Why should education be a state controlled issue?

[BmorePat87]

(08-12-2016, 03:34 PM)fredtoast Wrote: this is completely false.  I have never focused on the teachers and in fact I have asked what we can do to address the problem of poor parenting.  Standarized tests are not used just to judge teachers.  they are also used to compare different schools systems.

By your knee-jerk reaction is a pertfect example of the problem with many teachers today.  They don't care about looking for answers.  all they care about is protecting themselves from any possible judgement.

In your responses to me, you have focused solely on teachers. You have repeatedly written them off as just complaining and not trying to fix anything. This is your second time responding to this claim by saying you didn't and then subsequently saying that teachers do. I am not looking to protect myself from judgement. I do a great job. I'd like bad teachers to be called out and be held accountable, but that doesn't mean I can't defend my profession. 

Also, responding to someone suggesting that parents are also to blame with "ok, how do you fix that?" doesn't take away from the fact that YOU are only blaming teachers. I assumed someone who is part of a profession that helps others and gets unfair criticism wouldn't shit on another profession that is treated the same, but I guess I was wrong. 

Quote:1.  The federal government will have the benefit of looking at what successful states are doing and implementing those practices in the lower performing states.  Right now the states that are failing have no idea what they are doing wrong because all they know is what they are doing.


2.  Equalize funding.  The poorer states generally underperform compared to the more wealthy states, and even within states the better funded schools are generally more successful than the poorer schools.  Money alone does not solve all problems, but the fact is that better funded schools generally do better than poor schools. 

3.  Dilute the influence of local politics.  Too many education issues become political issues on the local level.

1. I do not think that states with bad schools are just oblivious to the fact that they have bad schools or do not have anyone who is capable of observing what good states are doing. Why would the federal government be more successful at this?

2. We can increase federal funding without taking control of schools away from the states. 

3. Is local politics worse than national politics? Why is Congress more capable of deciding what should be taught than my local school board that is filled with experts on education or children? 

As I stated before, the federal government has had a fetishistic devotion to standardizing testing and charter schools in the last 15 years. Charter schools do not perform any better than public schools. Some are incredible and serve as a place out test out innovative new ways to teach, but, as a whole, they are not any better than a standard public school. Standardize testing reinforces a belief that has been dismissed by experts in education decades ago: that everyone learns the same way. 

This is why I asked about what areas you saw them controlling. Certification? Funding? Curriculum building? I think national certification standards are fine. I'd love to see more funding. Even a federal adoption of standards wouldn't be awful... but the federal government hasn't proven to be more competent than states in the last few decades. When politicians who have no experience in education start forcing what I do in the classroom to match a standardize test, and skill building is set aside, that's where I am not on board. 

You may write this off as me saying the federal government is bad, but I am only going off what they have offered.