Presidential Election (as a current event- watch the tone or it's gone)

I have to deal with it and I dislike it, as a teacher, for the following reasons:

1)  I am required to teach to the test.  I cannot teach to the class.  Whats the difference?  When I teach to the class I can teach them at the pace for that class.  When I teach to the test, I teach them how to pass those specific questions so that we can score high enough to get our government money.

2)  I do not like the test because it requires us to conform to the federal government.  Education is run by the states, not the feds.

3)  I do not like the test because of all the paperwork I have to do instead of grading, preparing to lecture and working one on one with my students.

the problem though is that schools get fed money and yet the fed has no control untill now. i’m no fan of public schools, i would much rather put my kids in private schools but i can’t afford it. so if i’m stuck with public schools i want there to be a standard of some kind. i don’t think it’s right that teachers get the free pass they got. what makes a buissness good is compatition, but now schools don’t compeat, teachers don’t compeat to be the best ether. i know this is off topic but i can’t see how providing a standard for the teachers to shoot for is a bad thing. bad teachers brought this on them selfs by passing (going to sound bad hear) stupid kids. our Uni’s are having to remediate students at record levels to prepare them for entery lvl collage. you can’t say that the schools are doing there job if the uni’s are having to redo it for them.

The problem is that the fed supplies between 2 and 7% of a school district’s budget, depending on the poverty level in that district IF, and ONLY IF, they meet or exceed the minimum standards.

Another problem is that the fed standard has become the only standard and it is set so ridiculously low it isn’t even funny.

I think the solution to the problem is to cut federal funding period.  Reimburse the money to the states and leave it up to each state to determine if a school district needs the money or not.  This is a ridiculously small percentage of the over all budget and it would be very easy to curtail spending to compensate if it comes to that. (Don’t buy MLK Day decorations, don’t waste money on new flowers, etc.)

i would love the Fed to get out of it, the problem comes in though that we also have diffrent standards state to state. for example if in IL the students in 1st grade learn to count to 100 and can do spelling up to a few simple 4 letter words (not that kind get your mind out of the gutter ppl), well in say SC the standard is count to 50 and spell a lot of 3 letter words. then we perpetuate the problem so that in SC by the time they graduate collage the students can’t do some basic (by IL standards) math or have gooder English skills.
a standard should be set accross the board. if it’s a low standard then thats fine, good teachers should have no problem with it because they can teach the majority of there students to reach that standard with little trouble. this will cause poor teachers to ether step up or get out of the way for new teachers. as the teacher base increases in skill then so will the standard (or should).
now i do think schools need to cut the cr@p spending, with or with out the Fed invalved, there is no need to spend on things that don’t increase the learning.
the act may not be perfect but to me it is better then what was in place before.

Yes, but with different standards between the states, then the states can compete for students.  It’s like universities.  In Southern Illinois University at Carbondale you have to take College Algebra to get a Bachelor’s degree.  At Yale you probably have to take Calculus II to get a Bachelor’s degree.

Which is the better school?  If cost was not an object, which would you rather send your children too?

your compairing Unis, i’m talking about public schools, the kind that kids go to for free and must go to. there must be a standard that is unaversal at atleast the high school level. even if it is just 3 years Englash, 2 years math, and 2 years science with a test by the fed OR better then that an indapendent organization on these areas. give the states there room, but give a standard that makes it equal for all states. it’s not right that some schools (even with in the same state) are graduating students who turn around and go to uni and the first thing they have to do is take refresher courses, or after graduation they don’t have basic skills that there class’ on there transcript say they should have.
teachers pass students just to pass them and are not held accountable. a standard that holds them accountable is the only way to fix it. if that standard is a nation wide test that if failed out waighs the passing grade the teacher gave or if it is on open and free market for the schools where parants are given non cash value vouchers that are good for admission into schools that are reconized by the state so that the schools will compeat with other schools for the students by providing the best staff and learning experiance.

i’m done with this part, it’s off topic, i don’t want it to go further on my part off topic. my view is there. if we have a new topic on this subject i will continue though.

I can’t compare grade schools because even the private schools have been polluted with federal influence.  The only realistic corellation I can think of is universities where you have some that are polluted and some that are pollution free.

That’s the problem.

Back on topic of CANDIDATES folks…

Florida Primary day, so I am sure you can talk about the people (on topic for the thread) :-)

Funny, I just tried to find some results for Florida, it’s gotta be 1800 hours in parts of Florida now, and nothing.  /sigh.

Watch it turn out to be a hanging chad situation. :P

Ya know,if they could keep those blasted New Yorkers out of Florida, they might raise the state IQ a few dozen points, hehe.

i have been trying to get anything from there all day. nota  :cry:

The only comment I heard today (I was in meetings most of the day) was that there were reports of “problems voting” in Broward County about 9:30 a.m.

I heard that John McCain’s campaign was calling voters and lying about Mitt Romney, though, of course, he is denying it. (When has a politician ever owned up to their unethical, immoral campaigning!?)

Geez…more problems with voting.  If those old cogers in florida can’t figure out how to vote they should stay home and have an extra shot of Musilex. :-D

Looks like I had the McCain/Romney spread dead-balls on (3% McCain lead in the mid-30% range with half the votes counted).

But I overstated Huckabee’s support by several percent…

@ncscswitch:

Looks like I had the McCain/Romney spread dead-balls on (3% McCain lead in the mid-30% range with half the votes counted).

But I overstated Huckabee’s support by several percent…

doesn’t look good for Guiliani.

not quite half counted and the spread just came up to about 3points about 10min ago, before that (with the same % counted) the spread was 1 point. so i’m not holding my breath yet on this.

McCain lead over Romney has been steadily growing according to Fox’s numbers all evening.  Last I looked it was up to almost 50,000 votes and was 3% lead.

As for Guiliani… stick a fork in him… he is DONE!

Fox just called it for McCain, up to a 4% lead, 55,000 votes.

dosn’t mean there can’t be a shift in the favor of one of our leaders (also dosn’t mean it can’t shift back). unless it turns to a big lead (10%ish) or over 80% counted with the lead as is now it’s still ethers race. not to be hopfull or down play the lead, i’m just stating that things can shift still.

I am prepared to call the candidates for the 2008 Presidential Election…

Democrat:  Clinton/Richardson
Republican:  McCain/Huckabee