Obama's Education Secretary - Janet Napolitano a Possibility

[Lucille]

This is terrible news (http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20081005/pl_cq_politics/politics2971168). Why? Get a load of this:


Plan adds 6 weeks to school year
Napolitano's panel also proposes more hours a day in class (http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/related/89865)
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.23.2005

PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano is to unveil a plan today that could make summer vacation for students go the way of slide rules and blackboard erasers.
The proposal being announced this morning in Washington, D.C., seeks a 210-day school year across the United States, particularly in school districts with a large percentage of students who perform poorly.

That is six weeks longer than the 180 days now required under Arizona law and six weeks longer than the national average.

But that's not all: The report by a national task force Napolitano co-chairs also wants a longer school day. It doesn't say specifically how long, but it refers to a chain of charter schools where students attend from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. - and half a day on Saturdays.


If that happens, I will home school both of my kids.

Why do Democrats hate The Children™?

[torchbearer]

This is terrible news (http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20081005/pl_cq_politics/politics2971168). Why? Get a load of this:



If that happens, I will home school both of my kids.

Why do Democrats hate The Children™?

They "own" the children. As in the state as king...the same as King as father.

[ItsTime]

Lets not forget pay raises, more money for schools because utilities will be used more, more buses running, more janitorial hours, more more more more

[Otter Mii-kun]

This is very similar to the kind of crap Michigan's governor Granholm has been pushing-more intrusions into the lives of children and their parents in the name of "global competitiveness" and even "national security"!

The school day could be extended 23 hours a day and 364 days a year and it still wouldn't be enough!


Lets not forget pay raises, more money for schools because utilities will be used more, more buses running, more janitorial hours, more more more moreSpending could be boosted at obscenely exponential rates every year and they'd still wouldn't be "spending enough". How much more $$$ do we have to keep throwing at schools?

If you don't mind my coming out on this issue- I was a hard-core Democrat years ago-up until late 2003-when I started finding out about how ultra-collectivist they really were, I abandoned the party and their principles.
The rest of my family is Democratic (hereditary).
Around this same time I came out against other populistic/Democratic/neo-socialist/left principles, including the UNited Nations, preferential treatment of "minority" groups, open borders, PBA, and the Federal Reserve System.

As for Sec. of Ed., I expected that maybe Granholm could become Sec. of Ed. under a president Hillary Clinton.

[AJ Antimony]

So how again isn't this constitutional treason?

[freejack]

how about improving the quality of the education instead of increasing the quantity? these people are ridiculous.

[socialize_me]

Although I do disagree with the Department of Ed. and federal subsidies, when you look at it, our school system is really relaxed. 8:xx-3:xx M-F and little if any homework? I work with some foreign exchange students from China and they said they have school six days a week, a summer vacation from July 1st to September 1st, and even some schools in their province go from 6:30 in the MORNING to 10 PM at night. I asked him how his college calculus class was going and he said it's not hard at all.

Asians work harder than us and are generally more intelligent because they actually have a public school system worth a damn. We're getting our asses kicked in education and something HAS to be done (like elimination of the Department of Education, return of all decisions to the local municipalities) to change the curriculum we have. Somehow China has been able to have a state-operated school system that has mathematics and sciences on steroids for their students. It's absolutely ridiculous how hard they work and how little they complain. America is nothing but a nation of subsidized whiners. All we do is bitch and moan about how hard our job is, but when I look at how hard these guys work, we're the joke.

[phoenixrising]

if you keep the kids longer...you get to feed them*more* BS! plain & simple.

btw: they attempted extending the school schedule out here & found they didn't have enough time to do school repairs! changed it the folowing yr.

[Otter Mii-kun]

Although I do disagree with the Department of Ed. and federal subsidies, when you look at it, our school system is really relaxed. 8:xx-3:xx M-F and little if any homework? I work with some foreign exchange students from China and they said they have school six days a week, a summer vacation from July 1st to September 1st, and even some schools in their province go from 6:30 in the MORNING to 10 PM at night. I asked him how his college calculus class was going and he said it's not hard at all.

Asians work harder than us and are generally more intelligent because they actually have a public school system worth a damn. We're getting our asses kicked in education and something HAS to be done (like elimination of the Department of Education, return of all decisions to the local municipalities) to change the curriculum we have. Somehow China has been able to have a state-operated school system that has mathematics and sciences on steroids for their students. It's absolutely ridiculous how hard they work and how little they complain. America is nothing but a nation of subsidized whiners. All we do is bitch and moan about how hard our job is, but when I look at how hard these guys work, we're the joke.Our public/government schooling system was more "relaxed" in the past than now, yet we didn't do any worse then.

And call me an "isolationist", but I am so sick of the over-emphasis on math and science while giving lip service to civics and history, and virtually ignoring vocational training programs/shop-type classes.

What may work for Asia doesn't necessarily work in America. The establishment politicians have no business trying to shove Asian policy down our throats just as they have no business overthrowing dictators in the Middle East to nation-build and install puppet regimes.

What is needed is not longer hours, longer school years, college-prep-for-all curriculum mandates, but a serious reevaluation into current teaching methods-and into where education money is really going.

[AJ Antimony]

Although I do disagree with the Department of Ed. and federal subsidies, when you look at it, our school system is really relaxed. 8:xx-3:xx M-F and little if any homework? I work with some foreign exchange students from China and they said they have school six days a week, a summer vacation from July 1st to September 1st, and even some schools in their province go from 6:30 in the MORNING to 10 PM at night. I asked him how his college calculus class was going and he said it's not hard at all.

Asians work harder than us and are generally more intelligent because they actually have a public school system worth a damn. We're getting our asses kicked in education and something HAS to be done (like elimination of the Department of Education, return of all decisions to the local municipalities) to change the curriculum we have. Somehow China has been able to have a state-operated school system that has mathematics and sciences on steroids for their students. It's absolutely ridiculous how hard they work and how little they complain. America is nothing but a nation of subsidized whiners. All we do is bitch and moan about how hard our job is, but when I look at how hard these guys work, we're the joke.

They work hard not because of their school system but because of their culture! They are historically hard workers who do so for the good of the state/society and they are trained by their parents every since they're young to do well in school.

They simply don't have a culture founded on freedom like ours. It's not that our schools are bad, it's just our students see the stupidity in forcing education. For example, if there's a kid who really likes English, what incentive does he have to learn calculus? He doesn't care for calculus, he'll never use calculus the rest of his life, and because of this he is never going to get an A in calc class. The calc class isn't bad, it's just the student sees how much of a joke it is to him.

This applies to everyone. We all have subjects that we don't like or flat out hate. Therefore, we're never going to use that subject the rest of our lives so we know what a waste it is to force ourselves to learn it for a semester or two.

For the best education, all you have to do is let the people educate themselves! If 10% of the US population doesn't attend school, it'll be because they choose not to! Maybe they don't have to! Maybe they decided long ago to continue father's business and are very happy with that decision.

The people interested in calculus will learn their calculus and the world will continue to spin.

[Micah Dardar]

As a former Democrat, I used to support public education. Now some people think that I'm utterly nuts for saying that there is no Constitutional mandate for forcing or providing public education. I'm really sick of the government dictating how people live their lives.