"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."Abraham Lincoln
Another presidential debate will be on your idiot box tomorrow night. Expect Barrack Obama to more aggressive and John McCain to continue his travelogue. "I've been to Narnia and Rivendell, Senator Obama. I met with Elrond personally and he supports my foreign policy platform. ... And you don't get it."
Of course their will be droning punches and counterpunches about our sickly economy and how we need Doc Brown to invent a Mr. Fusion so our time machines can run on banana peels and beer cans. While you're at it, scientists, we could also use a flux capacitor. And some Willy Wonka style Lickable Wallpaper and Three-Course Dinner Chewing Gum. Get to work.
One hopes that Tom Brokaw will steer the debate to, you know, an actual debate and not a canned stump speech like we saw in the Biden vs. Palin Bore on the Shore. (I don't think the debate was on a shore, but it rhymed. They can't all be winners.)
There will one topic, one hugely important topic, that I fear will continue to be ignored. An issue that has been swept under the partisan carpet.
That of education.
Why aren't we talking about education? Why aren't the candidates putting the issue in the forefront? How is it not a huge hot button, talking-point-laden subject? Our schools are falling apart. Teachers are woefully underpaid. American test scores continue to plummet. In 2006, the Program for International Student Assessment reported that American 15-year-olds ranked 17th out of the 30 industrialized countries that participated when it comes to science test scores. In math? We sat at 24th place. We are the Detroit Lions of world education. The U.S. is the third largest country in the world. You don't need to rank higher than 17th to figure out that is troubling. A complicated algorithm isn't necessary.
Ask a young person who the vice president of the U.S. is. I'll wager most won't know. Ask them when World War II happened. Or who John Kennedy was. Or what the last book they read was titled. You can get angry all you want when people say America is getting dumber. But common sense and test scores make it an irrefutable fact.
Why aren't the two presidential candidates addressing this? Why aren't they pounding the pulpit with promises of education reform? Stumping away in town meetings and rallies on how they will fix our fledgling education system.
If a teacher did not have a starting salary in the mid 20's, but in the mid 40's, imagine the caliber of people that would become educators. Teachers should be making six figure salaries. There should be overwhelming competition for teaching spots in public schools across the country. The noble men and woman who are already sacrificing for your children should be justly rewarded.
A public school teacher should not have to take a part-time job teaching night classes to make sure his four boys have new basketball shoes and can go to regional track meets. That is what my father did for his sons. I never heard him complain. He has diligently served his community and taught mathematics for longer than he would like me to say. He is a hero. Why did he have to work two jobs to make ends meet?
To fix this? Make gambling legal.
Serious as a heart attack. Make gambling legal. Gaming is already a (roughly) $500 billion dollar industry. There are casinos on Indian reservations and lotteries in nearly every corner of the country. Very few don't live within driving distance of somewhere you can walk into the climate controlled confines of a casino and play Pai Gow poker. People are going to gamble no matter what. Why not legalize it, regulate it, and tax the holy hell out of it? Funnel that money to public schools and overhaul the whole shebang. That eliminates the illegal bookies that are raking in dough hand over fist from the national obsession with sporting events. A licensed "Sports Book" would be a cash cow for statewide education. Hell, you could charge a cover fee just to get into the joint.
Don't give me the rubbish about how gambling is addictive and is detrimental to society when cigarettes, alcohol and coffee are allowed to roam free. We permit far more addictive vices than blackjack.
Allowing gambling, which Americans are going to do anyway, to be a source of income for the school system could bring in millions. Millions.
I would like to hear less about what we are doing to police the rest of the world and more about the problems at home.
There may be no more important issue than the education of the future of this country.
Speak up Mr. Obama. Speak up Mr. McCain. Tell us what you are going to do to stem the tide of stupidity in America.
Please.
Selah.
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Imagine if one of those 145 billion in earmarks went to education instead of NASCAR tracks, arrow makers and what not.
Education is always on people's list, it just never gets the headlines or the funding, unless a bunch of kids shoot up a school or a teacher sleeps with his/her class. I doubt it will after November given the economic crisis.
I'm not sure if gambling is a good idea but I see your point - lets find a new revenue stream. When I was growing up my town okayed a power plant to be built in the area, the power company paid 95% of school taxes (and others) so all that money coming in allowed us to do great things in education throughout the district. It may not have been the smartest way to raise funds for education (nor the most environmentally sound looking back) but it made my education much better. So much was provided for that most surrounding public schools didn't have.
I disagree with your statement "Teachers are woefully underpaid." It may be true in some parts of the country, but not in northern NJ. Around here, teachers are the only people still drawing full blown, no-network indemnity health coverage without having to contribute a cent. Numerous school boards have tried to modify their plans to bring the teachers in line with the rest of the universe, and they always catch hell for it. (Carries over to their pensions, too.)
Teachers get automatic raises for completing Masters degrees - which their districts paid for.
In a smaller district, it is nearly impossible to get a citizen to stand up and oppose teacher contract hikes - the teachers know your kid and they know you.
I can't say teachers are overpaid - it is not a job I'd take on - but I don't accept "teachers are underpaid" as an axiom.
Money isn't the problem. We spend many times what we did in even the recent past and things have only gotten worse. Everyone's answer is more money and look where its gotten us. The problem is the public education system and the lack of choice. Throw in the corrupt teachers unions, following the pattern of their counterparts in the auto industry (with the same results) and it does not matter if you have all the money in the world.
Not to say that "the system" is entirely to blame (but mostly). The decline of two parent households, the idiotic, socialist economic policy put forth by the leadership of the People's Democratic Republic of America, and removal of real consequences for those who make bad choices (economic, social, health, and otherwise) has destabilized families making the educational system's job that much tougher.
In short, more money won't change a damn thing. What never ceases to amaze me is that the government f***s things up at every turn with regulations, subsidies, etc that cause distortions leading to catastrophe (See bubble, housing 2003-2007), yet all everyone every talks about is more government.
I'd have to agree with Baireman. It seems like much of that 145 billion is simply a vote for bread and circuses (circii?). I don't care that kids need wooden arrows. Let there local communities raise funds for those kinds of community projects.
I think that J.W. is correct in suggesting that we legalize gambling and tax the hell out of it, but why stop there. Legalize marijiuana and tax the hell out of that too. With that kind of money we could probably fund every college bound student in America.
The reason is simple.
If our youth were the best educated in the world, and had a solid grasp on political science and economics, then the politicians, bankers, and corporate bigwigs would be out on their asses so fast it would crack the sound barrier. The government doesn't want educated people. They want TV addicted zombie consumers who buy the latest gadgets and gizmos to keep them entertained and distracted while the government and corporate interests bend them over a barrel.
The gambling thing is a great idea, but the indians would never allow it. That multi-billion dollar casino industry buys alot of votes in washington, and they don't want a piddly little thing like education take a piece of their pie. Besides if your average person had a solid grasp of mathematics, they'd look at the odds of acually winning at a casino and avoid them like the plague. So the Indian tribes definately don't want to give up a share of their cash for something that will hurt them in the long run.
Teachers make do with what they've got and manage to do a fairly adequate job. Can it be better? definitely. But where is the necessary funding actually going to come from?
As a public school teacher in Northern NJ, I do appreciate what I have. I get pretty good health and dental coverage and a pension plan. And most of us make about $40k straight out of college. And we do get automatic raises every year, unless, like for the 2nd time now in my less than five-year career, the union contract isn't settled. But still, not taking any of the health and pension benefits for granted.
Yes, we do get a raise if we get out masters, but if I made my district pay for all of the tuition, it would take me 10 years to complete. Teachers' unions have surprisingly little power when it comes to negotiations with board of education. Think how little the WGA got, and we're in a similar situation.
Why do I think teachers are underpaid? Because I'm working close to 60 hour work weeks, paying for most of my own teaching supplies, and I can't afford to move out of my parents' house. Many districts won't even hire new teachers at full-time anymore, so they can save money by denying benefits. I got a new job this year, and I'm extremely lucky to have what I have. But when I'm unhappy at my job, there's nothing out there in the want ads that will give me the security I need. So I'm stuck in a new job that I mainly can't stand, but since they'll give me health coverage, I'm staying.
(And I'm a music teacher, too. Don't get me started about what No Child Left Behind has done to music programs in my area. Gah.)
What good is an education if all our jobs have already been shipped to India or Mexico?
I view education as The Big Con that is necessary to promote in order to maintain the machinery that keeps the faculty and their precious tenure alive.
Remember that old saying, those who can-do, and those who can't - teach?
The Big Education Con feeds upon the expectations of young people who are persuaded to reach deep in their pockets to finance what they have been sold as a sure thing/ ticket to success. When they actually get into the job market, they find themselves further behind the 8ball - drowning in debt.
Sadly your degree is the only way to possibly get a job that pays well enough to afford that debt.
Thank you for your service and thank you for reading Liz.
JW
I thank God every day that I was able to go to school, get a degree, then go out and get a great job that I was able to parlay into a secure future for myself and my family. Sure, it set me back behind others my age for a while, and I had to payoff the debt for 5 years thereafter. But without that degree, I wouldn't have been offered a job in my career in the first place.
I know plenty of people that bucked education and set out to prove that they are smarter for having the work experience instead. In general, it works ... until you get to a certain level of responsibility and/or expertise that requires you have a little education to fall back on; if for no other reason than confidence in what you are doing. Along the way, I was promoted over many people that had similar experience, but no education to back it up. I never felt sorry for them and never apologized. If I was running a company and forced into a choice between two employees of equal talent and loyalty, I'd invest in the educated person every time.
You can't replace experience. I'm not denying the value of experience. But, there is also something to say for proving that you know how to learn and are intelligent enough to conceptualize and theorize. Any degree of value shows that.
Baier--did you grow up in Shoreham?
Tim, you just explained why I got my butt back in school....I was tired of my resume' not reflecting what I feel like I'm capable of (excuse me, hope that doesn't sound snooty---but it's the truth). I want my future kids to be proud of their mom and be able to spoil them every once in awhile, take them on a kickass vacation, etc...
and JW, you are right--many of my friends are teachers...they are fortunate to have jobs and went straight for the masters' so they could make more, but they, like most teachers, do deserve to earn more...
Sarcky - I probably sounded snooty in what I said, but I don't care.
No, you said what every HR person who goes through a stack of resumes (or has software do it for them) thinks...
And with the way the economy is at the current moment and where it's headed, education is going to mean more than it ever has...
Baier...Your reference to the nuclear power plant gave it to me...I grew up on LI and went to one of those districts where the senior citizens turned down a few school budgets (can't blame them now, but didn't understand when I was a kid)...we were jealous of you guys and the mostly free ride...
We don't need no education...
There's always an excuse for the job not paying.
If you don't have a degree, employers justify not paying a certain wage because you don't have experience.
If you do have experience, employers justify not paying a certain wage because you don't have a degree.
If you have a degree and experience = you are overqualified and they simply don't have it in the budget to allow paying you a desired wage.
Doesn't matter anyway! Your job has been shipped to India.
Please stay on the line and an operator will assist you shortly...
SO -
We are the Wildcats...
JW---don't you love when the people who comment prove your point for you?
Indeed I do...
somebody get the prep-H
Laura seems irritated and inflamed.
Not really, I have a great job!
Great post and I couldn't agree more.
I left a degree program in Primary Education after two years because I saw how poorly my professors were being paid, plus I was hopeless at managing a classroom.
Now as a real estate agent, a far less noble profession, I make twice what most career educators make, at least I did up until six months ago.
As far as gambling is concerned, state lotteries alone would contribute more than enough to revamp our educational system.
Not to mention when I come home at 3am after losing 300 clams playing hold em I can tell my wife that I was simply giving something back to the community.
I dunno...if I never went to college, I'd always feel like I had missed out on something important.
But I did graduate and in retrospect, I would rather have spent my time in Europe to expand my horizons.
I feel a little scammed because I worked so hard (worked full-time and went to school full-time-always in search of sleep!) and really believed in that nonsense of how future employers may ask to see your grades, how education is a sure-fire key to success, etc. People with PHD's seemed so out of touch when asked direct, practical questions about real world experience outside of the classroom. You see, you had to believe every word they said because they'd been there, and you hadn't gone beyond the safety of high school and college.
What do you really know about life when you are 18-21? Do you know who you are besides not having grown-ups tell you what to do for the first time? Are you so sure that what you want at 18 is what you want to do for the rest of your life? What was the big rush for me to finish?
But at least when I graduated, I had zero student loans, which was a plus!
Whenever I leave my education off the resume, I always get the job!
Who needs College? Look at me, I'm kick ass.