November 09, 2007

Heared this today.

Lets say I start a business. A consulting business. You the customer have to pay me even if you do not use my services. Even if you use someone elses consulting business you have to pay them and me.

Welcome to the Public School system...

5 comments:

timmerov said...

"heared"? maybe you should have used the services your parents paid for. (jab! all in good fun.)

actually, i benefit from paying for the education of your kids. i want competent employees working in my shops, factories. labs, hospitals, etc.

Jerry said...

As bad as it is, it's the best in the world. Despite the arguments to the contrary the majority of innovation and invention come from the USA. Other countries provide education leading to a craftsmanship workforce that receives little to no wages.

Unknown said...

Never said the education wasnt good. It's delivery is the problem.

It seems as though people get educated dispite the system. So in that bass ackwards way it works. We just get lousy return and service for our dollar.

It's almost like the government is running it....

timmerov said...

some public schools are superb. some are abysmal. the tough problem is to make the bad ones better instead of worse. any ideas?

ronnwaters said...

Public education seems to be the only industry that does not screen its "raw materials", but still promises and in many cases delivers a high quality product. It's like asking NASA to do what they do but limit them to using only Legos and Play Doh.
Also, thanks to NCLB a bad situation was made worse. Because the public wanted "higher test scores" they asked politicians to create a way to get that. Yes, test scores are going up. But kids aren't learning to think anymore.
The curriculum publishers are making billions of dollars selling test prep stuff to schools. Home work has gone up 60% over the last 5 years. Are test scores up? Yes.
Are kids learning? Not really.

We have 2 schools in my district that are in PI--Program Improvement status. If they don't get better, heads will roll. They happen to be at the 2 schools with the lowest social/economic levels too. The fed MANDATED that we provide afterschool tutoring for these students at about 50% more than a teacher makes. It was mostly test-prep stuff so they could pass the test. Most of the parents "opted-out" of the program. We still have to pay per student for it as if every student were enrolled.
The problem with PUBLIC education is the PUBLIC. And the government.