Surreal State of the State Speech

[Aecetia]

You realize that fluoride is in the water and it is a poison, right?

http://www.greaterthings.com/Lexicon/F/Fluoride.htm

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/jan/31/san-diegos-water-supply-gets-fluoride-boost-starti/

[Coronita]

[quote=pri_dk][quote=flu]Well, then the solution to the budget problems is …. privatize the school system, so that we don’t have to pay for it from the public tax dollars….[/quote]

So then do we require everyone to go to school?

If parents don’t pay, their kids go illiterate?

No, I’m not proposing a solution – just pointing out that there are a lot of considerations to balance.

The notion of public education is relatively new in history – only about 100 years old. Before we propose going back to the “old” ways, we may want to look at some history.[/quote]

Well, I don’t think several people in america really value a good education anyway. I mean, it’s not like parents are encouraging their kids to run off the be nerdy geeks they days, it’s not that public schools are teaching kids about money management, and we no longer speak and write proper English, we always repeat our mistakes and never learn from history. And there’s been quite a lot of discussion (even from some piggs her) about how useless it would be for kids these days to do anything but “trade jobs/vocational” training anyway, which doesn’t fit in with our current public education system…Our math skills suck, and our math teachers in public schools are hardly qualified to teach math. And kids probably get greater utility learning math from their ipads than from a teacher these days anyway..

So why keep throwing money into the pot to getting subpar results? If this form of education really matters to folks, they would put the time and resources into it anyway…

The government (state or fed) can setup public funds/scholarships for people who really need the financial assistance with the ability AND motivation to seek higher education. And for parents that are just starting out, a low/to no interest loan, again subject to some acadamic merit and motivation.

Obviously, there would be some exceptions, such as public assistance to need based children (ie those requiring special needs/learning disabilities/etc)…But for an average kid, with average ability to learn…If he/she doesn’t take it seriously anyway, why bother wasting public resources on someone who doesn’t give a rat’s ass or always cut class anyway?

If this is such a abhorent suggestion, than just make sure your kid isn’t the one that’s always cutting class or goofing off and he/she most likely would be fine…

I think this is a huge difference between education in the U.S. versus overseas frankly. In the U.S., the prevailing viewpoint is that everyone is entitled to a good education, even people who don’t want one…It’s viewed as a “right”…Overseas, a good education is viewed as a “privilege” for people who want one and with ability. Huge difference, with huge implications…Laugh all you want on the nut-job asian woman from Yale, but at least she and her family are pretty clear on what’s important… How many times have we heard that “oh boy, I wouldn’t subject my kids to that” but at the same time, say, well by golly I what to a good public education. What is the point? I mean, come on. We’ve seen this even on this blog so many times. So many people saying, “well, you don’t need to be the best, you don’t need to go to a good school, you don’t need to do well academically to do well in life..” Fine by me…If that’s how folks really feel, please opt out of the system, and don’t expect everyone else to pay for it….

[Coronita]

[quote=pri_dk][quote=flu]Well, then the solution to the budget problems is …. privatize the school system, so that we don’t have to pay for it from the public tax dollars….[/quote]

So then do we require everyone to go to school?

If parents don’t pay, their kids go illiterate?

No, I’m not proposing a solution – just pointing out that there are a lot of considerations to balance.

The notion of public education is relatively new in history – only about 100 years old. Before we propose going back to the “old” ways, we may want to look at some history.[/quote]

Well, I don’t think several people in america really value a good education anyway. I mean, it’s not like parents are encouraging their kids to run off the be nerdy geeks they days, it’s not that public schools are teaching kids about money management, and we no longer speak and write proper English, we always repeat our mistakes and never learn from history. And there’s been quite a lot of discussion (even from some piggs her) about how useless it would be for kids these days to do anything but “trade jobs/vocational” training anyway, which doesn’t fit in with our current public education system…Our math skills suck, and our math teachers in public schools are hardly qualified to teach math. And kids probably get greater utility learning math from their ipads than from a teacher these days anyway..

So why keep throwing money into the pot to getting subpar results? If this form of education really matters to folks, they would put the time and resources into it anyway…

The government (state or fed) can setup public funds/scholarships for people who really need the financial assistance with the ability AND motivation to seek higher education. And for parents that are just starting out, a low/to no interest loan, again subject to some acadamic merit and motivation.

Obviously, there would be some exceptions, such as public assistance to need based children (ie those requiring special needs/learning disabilities/etc)…But for an average kid, with average ability to learn…If he/she doesn’t take it seriously anyway, why bother wasting public resources on someone who doesn’t give a rat’s ass or always cut class anyway?

If this is such a abhorent suggestion, than just make sure your kid isn’t the one that’s always cutting class or goofing off and he/she most likely would be fine…

I think this is a huge difference between education in the U.S. versus overseas frankly. In the U.S., the prevailing viewpoint is that everyone is entitled to a good education, even people who don’t want one…It’s viewed as a “right”…Overseas, a good education is viewed as a “privilege” for people who want one and with ability. Huge difference, with huge implications…Laugh all you want on the nut-job asian woman from Yale, but at least she and her family are pretty clear on what’s important… How many times have we heard that “oh boy, I wouldn’t subject my kids to that” but at the same time, say, well by golly I what to a good public education. What is the point? I mean, come on. We’ve seen this even on this blog so many times. So many people saying, “well, you don’t need to be the best, you don’t need to go to a good school, you don’t need to do well academically to do well in life..” Fine by me…If that’s how folks really feel, please opt out of the system, and don’t expect everyone else to pay for it….

[Coronita]

[quote=pri_dk][quote=flu]Well, then the solution to the budget problems is …. privatize the school system, so that we don’t have to pay for it from the public tax dollars….[/quote]

So then do we require everyone to go to school?

If parents don’t pay, their kids go illiterate?

No, I’m not proposing a solution – just pointing out that there are a lot of considerations to balance.

The notion of public education is relatively new in history – only about 100 years old. Before we propose going back to the “old” ways, we may want to look at some history.[/quote]

Well, I don’t think several people in america really value a good education anyway. I mean, it’s not like parents are encouraging their kids to run off the be nerdy geeks they days, it’s not that public schools are teaching kids about money management, and we no longer speak and write proper English, we always repeat our mistakes and never learn from history. And there’s been quite a lot of discussion (even from some piggs her) about how useless it would be for kids these days to do anything but “trade jobs/vocational” training anyway, which doesn’t fit in with our current public education system…Our math skills suck, and our math teachers in public schools are hardly qualified to teach math. And kids probably get greater utility learning math from their ipads than from a teacher these days anyway..

So why keep throwing money into the pot to getting subpar results? If this form of education really matters to folks, they would put the time and resources into it anyway…

The government (state or fed) can setup public funds/scholarships for people who really need the financial assistance with the ability AND motivation to seek higher education. And for parents that are just starting out, a low/to no interest loan, again subject to some acadamic merit and motivation.

Obviously, there would be some exceptions, such as public assistance to need based children (ie those requiring special needs/learning disabilities/etc)…But for an average kid, with average ability to learn…If he/she doesn’t take it seriously anyway, why bother wasting public resources on someone who doesn’t give a rat’s ass or always cut class anyway?

If this is such a abhorent suggestion, than just make sure your kid isn’t the one that’s always cutting class or goofing off and he/she most likely would be fine…

I think this is a huge difference between education in the U.S. versus overseas frankly. In the U.S., the prevailing viewpoint is that everyone is entitled to a good education, even people who don’t want one…It’s viewed as a “right”…Overseas, a good education is viewed as a “privilege” for people who want one and with ability. Huge difference, with huge implications…Laugh all you want on the nut-job asian woman from Yale, but at least she and her family are pretty clear on what’s important… How many times have we heard that “oh boy, I wouldn’t subject my kids to that” but at the same time, say, well by golly I what to a good public education. What is the point? I mean, come on. We’ve seen this even on this blog so many times. So many people saying, “well, you don’t need to be the best, you don’t need to go to a good school, you don’t need to do well academically to do well in life..” Fine by me…If that’s how folks really feel, please opt out of the system, and don’t expect everyone else to pay for it….

[Coronita]

[quote=pri_dk][quote=flu]Well, then the solution to the budget problems is …. privatize the school system, so that we don’t have to pay for it from the public tax dollars….[/quote]

So then do we require everyone to go to school?

If parents don’t pay, their kids go illiterate?

No, I’m not proposing a solution – just pointing out that there are a lot of considerations to balance.

The notion of public education is relatively new in history – only about 100 years old. Before we propose going back to the “old” ways, we may want to look at some history.[/quote]

Well, I don’t think several people in america really value a good education anyway. I mean, it’s not like parents are encouraging their kids to run off the be nerdy geeks they days, it’s not that public schools are teaching kids about money management, and we no longer speak and write proper English, we always repeat our mistakes and never learn from history. And there’s been quite a lot of discussion (even from some piggs her) about how useless it would be for kids these days to do anything but “trade jobs/vocational” training anyway, which doesn’t fit in with our current public education system…Our math skills suck, and our math teachers in public schools are hardly qualified to teach math. And kids probably get greater utility learning math from their ipads than from a teacher these days anyway..

So why keep throwing money into the pot to getting subpar results? If this form of education really matters to folks, they would put the time and resources into it anyway…

The government (state or fed) can setup public funds/scholarships for people who really need the financial assistance with the ability AND motivation to seek higher education. And for parents that are just starting out, a low/to no interest loan, again subject to some acadamic merit and motivation.

Obviously, there would be some exceptions, such as public assistance to need based children (ie those requiring special needs/learning disabilities/etc)…But for an average kid, with average ability to learn…If he/she doesn’t take it seriously anyway, why bother wasting public resources on someone who doesn’t give a rat’s ass or always cut class anyway?

If this is such a abhorent suggestion, than just make sure your kid isn’t the one that’s always cutting class or goofing off and he/she most likely would be fine…

I think this is a huge difference between education in the U.S. versus overseas frankly. In the U.S., the prevailing viewpoint is that everyone is entitled to a good education, even people who don’t want one…It’s viewed as a “right”…Overseas, a good education is viewed as a “privilege” for people who want one and with ability. Huge difference, with huge implications…Laugh all you want on the nut-job asian woman from Yale, but at least she and her family are pretty clear on what’s important… How many times have we heard that “oh boy, I wouldn’t subject my kids to that” but at the same time, say, well by golly I what to a good public education. What is the point? I mean, come on. We’ve seen this even on this blog so many times. So many people saying, “well, you don’t need to be the best, you don’t need to go to a good school, you don’t need to do well academically to do well in life..” Fine by me…If that’s how folks really feel, please opt out of the system, and don’t expect everyone else to pay for it….

[Coronita]

[quote=pri_dk][quote=flu]Well, then the solution to the budget problems is …. privatize the school system, so that we don’t have to pay for it from the public tax dollars….[/quote]

So then do we require everyone to go to school?

If parents don’t pay, their kids go illiterate?

No, I’m not proposing a solution – just pointing out that there are a lot of considerations to balance.

The notion of public education is relatively new in history – only about 100 years old. Before we propose going back to the “old” ways, we may want to look at some history.[/quote]

Well, I don’t think several people in america really value a good education anyway. I mean, it’s not like parents are encouraging their kids to run off the be nerdy geeks they days, it’s not that public schools are teaching kids about money management, and we no longer speak and write proper English, we always repeat our mistakes and never learn from history. And there’s been quite a lot of discussion (even from some piggs her) about how useless it would be for kids these days to do anything but “trade jobs/vocational” training anyway, which doesn’t fit in with our current public education system…Our math skills suck, and our math teachers in public schools are hardly qualified to teach math. And kids probably get greater utility learning math from their ipads than from a teacher these days anyway..

So why keep throwing money into the pot to getting subpar results? If this form of education really matters to folks, they would put the time and resources into it anyway…

The government (state or fed) can setup public funds/scholarships for people who really need the financial assistance with the ability AND motivation to seek higher education. And for parents that are just starting out, a low/to no interest loan, again subject to some acadamic merit and motivation.

Obviously, there would be some exceptions, such as public assistance to need based children (ie those requiring special needs/learning disabilities/etc)…But for an average kid, with average ability to learn…If he/she doesn’t take it seriously anyway, why bother wasting public resources on someone who doesn’t give a rat’s ass or always cut class anyway?

If this is such a abhorent suggestion, than just make sure your kid isn’t the one that’s always cutting class or goofing off and he/she most likely would be fine…

I think this is a huge difference between education in the U.S. versus overseas frankly. In the U.S., the prevailing viewpoint is that everyone is entitled to a good education, even people who don’t want one…It’s viewed as a “right”…Overseas, a good education is viewed as a “privilege” for people who want one and with ability. Huge difference, with huge implications…Laugh all you want on the nut-job asian woman from Yale, but at least she and her family are pretty clear on what’s important… How many times have we heard that “oh boy, I wouldn’t subject my kids to that” but at the same time, say, well by golly I what to a good public education. What is the point? I mean, come on. We’ve seen this even on this blog so many times. So many people saying, “well, you don’t need to be the best, you don’t need to go to a good school, you don’t need to do well academically to do well in life..” Fine by me…If that’s how folks really feel, please opt out of the system, and don’t expect everyone else to pay for it….

[Eugene]

[quote=pri_dk]
How about source that just provides the *average* instead of selectively choosing the highest numbers to make an argument?

What is the (unqualified) average teacher salary in the state of CA?

I have no doubt it’s way south of $86K.[/quote]

As of last year, $67,932.

In San Diego Unified, the average salary is $64,466, for a teacher with an average of 14.3 years of experience.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/26/995141/see-how-well-your-school-district.html?appSession=220199061197802&RecordID=604&PageID=3&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=2&CPIsortType=&CPIorderBy=

[Eugene]

[quote=pri_dk]
How about source that just provides the *average* instead of selectively choosing the highest numbers to make an argument?

What is the (unqualified) average teacher salary in the state of CA?

I have no doubt it’s way south of $86K.[/quote]

As of last year, $67,932.

In San Diego Unified, the average salary is $64,466, for a teacher with an average of 14.3 years of experience.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/26/995141/see-how-well-your-school-district.html?appSession=220199061197802&RecordID=604&PageID=3&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=2&CPIsortType=&CPIorderBy=

[Eugene]

[quote=pri_dk]
How about source that just provides the *average* instead of selectively choosing the highest numbers to make an argument?

What is the (unqualified) average teacher salary in the state of CA?

I have no doubt it’s way south of $86K.[/quote]

As of last year, $67,932.

In San Diego Unified, the average salary is $64,466, for a teacher with an average of 14.3 years of experience.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/26/995141/see-how-well-your-school-district.html?appSession=220199061197802&RecordID=604&PageID=3&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=2&CPIsortType=&CPIorderBy=

[Eugene]

[quote=pri_dk]
How about source that just provides the *average* instead of selectively choosing the highest numbers to make an argument?

What is the (unqualified) average teacher salary in the state of CA?

I have no doubt it’s way south of $86K.[/quote]

As of last year, $67,932.

In San Diego Unified, the average salary is $64,466, for a teacher with an average of 14.3 years of experience.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/26/995141/see-how-well-your-school-district.html?appSession=220199061197802&RecordID=604&PageID=3&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=2&CPIsortType=&CPIorderBy=

[Eugene]

[quote=pri_dk]
How about source that just provides the *average* instead of selectively choosing the highest numbers to make an argument?

What is the (unqualified) average teacher salary in the state of CA?

I have no doubt it’s way south of $86K.[/quote]

As of last year, $67,932.

In San Diego Unified, the average salary is $64,466, for a teacher with an average of 14.3 years of experience.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/26/995141/see-how-well-your-school-district.html?appSession=220199061197802&RecordID=604&PageID=3&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=2&CPIsortType=&CPIorderBy=

[Eugene]

[quote=EconProf]As zk’s link showed, CA prisoners cost the state $51,000 per year. I’ve read that Texas spends $25,000 per year, Montana $15,000. Perhaps we could outsource more prisoners to these states (we already do that a little), and benefit both CA taxpayers and let these more efficient states run a little profit.[/quote]

The cost of prisoners is an outrage. The heart of the matter is seriously overpaid prison guards, much better paid than teachers, (the average compensation on the order of $100,000) and way too many of them (something like one guard per 4 prisoners. Many other states have half that number.)

Unfortunately, if we closed all prisons and outsourced all prisoners to Montana, that would only close less than a third of the budget deficit.

[Eugene]

[quote=EconProf]As zk’s link showed, CA prisoners cost the state $51,000 per year. I’ve read that Texas spends $25,000 per year, Montana $15,000. Perhaps we could outsource more prisoners to these states (we already do that a little), and benefit both CA taxpayers and let these more efficient states run a little profit.[/quote]

The cost of prisoners is an outrage. The heart of the matter is seriously overpaid prison guards, much better paid than teachers, (the average compensation on the order of $100,000) and way too many of them (something like one guard per 4 prisoners. Many other states have half that number.)

Unfortunately, if we closed all prisons and outsourced all prisoners to Montana, that would only close less than a third of the budget deficit.

[Eugene]

[quote=EconProf]As zk’s link showed, CA prisoners cost the state $51,000 per year. I’ve read that Texas spends $25,000 per year, Montana $15,000. Perhaps we could outsource more prisoners to these states (we already do that a little), and benefit both CA taxpayers and let these more efficient states run a little profit.[/quote]

The cost of prisoners is an outrage. The heart of the matter is seriously overpaid prison guards, much better paid than teachers, (the average compensation on the order of $100,000) and way too many of them (something like one guard per 4 prisoners. Many other states have half that number.)

Unfortunately, if we closed all prisons and outsourced all prisoners to Montana, that would only close less than a third of the budget deficit.

[Eugene]

[quote=EconProf]As zk’s link showed, CA prisoners cost the state $51,000 per year. I’ve read that Texas spends $25,000 per year, Montana $15,000. Perhaps we could outsource more prisoners to these states (we already do that a little), and benefit both CA taxpayers and let these more efficient states run a little profit.[/quote]

The cost of prisoners is an outrage. The heart of the matter is seriously overpaid prison guards, much better paid than teachers, (the average compensation on the order of $100,000) and way too many of them (something like one guard per 4 prisoners. Many other states have half that number.)

Unfortunately, if we closed all prisons and outsourced all prisoners to Montana, that would only close less than a third of the budget deficit.

[Author]

Posts