose Art Museum and will be laying off a lot of teachers.
Even if you don't think that improving education will reap short term benefits, just remember that one of the major projects of the WPA was to move sandbags around, so what really matters right now is just to get the money to the right people.
I kind of wish the plan was a bit more ambitious. Lets get some high-speed trains going from Boston to DC; 1/5th of the population lives in that corridor.
Hell, my sci-fi nerd fantasy here is we get some stimulus by doing a Mars shot, but I know that's dumb. It'd be cool, but it's dumb.
What I would like to change is the amount of funding given to schools in non-poor states. If you're in some shitty district in a wealthy state, you shouldn't go hitting up the fed for money. You should be hitting up your state. There's efficiency in getting the money to schools from the most local sources possible. Money should come first from the district, second from the state, and lastly - if all else fails - from the fed. You lose a lot more of a dollar funneling it from some guy in Deleware through the fed and back down to some school in Georgia than you do just taking that dollar from the guy living down the street.
Florida has something similar, yet waaaaay stupider.
Your school takes tests, called the FCAT. Your school is then graded (A through F) on how many kids fail/pass. If your school fails because it is a shithole with no money and can't afford computers or textbooks, you don't get any money with which to buy computers and textbooks and help pay the fucking teachers so they can actually fuckign teach.
I kind of wish the plan was a bit more ambitious. Lets get some high-speed trains going from Boston to DC; 1/5th of the population lives in that corridor.
Hell, my sci-fi nerd fantasy here is we get some stimulus by doing a Mars shot, but I know that's dumb. It'd be cool, but it's dumb.
They tried to make it more ambitious, but they were worried no Republicans would vote for it.
I honestly think one solution might be to stop sending people to college. It's not necessary in most cases; people don't value the well-rounded education. They're looking for job training at a university. That's what technical schools are for!
I don't think this is accurate at all.
Sentry on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
wrote:
When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
What I would like to change is the amount of funding given to schools in non-poor states. If you're in some shitty district in a wealthy state, you shouldn't go hitting up the fed for money. You should be hitting up your state. There's efficiency in getting the money to schools from the most local sources possible. Money should come first from the district, second from the state, and lastly - if all else fails - from the fed. You lose a lot more of a dollar funneling it from some guy in Deleware through the fed and back down to some school in Georgia than you do just taking that dollar from the guy living down the street.
Florida has something similar, yet waaaaay stupider.
Your school takes tests, called the FCAT. Your school is then graded (A through F) on how many kids fail/pass. If your school fails because it is a shithole with no money and can't afford computers or textbooks, you don't get any money with which to buy computers and textbooks and help pay the fucking teachers so they can actually fuckign teach.
This system was put in place by Jeb Bush.
And people wonder why folks say NCLB was designed to destroy the public school system
I kind of wish the plan was a bit more ambitious. Lets get some high-speed trains going from Boston to DC; 1/5th of the population lives in that corridor.
Hell, my sci-fi nerd fantasy here is we get some stimulus by doing a Mars shot, but I know that's dumb. It'd be cool, but it's dumb.
They tried to make it more ambitious, but they were worried no Republicans would vote for it.
Well, fuck 'em. The house ones. Then find 2-3 Senate Republicans and just add in everything they could ever possibly want. If it's a guy from Kansas, everyone in Kansas gets a taco and it's called the "Republican Senator from Kansas: Everyone Gets a Taco" plan. Go nuts.
I kind of wish the plan was a bit more ambitious. Lets get some high-speed trains going from Boston to DC; 1/5th of the population lives in that corridor.
Hell, my sci-fi nerd fantasy here is we get some stimulus by doing a Mars shot, but I know that's dumb. It'd be cool, but it's dumb.
They tried to make it more ambitious, but they were worried no Republicans would vote for it.
Well, fuck 'em. The house ones. Then find 2-3 Senate Republicans and just add in everything they could ever possibly want. If it's a guy from Kansas, everyone in Kansas gets a taco and it's called the "Republican Senator from Kansas: Everyone Gets a Taco" plan. Go nuts.
Yes, this is what I am saying. I really, really wish the Democrats would tell them all to go fuck off we have real work to do. Sometimes, it seems like they are, what with when Obama tells them "I won".
But then the next day he throws them a cocktail party.
Posts
Throwing money at the problem without large scale reforms is like tossing cash in a bonfire
But I guess their "paycheck" probably includes feeling good about themselves at the end of the day. And I'm dragging this further OT I'm sorry guys!
Maybe, I guess it would depend on whether or not you think the people who will be getting these loans would have been able to attend university otherwise? If not, then you have more people going into a workforce where we're already not able to provide enough jobs, so in the end this could help stabilize the unemployment rate?
As Sarah Palin said, their reward will be in heaven.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
I thought that's what the Lifetime Learning Credit and the Hope credit were for?
Oh jeeze that's a name I never wanted to hear again haha.
Well, I guess I was a bit hasty, because it really depends on how (and when) it's spent. I don't imagine you're going to see it being spent until at least the coming school year, so you're going to see no effects until September/August. And if it goes to construction of school facilities it could be effective if it goes to shovel ready programs that have already been drawn up and approved, but just lacked funding. If it goes to anything they havnt already approved, that wont be built for more then a year, at which point it's effectiveness becomes dubious.
Tyler Cowen had an interesting post the other day - If you put Larry Summers and Jason Fruman in a locked room with no internet and only a single crayon and some paper for an hour, you'll almost certainly get a better stimulus bill then Congress could craft. And the current bill is basically what they would come up with, plus lots of stupid shit congress is responsible for either directly or indirectly to appease them. So parts of it could work, and other parts are just bullshit.
Yeah you could up federal grant money or give tax credits for students
still doesn't solve the bigger problems of failure in our primary school system.
it's pretty insane that every county around orlando (Orange, Seminole, brevard and voulsia for sure) is currently in a hiring freeze thats been going on for 2 years now
keep in mind that most schools in florida already dont have enough teachers, and this just seems a tad bit insane
I pay everything I can online, but I have to mail in my student loan payment. When I was in IL I had to pay extra to pay my electric bill online (WTF?). I actually mailed in quite a few bills there...
At least with things like infrastructure you know for a fact that you're gaining increased value down the road.
I think that the primary school system is bleeding right now and we need to breathe some life in it. It's sad to walk around my old high school and notice the same desks I was sitting in back in '02. Old books (not normally a bad thing, but if they are still using 90's books there's a problem) are still being used there too.
And every year they bring up that they need to improve the education system, but to do so they need to raise taxes in our area. And every year it gets voted down almost unanimously.
Yeah it'll never change but the whole local taxes = public education thing is bullshit
People who don't have kids don't want to pay taxes on the education system. Places with more older people on fixed incomes will always vote down the budgets.
I got certified to teach general science in Central Florida a couple years back. It's totally insane to think that their in a hiring freeze when just 2 years ago there was a critical shortage of teachers in the area.
And the Chamber of Commerce has a collective heart attack.
Secret terrorist sign-language!
PSN: SAW776
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I can hear Coulter now.
There probably still is a critical shortage, but of both funds and teachers. The latest round of budget cuts by the Florida legislature have been pretty brutal. Then again, thanks to the housing bubble, our state revenue is going down faster than Phil Gingrey on Rush Limbaugh.
Hey-o!
Really, though, I'm hoping like hell to see some education reform under this administration. The United States educational system was a disgrace even before school vouchers and NCLB, now it's more like a horrible punchline.
Fix'd.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Oh, I know there is still the critical shortage, that's what I think is so insane
Damm'it Mind!
Part of the problem with the cost of higher education has been student loans.
The government makes more money available for students, and makes it easier for students to get, and then tuition is increased by the school. The federal government is genuinely well-intentioned in their efforts, but they're part of the reason tuition costs are so out of control.
I'm honestly not sure how to handle the problem, though. Students need the money. Universities need to get paid. Every time the students get easier access to money, the universities decide they deserve to get paid more. It seems that something like pegging university tuition increases to inflation or something like that might help (i.e. rent control for tuition), but I'd hate to see every public university essentially become interchangeable. Or effectively frozen right where they are at the moment that legislation goes through.
I honestly think one solution might be to stop sending people to college. It's not necessary in most cases; people don't value the well-rounded education. They're looking for job training at a university. That's what technical schools are for!
So we're sending more people to college, getting more people this "education" (if you can call it that, given how low the bar has been set at your average public university), and the people neither want nor appreciate this education. Maybe creating more emphasis on two-year colleges and technical schools would help the whole situation out; less cost, less debt, less government reliance, and really, let's be honest: for the vast majority of people, a two-year college degree is still more than they want or appreciate.
Our country just doesn't appreciate education.
I am all for the philosophical appeal of making education strictly a state-level-and-lower thing. In a perfect world, that's totally what I would like to see. But pragmatically, there are many states that are poor, unorganized, or flatly stupid when it comes to educating their children. Yes, I'm pretty much talking about the south and parts of the midwest here.
While it's tempting to say "Fuck 'em, let them drive their schools into the ground if they suck too bad to do otherwise," especially coming from a state with decent schools, doing so is both A) unfair to the children in those states, and suboptimal, as it has effects spreading well beyond the borders of those retard states. And so I think we should, to the most limited extent possible, provide funding to the poorer states, on the condition that they follow certain federal education guidelines.
What I would like to change is the amount of funding given to schools in non-poor states. If you're in some shitty district in a wealthy state, you shouldn't go hitting up the fed for money. You should be hitting up your state. There's efficiency in getting the money to schools from the most local sources possible. Money should come first from the district, second from the state, and lastly - if all else fails - from the fed. You lose a lot more of a dollar funneling it from some guy in Deleware through the fed and back down to some school in Georgia than you do just taking that dollar from the guy living down the street.
Unfortunately telling people that their standard of living has to go down isn't a very tenable political position.
And it's not to say that we shouldnt have a stimulus plan, we should. But only to avoid an over correction, not to just push our day of reckoning farther into the future.
Brandeis was forced to liquidate the Rose Art Museum and will be laying off a lot of teachers.
Even if you don't think that improving education will reap short term benefits, just remember that one of the major projects of the WPA was to move sandbags around, so what really matters right now is just to get the money to the right people.
Hell, my sci-fi nerd fantasy here is we get some stimulus by doing a Mars shot, but I know that's dumb. It'd be cool, but it's dumb.
Florida has something similar, yet waaaaay stupider.
Your school takes tests, called the FCAT. Your school is then graded (A through F) on how many kids fail/pass. If your school fails because it is a shithole with no money and can't afford computers or textbooks, you don't get any money with which to buy computers and textbooks and help pay the fucking teachers so they can actually fuckign teach.
This system was put in place by Jeb Bush.
They tried to make it more ambitious, but they were worried no Republicans would vote for it.
I don't think this is accurate at all.
And people wonder why folks say NCLB was designed to destroy the public school system
Well, fuck 'em. The house ones. Then find 2-3 Senate Republicans and just add in everything they could ever possibly want. If it's a guy from Kansas, everyone in Kansas gets a taco and it's called the "Republican Senator from Kansas: Everyone Gets a Taco" plan. Go nuts.
Yes, this is what I am saying. I really, really wish the Democrats would tell them all to go fuck off we have real work to do. Sometimes, it seems like they are, what with when Obama tells them "I won".
But then the next day he throws them a cocktail party.
I mean really. What the hell.