Education

Day 126. Education.

Part of the reason I started blogging again was to teach others. I felt that my experiences might be useful, inspirational, maybe just downright funny to others. The kind of education you get from life. The kind you get from books, I'm probably not that great at teaching. But those who are fall into two categories: those that care about teaching, and the others that consider it a job. Then there's the public sector that believes that unlimited education spending will produce better results. Throw more money at something, that'll make it all better.

The current POTUS falls into that category. I won't bother to drag the Secretary of Education into the argument yet, but Arne Duncan is no friend to education. More on that later. This POTUS has announced a plan to make the first two years of community college "free" to those who can maintain certain grade levels. "Free" usually means our wallets take a hit, first off. But with the currently available Pell Grants, those two years are pretty much free anyway, to anyone not so lazy to apply for them. Then we have the statistics (damn statistics) that show public education is already not being utilized by current students, why would we bother to extend that further?

High school dropout rates are at 25%, more that 3 million high school students leave school early through their own choice each year. They're setting themselves up for failure: the jobs they are eligible for is a measly 10% of all job openings, their earning potential is over a quarter million dollars less than a high school graduate, and the unemployment rate is 5% higher for dropouts. The ever-hungry government should encourage them to stay in school, since that's more taxable income they can use to fund their money machines.

High school dropouts don't just not finish school, they go on to fail at other things as well. They commit 75% of crimes in the US, they lead half the households on welfare. Talk about putting your future family behind the eight ball. None of this should be surprising, it's all public information, well documented by governmental agencies.One of which is headed by Arne Duncan, mentioned above. Other than being a basketball-loving friend of POTUS (and a close friend of terrorist Bill Ayers,) Duncan has a failed record of public service which should have precluded his promotion to lead public education on the national level, and hasn't stopped putting his foot in his mouth since appointed.

The Chicago schools he managed? Failed and still failing. Blaming "white suburban moms" for the outrage against the Common Core curriculum that is dumbing down our kids? Yep, he actually said that. Common Core doesn't need any help upsetting parents, the collective anger at a program that basically tells kids that "your parents are dumb if they can't do this stuff already, so your teachers know more than your parents" is pretty intense.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and if anyone thinks the current public educations system is doing anything besides wasting time and money, do your research and speak up.

604 to go...