: I’m very concerned about this issue is well. Here some of my ideas on what “Reform” should look like:: 1) Since 40% of US highschool seniors are functionally illiterate and it takes only a few weeks to teach a child how to read, we should wake up and recognize the criminal nature and criminal INTENT behind what has been done to us and what is being done to our children in the public school system and act accordingly.
SDF: Well, in the former Soviet Union, they indicted the system as "criminal," but in fact it was. But you can see the aftermath of the trend away from "socialism" -- a depression that makes 1929-1932 look like small change, and a wholesale lapse into a syndicate-controlled economy which apparently controls 40% of the Russian economy. (And here I have to wonder if this means the syndicates get a 40% take on 100% of the economy.)
So in denouncing criminality we should take great care about the future we create in doing so.
: I suggest the following:
: a) An emergency mass withdrawal of our children from the public school system.
SDF: I disagree. What will happen is that the rich will withdraw first into their ivory towers, and the poor will go to work for the family business in unpaid labor. Not a solution.
: b) Emergency federal funds immediately dispersed to all families with children for the purposes of purchasing a home phonics program and/or a teacher assisted phonics course. Federal government to reimburse itself from education budget.
SDF: "Phonics" is the only solution to reading problems K through 3 according to some pseudoscientific program-pushing propagandists with heavy funding from the fundamentalist Christian Right and are milking the public schools as a prestige boon and as a cash cow. Please see Denny Taylor's book Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science if you want more information about this.
What kids really need is access to adequate books, and books they like, and a setting where they can read them, and the public schools have been providing neither of these. That's the real crime.
: c) A televised class action lawsuit against the federal government and specific government officials particularly the heads of the NEA, Department of Education, and the Department of Labor. Among the charges will be criminal negligence with the option to prove criminal intent.
SDF: This sort of proposal recalls the famous televised meeting of the Russian Republic, just after the overthrow of Gorbachev's regime by reactionaries within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, where Boris Yeltsin dissolved the Soviet Union and outlawed the Communist Party. In retrospect, one might ask what-all has really been gained for Russia since then.
: d) An investigation of the private sector’s role in our educational demise and a dismantling and/or public confiscation of all facilities owned by guilty parties.
:
: 2) Since we already spend at least twice as much per student than any other country in the world and we still rank almost dead last in math and science (and not so hot in other areas either), we need to collectively admit that throwing more money at public education is (and has been) an act of pure desperation and futility devoid of anything even remotely resembling reason or critical analysis.
SDF: Well, the poor are desperate. Ever been to south central LA, Deep Dad?
: a) As long the public education system remains intact, we need to put an indefinite moratorium on increased education spending in ANY form.
: b) We need legislation that will call for immediate dismissal of any public official that attempts to draft or promote legislation that would increase spending on education based on the assumption that such an individual is dangerous moron unworthy of holding a public office.
: c) Until the class action suit is resolved, cut federal public education spending down to a fraction of where its currently at, turn control of public school facilities over to the states or the local communities in which they reside, and cut federal taxes accordingly.
SDF: The truancy laws will then require children to go to understaffed and undereqipped zoos, where the agenda will be "play all day because we can't afford to have you do anything else." I stopped reading here, DDN. This is a recipe for disaster. If you want to deal with public schools, you will have to create alternative institutions to deal with the basic needs of those who currently rely upon public schools to meet those needs, the most basic of which is that the schools provide day care for parents who must earn wages during daylight hours. And where are you going to get the BUILDINGS to create such alternative institutions, except with the public schools? (Would you be able to buy the property to create alternatives to schooling out of your own wallet? I didn't think so.)
If you really want to change the situation of the students, you'll have to change the school rules as well as the behavior of the teachers, principals, parents, and other adult authorities. One needn't "do away with" anything (besides the truancy laws) to accomplish this, but of course such a solution would require LOTS of work, and lots of political power, and not just the political power of legislators to adjust budget figures, but power to do things that would change the learning experiences of children. If you had such power, DDN, what would you do? Something positive, please, as a response -- hate really bores me.
