'm watching 20/20 with John Strossel, and it shows the failure and corruption of the US school system, 20 minutes in, it showed me a lot. A black kid, 18, who can't read. There was a test that was given to norwegian kids in a high school and then american kids in a high school, and how they raped us. The NOrwegians got 76%, while the US kids got a total of 47%, and the top scorer in the Norwegian class said, "If the American kids can't get this, they're really stupid."
A blonde girl with glasses failed to answer why the civil war was started, and they showed some clips from Jay Leno's jaywalking, which is not staged and it's real, they pick random people off the street. A guy is asked what are the bill of rights, and he doesn't know!
Back to the 18 year old black kid, after spending 72 hours with Sylvan Learning center, he went from from a first grade reading level and upgraded two grades, again proving that private organizations with actual work stimulation will perform better than government funded and controlled programs.
Also, money is not the problem, as proven by a middle school in Oakland, who with a new principle that used an unorthodox technique to encourage better learning in children(giving children dollar bills), and they use less money but get significantly better scores than other middle schools in Oakland.
Now I'm watching a clip on the Fremont District, CUSD, it's a very good district(my hometown), it's highlighted that it's so good many people lie about where they live.
Now to Belguim, instead of attaching the money to the schools, they attack the money to the child. Each child get's a certain amount of money, and they get to choose which school they go to, which is payed by the government. The money is not attached to each school, but each child, they can go to a state runned school, a catholic school, or a muslim school.
If a school is failing, they'll run out of business, therefore it fosters schools to teach better which result in better educated children and efficient use of money.
It get's even worse, the system is failing so horribly, outright corruption has seduced the greedy and selfish owners who depend on student scores to earn their paycheck, instead of trying to change their failing arrangements, they cheat and orders the teachers to let the students cheat, producing a better score. Because of the no child left behind policy, teachers are telling students to cheat so they can pass onto the next grade..
In European schools, multiple languages are required, I don't understand why multiple languages is even an elective here.. it should be implemented from the beginning of grade school..
No Choice: Our schools are designated by living area, no choice, whereas in Europeans have choices, the governer of South Carolina is proposing that because his kids were almost affected by our failing system, his kids went to a private school.
A monopoly service system is communism, Mr. Stossels went to the soviet union watched in a restaurant as waiters talked while he was waiting to be served, because of the lack of incentives, or no fear of punishments, the performance and efficiency will decrease, when there are choices, customers suddenly matter. (Look at all the cell phone ads).
None of our policies in government owned businesses have motivations for their workers to be more proficient in their position.
Another problem is the unions, a union monopoly is very influential, In union schools, they accept mediocre teachers in union districts, the New York distict has a teacher who send sex messaged via email to a 16 year old student, the union has created a maze of protection for the teachers, it is immensely hard for a principal to fire an inproficient teacher.
The owner of GE has an ingenius system who pays his employees based on the merit of their work, but in our public school system, no bonuses..
Teacher unions spend millions on propoganda to brainwash the people on how successful our public school system is. Teachers work the uniformed 6 hours 10 minutes, how many people work that low in hours?
The children are the victim, few children are as lucky as I to live in a very successful school district, but millions are suffering due to the failure of the monopoly system that controls our education system.
We need a massive reform, I hope before GW goes in 3 years, he will think about the children.
When the public school system started, most people worked on farms, nowadays, less than 2% work on farms, but our schools haven't changed much.
Huge unions are fighting hard to maintain the statis quo, and charter schools are popping up, unrestricted by union rules, charter students are more successful, only the best teacher stayed, many are fired, and the good results are obvious. Bonuses are given to the best teachers. The schools are so great, they hold lotteries to see who gets into this school.
Competition makes everything better, would you got to a restaurant that fed you crap? Or a barber that desecrated your hair? What if you were forced to go back? Our founding fathers fought for freedom of choice, why are we not doing that today?
The florida supreme court overturned a ruling that would give fund to private schools, this disappoints me, those living in florida, either if you're a kid or will have/have children, your courts are screwing you.
Test:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/index.html
The results sadden me, the only question in which US students outscored the children of most other countries is questioning our knowledge of a tropical storm that changes the weather dramitically, the El nino..
Source: 20/20, ABC, 10 PM. Friday, the 13 of January.
The only country that took part in the National Geographics test with a lower score than the US is Mexico....