US School Spending up 120%+ over 30 years, test scores remain flat (2 Viewers)

[Fearandloathing]

That's pretty easy to answer, so let's start naming the issues:

1.) The United States doesn't take teachers seriously, but they do take administrators seriously. As such, administrators and members of the School Boards/Boards of Education --many of whom have never taught a day in their lives-- make a majority of the important decisions. Power is centralized, and so teachers are just cogs in the machine. That does two things; one it creates very stupid academic initiatives --at the local, state, and Federal level-- and stupid educational policies; two, it demoralizes teachers and doesn't incentivize them to do a good job. Confer to Finland, which has the top public education system in the world; the choice there was to do the opposite: Strengthen the power of teachers (in both pay and institutional power) and weaken administrators. The results speak for themselves.

2.) The United States has a very anti-intellectual, anti-education culture. You can see this with how the average American (particularly from poor and rural areas) have nothing but absolute disdain for professors and teachers. That goes hand-in-hand with many beliefs, such as "math is hard" or "I hate writing." That gets ingrained at a young, young age. A lot of this has to do with our inability to move away from the old German factory-worker model of education (wrote memorization, responding to a bell, no emphasis on understanding, emphasis on repeating tedious tasks, etc).

3.) We know how to impose positive changes, but parents rebel. Parents don't like new ideas, and so this instills a pretty serious and pretty stupid contradiction --parents hate how they were educated and often bred nothing but their own contempt for education, but they also don't want to see any innovation or "new" aspects to teaching, because it confuses them and means they can't help their kids out on their homework. That makes them feel dumb, and so the teachers must be held responsible.

4.) The United States is obsessed with "objective standards" and "rewarding winners" far more than they care about servicing students. As such, it's Americans have chosen to value standardized testing over individualized classrooms to an extreme. Bad students get less and less money and attention --largely because the attention was never there in the first place-- and the good districts do what they can to reward their teachers. The education institution --again, from the Federal level to the local level-- does nothing but enable this.

5.) The average citizen, including the average parent, just doesn't give a flying ****.



That's a recipe for a disastrous educational system. (And we haven't even gotten to the US' university system and infrastructure, which was top notch but is quickly beginning to crumble for reasons not totally dissimilar to the issues raised here, only there administrative control and business "rapid growth" tactics are tearing down university institutions to sift for gold in the walls.)

I agree for the most part, but there are too many sweeping statements that detract from the message. On point one, I have to disagree, the NEA has become a large and powerful lobby and it DOES have a huge impact on how children get taught. Often practices are put in place to make things easier for teachers, and many are bad ideas in the first place.

I also have to disagree that parents automatically rebel to any change, since just about every attempted change the NEA has made in the last 20 years has seriously eroded the entire education system. If its anything like here, the push back comes with stupid ideas like no report cards, no rating system, and teaching to a mean standard where everyone comes out the same.

The rest, yep. I agree. The biggest problem is that too few give a ****. I suggest anyone even remotely interested in the US school system see the documentary film "Superman isn't coming" were 70 to 90 per cent of graduates in a ghetto school are graduating into college.

 

[rabbitcaebannog]

I agree for the most part, but there are too many sweeping statements that detract from the message. On point one, I have to disagree, the NEA has become a large and powerful lobby and it DOES have a huge impact on how children get taught. Often practices are put in place to make things easier for teachers, and many are bad ideas in the first place.

I also have to disagree that parents automatically rebel to any change, since just about every attempted change the NEA has made in the last 20 years has seriously eroded the entire education system. If its anything like here, the push back comes with stupid ideas like no report cards, no rating system, and teaching to a mean standard where everyone comes out the same.

The rest, yep. I agree. The biggest problem is that too few give a ****. I suggest anyone even remotely interested in the US school system see the documentary film "Superman isn't coming" were 70 to 90 per cent of graduates in a ghetto school are graduating into college.

I suggest you teach here for several decades in several different states before you start believing politically charged movies about our country. The union spiel is so old fashion and outdated anyway. We have various states that do not have teacher unions. They also happen to score the lowest on nationally ranked test. Guess which state scored second to Singapore internationally for science compentancy? Same state that tied with Japan for math compentancy on the PISA and they also have the strongest teacher unions in the US.

 

[Fiddytree]

Waaaah waaaah wahhh

We all have to put up with things in our lives, get over it.
.

Ordinarily, if one does not know what they are talking about, they ought to defer to those with superior knowledge and experience. I see you have taken the opposite approach.

Your redheadedness is not a disability. Your redheadedness does not grant you super powers to determine that accommodations given to a student with a disability are a farce. Given that you have no clue how arduous of a task it actually is for students to receive evaluations that are both thorough and timely, or have any resulting special education service program followed, or how difficult it is to have parents go through the complaint or remediation process, or show the slightest bit of knowledge about what accommodations are and why they are needed; no one should listen to your angry denunciations. Heck, there's plenty of evidence showing the difficulty of having one professional evaluate a student and the school accepting that professional's diagnosis and subsequent recommendations. The power and influence of a parent or a student in an IEP meeting is very much overstated here. Much of the time it's the parents trusting that the schools get it right. So when a parent walks through that door, it's the professionals largely determining what set of accommodations are "reasonable" for a student to have. If you had any knowledge on this whatsoever, you'd know that the parents don't control the purse strings. Far from it. That's the administrator's job. Heck, there's even a substantial percent chance the school will try to avoid using its own dollars to provide evaluations and whatnot by using the parent's insurance; which obviously puts them at great risk of maxing out their allotted coverage. Did you know that national research has shown that despite the IEP process needing to be a multi-stakeholder process, over 40% of families report that the document is finished before they walk into the door? I bet you didn't, but it has been going on for decades. Did you know that out of all the IEPs that are created each year only 12-15% of adolescent students can honestly be declared as having a "leadership" role, however liberally defined that typically is? Obviously not. Christ, the majority of the time the kid, if they are even present, is sitting in the corner barely asked to say a word--not that the professionals in the room give much of an opportunity to allow the student to do so to begin with. Even in matters which are clearly laid out in federal law and their subsequent regulations, schools fight tooth and nail from providing them; regardless if there is a financial cost or not. Even since 1975, roles and responsibilities have been clarified by the district courts. While students and families won a large number of these, there have been a serious number of victories for schools. In many respects, the perceived radicalness of 94-142 shrunk with each passing ruling-giving schools more leeway and more control over the process so as to not cause "undue burden."

It would be seriously naive to suggest it's parents that are controlling everything, but here you are.

I am glad that upon your high perch you have made such bold statements about how lazy these students are or how these parents have tremendous power, wielding snake oil advocacy planks. Furthermore, I am glad that upon being told of these things, you felt the need to discover my offense as another sort of "disability." This only further demonstrates not only your substantial ignorance on these matters, but also shows how profoundly out of touch you are with (if not your disdain for) people with disabilities. Finally, I was headed into the teaching profession at one point in my life. While immensely challenging, I have incredibly limited sympathy. Teachers have been able to teach students with disabilities for 40 years now. I was doing it too. That tired excuse from the early 1980s is continuing to wear thin some thirty years later. Sorry. I didn't stay because I saw what was going on in the schools with people of my own kind and wanted to make a bigger difference outside of it.

 

[Fearandloathing]

I suggest you teach here for several decades in several different states before you start believing politically charged movies about our country. The union spiel is so old fashion and outdated anyway. We have various states that do not have teacher unions. They also happen to score the lowest on nationally ranked test. Guess which state scored second to Singapore internationally for science compentancy? Same state that tied with Japan for math compentancy on the PISA and they also have the strongest teacher unions in the US.

OK, play the "foreigner" game.,


If you have it so right, then why is AMerica's education system both the most expensive AND the most useless?

If not the teachers, then what? Are Americans themselves more stupid than the rest of the world?

Look, it's clear and certified your system sucks, as per the article above. Now it's the teachers who teach. Thus somewhere in this cluster-**** you call "education" somebody is ****ing up. And who does the teaching?

Show me what other cause it might be, as it has spanned at least six presidential terms....what else can you blame. The weather?

 

[rabbitcaebannog]

OK, play the "foreigner" game.,


If you have it so right, then why is AMerica's education system both the most expensive AND the most useless?

If not the teachers, then what? Are Americans themselves more stupid than the rest of the world?

Look, it's clear and certified your system sucks, as per the article above. Now it's the teachers who teach. Thus somewhere in this cluster-**** you call "education" somebody is ****ing up. And who does the teaching?

Show me what other cause it might be, as it has spanned at least six presidential terms....what else can you blame. The weather?

I already named the issue with the scores but here: Poor ranking on international test misleading about U.S. student performance, Stanford researcher finds

Our scores would rank differently if we looked at poverty rates. It's just a fact.

 

[FieldTheorist]

Putting money into public projects to produce private goods doesn't work. That's no surprise. The surprise is more, when it does as in Finland.

It's no surprise at all when it is done in the correct socialist fashion: Give the experts control over the system, let the public make laws only when things get off track. In the history of America in the last 40 years, handing power over to administrators with business degrees has not lead to successes for America. It's lead to financial collapses, breaking apart companies and institutions that were previously stable, and so forth. But this is a separate discussion.

The short form of it is that in order to have successful systems, you have to motivate people properly. Respecting workers and giving them actual training and power is an essential part of whether or not the great American experiment of freedom is going to work. Our educational system --particularly because there's a well-established model to build from-- would be a great place to start.

If you have it so right, then why is AMerica's education system both the most expensive AND the most useless?

If not the teachers, then what?

I had a rather long-winded tirade on the subject, which you responded to. There's pretty obvious reasons why the US educational system is failing. There's clear directions we could take to fix it. None of it has to do with, nor is any of it helped by, blaming teachers.

 

[Fearandloathing]

It's no surprise at all when it is done in the correct socialist fashion: Give the experts control over the system, let the public make laws only when things get off track. In the history of America in the last 40 years, handing power over to administrators with business degrees has not lead to successes for America. It's lead to financial collapses, breaking apart companies and institutions that were previously stable, and so forth. But this is a separate discussion.

The short form of it is that in order to have successful systems, you have to motivate people properly. Respecting workers and giving them actual training and power is an essential part of whether or not the great American experiment of freedom is going to work. Our educational system --particularly because there's a well-established model to build from-- would be a great place to start.



I had a rather long-winded tirade on the subject, which you responded to. There's pretty obvious reasons why the US educational system is failing. There's clear directions we could take to fix it. None of it has to do with, nor is any of it helped by, blaming teachers.

Long-winded and pedantic. And at no time have you convinced me that the NEA and teachers are NOT the problem, in fact your arrogant tirades are convincing enough to know exactly why American high school kids can't read and write.

If the car don't run, is it the president of Ford's fault, or the idiots who built it?

 

[sangha]

figures are skewed as they include millions upon millions of inner city ghetto kids and illiterate illegal immigrants attending school in sanctuary cities. re-do the analysis including only the children of US citizens who are NOT on welfare and i imagine the figures change quite a bit.

that's racist?
that's reality.

True. thirty years ago, we didn't have inner city kids or immigrants

That's reality :roll:

 

[sangha]

I have to wonder if anyone even read the article that's linked in the OP

First of all, the increase is only 117% over 30 years

Secondly, it's only counting federal spending which is just a small portion of the total spending. Large percentage increases in fed spending do not result in large increases in total ed spending

Third, schools have taken on a lot of financial responsibilities that they didn't have thirty years. There's educating the disabled, for one. Another thing is that spending on non-classroom expenses has increased. Due to court rulings, the govt often pays to bus kids to private schools. That money is counted as spending by public schools, though it doesn't benefit public school students and even if it did, it wouldn't make any students test score increase.

But hey, let's blame immigrants and nigger kids. After all, they don't already get blamed for enough things.

 

[FieldTheorist]

Long-winded and pedantic.

Often enough, that's not a bad thing.

And at no time have you convinced me that the NEA and teachers are NOT the problem

That's because you apparently have an ideological commitment to not consider administrators. It's pretty typical of people who blindly support neoliberalism.

in fact your arrogant tirades are convincing enough to know exactly why American high school kids can't read and write.

I think that was supposed to be an insult, but it was so ill expressed and feeble, I can't really tell what you're accusing me of. Just to clarify, am I responsible for high school kids' inability to read/write because of my tirades, or are my tirades supposed to represent an example of a high school student who can't read/write? On either reading, it's a pretty stupid accusation.

If the car don't run, is it the president of Ford's fault, or the idiots who built it?

That depends. Did President Ford represent the administrative class from which the individuals, who couldn't be asked to care if they built a good product because in 6 months they're going to be the CEO of a different corporation, came from? If so, then yes, Ford bares some blame.

 

[iguanaman]

that sounds great for the left. just blame regression and failure on poverty - so the solution of course is more spending, lol.

Except that it doesn't just "sound great" it is very true too. What a bitch...Doncha just hate when that happens?

 

[lb_on_teh_cb]

Except that it doesn't just "sound great" it is very true too. What a bitch...Doncha just hate when that happens?

well im sure to trust a random chart from who? do they get they funding from soros?

 

[SocialD]

I have to wonder if anyone even read the article that's linked in the OP

First of all, the increase is only 117% over 30 years

Secondly, it's only counting federal spending which is just a small portion of the total spending. Large percentage increases in fed spending do not result in large increases in total ed spending

Third, schools have taken on a lot of financial responsibilities that they didn't have thirty years. There's educating the disabled, for one. Another thing is that spending on non-classroom expenses has increased. Due to court rulings, the govt often pays to bus kids to private schools. That money is counted as spending by public schools, though it doesn't benefit public school students and even if it did, it wouldn't make any students test score increase.

But hey, let's blame immigrants and nigger kids. After all, they don't already get blamed for enough things.

There are a bunch of different figures.
What I find misleading though is they compare the increase in amount of students to the increase in amount of spending but then they adjust the increase in spending for inflation.
Well you cant adjust the amount of students for inflation. so either they should not make the comparison or they shouldn't adjust for inflation.

"Now, let’s throw in another factor: the number of students in publicly-funded schools across the nation increased from 39.2 million in 1984 to a projected 50 million in 2014. Federal spending per student rose from $165 in 1984 to about $816 in 2014. Adjusted for inflation, that’s a 117 percent increase"


So you had a 27.6% increase in students. You had , really, a 494% increase in spending. yes 117% if you adjust for inflation. either way you slice it though the spending increase is far outpacing the student increase.

 

[Gaugingcatenate]

Ordinarily, if one does not know what they are talking about, they ought to defer to those with superior knowledge and experience. I see you have taken the opposite approach.

Your redheadedness is not a disability. Your redheadedness does not grant you super powers to determine that accommodations given to a student with a disability are a farce. Given that you have no clue how arduous of a task it actually is for students to receive evaluations that are both thorough and timely, or have any resulting special education service program followed, or how difficult it is to have parents go through the complaint or remediation process, or show the slightest bit of knowledge about what accommodations are and why they are needed; no one should listen to your angry denunciations. ...

It would be seriously naive to suggest it's parents that are controlling everything, but here you are.

I am glad that upon your high perch you have made such bold statements about how lazy these students are or how these parents have tremendous power, wielding snake oil advocacy planks. Furthermore, I am glad that upon being told of these things, you felt the need to discover my offense as another sort of "disability." This only further demonstrates not only your substantial ignorance on these matters, but also shows how profoundly out of touch you are with (if not your disdain for) people with disabilities. Finally, I was headed into the teaching profession at one point in my life. While immensely challenging, I have incredibly limited sympathy. Teachers have been able to teach students with disabilities for 40 years now. I was doing it too. That tired excuse from the early 1980s is continuing to wear thin some thirty years later. Sorry. I didn't stay because I saw what was going on in the schools with people of my own kind and wanted to make a bigger difference outside of it.

You know, I kinda feel sorry for those who feel they know more about things than they really do. But...

Yeah yeah yeah. I was there, in the trenches until June. I observed, up close and personal...so how do you find it your place to tell me what I did or didn't see with my own eyes. Your rant makes claims to superior knowledge, while I hardly believe that I can imagine you have a superior bias and diagnosable case of tunnel vision. Perhaps even a valid claim of some victim hood, doubtful but go ahead, play the oh, whoa is me and all of those like me in my predicament card. Did you finally get off you A and do something with your life? Or are you still sitting in your parents basement lamenting such a sad existence one can have?

Not to be too too flippant, but do they have IEPs where you are employed now? How is that working out for ya?

Its quite comical that you set about saying all the faults with the system in place for IEPs cannot be the case...and yet, in stark contradiction to yourself how quickly you set about itemizing a whole other set of faults in the system of IEPs... from a different angle. From your perspective, but mine is somehow suspect, disqualified, and on what basis? Because you say you have superior knowledge and experience. Uh huh. Then you set about to diminish my own set of obstacles growing up, but raise yours. Yours, that you have studiously kept from us, perhaps because they are not so debilitating as you make them out to be? Yet you want me to make me out the bad guy because I dont understand yours as much as you feel I should and have the audacity to fault the IEP system as currently configured?

Btw, does your own ride em cowboy soapbox come equipped with a really tall step ladder to allow you to get down off that high horse on occasion? Superior knowledge and experience? Might work in that basement if you have imaginary yes men all about.

Also, its not particularly persuasive to put words in other people's mouths when debating. Rapidly errodes an already strained credibilty for any of those who are paying even a modicum of attention to what you are saying.

Was/is your disability an inability to refrain from ad hominem by any chance?

Listen, I don't know what your stake is in this IEP business, but if compeled to hazzard a guess I would have to say your were a paid educational consultant for a company associated with IEPs.

Please, do us both a favor and refrain from answering this post unless you can answer the next question in the affirmative as well as the follow ups:

1. Are you now or have you ever been affiliated with any public schools in Central Florida?
2. If so, when?
3. In what capacity and for how long?

If you were not, you have not the slightest clue as to what was going on there. And then please, go about your merry way and waste someone's else's time.

 

[Mach]

I suggest anyone even remotely interested in the US school system see the documentary film "Superman isn't coming" were 70 to 90 per cent of graduates in a ghetto school are graduating into college.

You talking about Geoffry Canada?
He's a rock star.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWg3baKLBEk

If you want to do innovation education there is only one block in America. The teachers unions.

you could never have a business that fails for 50 years and doesn't just persist, but grows. We have that in public education, and it CANNOT go out of business.

Remove the obstacles that allow removal of teachers that aren't good at teaching

Of course, it's still interesting to see people in the thread maintain that it has NOTHING to do with teachers unions. Sad, not interesting.

On Ted Talks education:
https://www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_canada_our_failing_schools_enough_is_enough?language=en

Why, why, why does our education system look so similar to the way it did 50 years ago? Millions of students were failing then, as they are now — and it’s because we’re clinging to a business model that clearly doesn’t work. Education advocate Geoffrey Canada dares the system to look at the data, think about the customers and make systematic shifts in order to help greater numbers of kids excel.

 

[rabbitcaebannog]

You talking about Geoffry Canada?
He's a rock star.








Of course, it's still interesting to see people in the thread maintain that it has NOTHING to do with teachers unions. Sad, not interesting.

If the problems were teacher unions then states that don't have them would flourish and states with them would be at the bottom of the testing barrel, however that is not true.

 

[sangha]

There are a bunch of different figures.
What I find misleading though is they compare the increase in amount of students to the increase in amount of spending but then they adjust the increase in spending for inflation.
Well you cant adjust the amount of students for inflation. so either they should not make the comparison or they shouldn't adjust for inflation.

"Now, let’s throw in another factor: the number of students in publicly-funded schools across the nation increased from 39.2 million in 1984 to a projected 50 million in 2014. Federal spending per student rose from $165 in 1984 to about $816 in 2014. Adjusted for inflation, that’s a 117 percent increase"


So you had a 27.6% increase in students. You had , really, a 494% increase in spending. yes 117% if you adjust for inflation. either way you slice it though the spending increase is far outpacing the student increase.

But what needs to be considered is that the 117% increase is just in Federal spending. It is *not* a 117% increase in all education spending. IOW, spending on education did NOT increase by 117%.

 

[Fearandloathing]

Often enough, that's not a bad thing.



That's because you apparently have an ideological commitment to not consider administrators. It's pretty typical of people who blindly support neoliberalism.



I think that was supposed to be an insult, but it was so ill expressed and feeble, I can't really tell what you're accusing me of. Just to clarify, am I responsible for high school kids' inability to read/write because of my tirades, or are my tirades supposed to represent an example of a high school student who can't read/write? On either reading, it's a pretty stupid accusation.



That depends. Did President Ford represent the administrative class from which the individuals, who couldn't be asked to care if they built a good product because in 6 months they're going to be the CEO of a different corporation, came from? If so, then yes, Ford bares some blame.

Oh put it away.

You have not one ****ing clue what I am or how I think. You just proved the arrogance.

 

[Fearandloathing]

You talking about Geoffry Canada?
He's a rock star.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWg3baKLBEk






Of course, it's still interesting to see people in the thread maintain that it has NOTHING to do with teachers unions. Sad, not interesting.

On Ted Talks education:
https://www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_canada_our_failing_schools_enough_is_enough?language=en

If you were paying attention I DID put the blame purely on the teachers so I have no clue as to why you're attacking me. I have never seen Oprah Winfrey and have no idea what the hell you're talking about.

Were you by any chance educated in the US?

 

[Mach]

If the problems were teacher unions then states that don't have them would flourish and states with them would be at the bottom of the testing barrel, however that is not true.

They do not just affect policy with regards to a union run school.
And association with a union for any particular school is also irrelevant, I have no doubt some hardcore unionized schools do very well, and some very poorly. Just as some charters do good and some poor, and private, etc.

Furthermore, they drive the obstruction in general, it doesn't matter where. They aren't' stupid, if there is reform in a state that they don't want to ripple through nationwide, they fight it where it is, not where unions only are.

 

[rabbitcaebannog]

They do not just affect policy with regards to a union run school.
And association with a union for any particular school is also irrelevant, I have no doubt some hardcore unionized schools do very well, and some very poorly. Just as some charters do good and some poor, and private, etc.

Furthermore, they drive the obstruction in general, it doesn't matter where. They aren't' stupid, if there is reform in a state that they don't want to ripple through nationwide, they fight it where it is, not where unions only are.

Sorry, that makes no sense. Unions cannot be blamed for what happens in nonunion states. That is what you call grasping at straws.

 

[SocialD]

But what needs to be considered is that the 117% increase is just in Federal spending. It is *not* a 117% increase in all education spending. IOW, spending on education did NOT increase by 117%.

You are correct you would have to go through all the state spending to get a bigger picture.
I know from 2006 to 2013 my state increased education spending by about 21% in that 7 yr period. it looks like nationally ( all states combined ) state education spending increased by 17% in that same time period.
I don't have state data going back into the 80s like the other article. Per pupil and total spending have increased. by how much again its hard to know without all that data to mill through.

I know when talking about higher education and college tuition costs there has been a lot of finger pointing there. One of the issues that I think might be related here is that some areas have had a tendency to build new schools with lavish campuses.
I would guess that in some places in primary and secondary education that that is the case. Also some areas at least if not persistent through most states is a very top heavy administration with high salaries going to superintendents and such.

 

[rabbitcaebannog]

You are correct you would have to go through all the state spending to get a bigger picture.
I know from 2006 to 2013 my state increased education spending by about 21% in that 7 yr period. it looks like nationally ( all states combined ) state education spending increased by 17% in that same time period.
I don't have state data going back into the 80s like the other article. Per pupil and total spending have increased. by how much again its hard to know without all that data to mill through.

I know when talking about higher education and college tuition costs there has been a lot of finger pointing there. One of the issues that I think might be related here is that some areas have had a tendency to build new schools with lavish campuses.
I would guess that in some places in primary and secondary education that that is the case. Also some areas at least if not persistent through most states is a very top heavy administration with high salaries going to superintendents and such.

Here is a list of unfunded mandates that public schools have to pay for and the list keeps growing.....http://www.vestal.stier.org/Downloads/UnfundedMandates.pdf

 

[Μολὼν λαβέ]

Smartboards in all the classrooms? whoop de freaking do.

When kids have no clue what a geyser is or how Earth rotating on its axis causes the day-night cycle, or what the aurora borealis is and what causes it to happen, you can show them video clips that help them understand those concepts.

You can also show interactive curriculum content as long as you have access to digital curriculum.

How about students creating circuits to show how electrons flow and how loads and resistors affect series and parallel circuits?

There are lots of cool and creative things you can do with smart boards.

 

[Fiddytree]

If you were not, you have not the slightest clue as to what was going on there. And then please, go about your merry way and waste someone's else's time.

Sir, you will find that my opinions are backed up by fact and are universally held throughout the country, including in your neck of the woods. If you have difficulty comprehending how something so basic as note taking accommodations are needed for the plethora of disabilities out there--something that has been widely implemented and incredibly innocuous from elementary school to post-secondary education since 1973, then there is no helping you. Professors in higher education pay students to do it, teachers in the public schools either provide their notes or have another student do so. I cannot think of a logical reason why one must have a conniption over this innocuous accommodation. If you flip out over something at something so basic, something that had been widely acknowledged as a need since Ed Roberts attended Berkeley in the early 1960s, I do not think it worth anyone's time to bother with you.

Don't worry, we won't be conversing with one another again.