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2 votes
May 7, 2015

Education is the key to reducing poverty, unfortunately education has also been marginalized, underfunded and in some cases downright vilified. The number one thing the government can provide that will allow a person to become self-sufficient is education. Increasing funding and support for education will, in the long run, reduce costs associated with welfare, imprisonment, and mental illness.

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0 votes,
May 7, 2015

nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66

How much does it cost to attend college these days? When we are already spending about $12,743 per public school student I don't think funding is the problem. The mentality surrounding education has to change. Parents have to get involved in their child's life. They need to pay attention to what the school teaches and the quality of the teachers themselves. Public school unions are more harm than good. They haven't done much to improve teacher pay, which would attract more dedicated teachers. They have made it next to impossible to get rid of bad teachers. Administration costs are through the roof. Even the schools being built are more akin to art than utilitarian. I'm not saying they need to build shacks for schools, but no matter how nice and modern a school looks it does nothing if you can't reach a child's mind, which is what the school was built for.

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0 votes,
May 7, 2015

You are picking a fight that I am not trying to make.
I don't defend the cost of higher education, I never mentioned higher education, unions, and I surely would never defend over-paid administrators. As a former teacher admin pay makes me sick.
Please understand, I am not here to make policy statements about our education system...which is easy to attack if that's your goal.

I was simply answering the question, "how should society take care of it's poor?"

Education.

Basically, I'm saying you can either give a hungry man a fish.....or teach him how to fish.
That's it.

I'm not defending any policy statements about the U.S. education system. I am simply saying a better educated populace will have less poverty. That's all. If you disagree with that point please do comment, but you are attacking arguments I never made and assuming that I am in support of the current system.
I'm not.

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0 votes,
May 7, 2015

The only way it can be seen that I was attacking your argument is that you said schools are underfunded. My point was that we spend more per student than most of the rest of the world. I did say that the approach needs to change, not more money thrown at the problem.

It has reached a point that we need adult education for the parents almost more than the kids. When parents are semi-illiterate we can't expect them to care about their kid's education.

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0 votes,
May 7, 2015

Yes, schools are underfunded, and administrators are over-funded. They used to have decent funding but since the economic crash of 2008 education has been butchered in most states, including mine. What little money is left gets soaked up by administration, and that leave almost nothing that trickles down to the student experience level.

If you are interested in my opinion regarding policy it follows:

Our education system needs a complete overhaul. And, to compete with the global market in today's world we should educate our population in basic literacy skills. There are tons of ideas about how to do it better, and many other countries who have more successful systems that we could learn and borrow from.
I personally think we should only mandate K-8th grade general education and then allow students to divert into vocational track programs or college prep, whichever they prefer. Not everyone needs to go to college, most people just want a good job. The U.S. has dropped the ball on trade skills, we could be teaching young people to be mechanics, welders, electricians, plumbers, builders etc. much earlier.

The traditional four year university education is for honing the mind, becoming worldly, acquiring thinking skills and discipline, it is what's left of the "classical education" which meant the ability to think critically, and to carry a broad knowledge of philosophy, history, literature, psychology, politics, math and science. This kind of broad-based knowledge was the mark of a "learned man" in centuries past. Today it mostly means a large student debt with very few job prospects. I still think there is an inherent value in being an educated person, but since it doesn't always translate into real income, some people disregard that value.

would never support getting rid of public education entirely. I think doing so would create an permanent underclass living in severe poverty. A group like that would pose an even greater threat to stability. But, I do agree that our education system needs to reflect the diversity and various levels of need within society.

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1 vote,
May 7, 2015

If a government run system is failing why is the best solution to throw money at it? Making school district administrators rich doesn't seem to be a logical solution.

That kind of thinking opens the door for corruption greed and motivation to continue to let schools fail.

School union lobbyists pushed for teacher job security so outlandish, teachers that don't care simply hand out work sheets and lessons then sit and look at online clothing stores. Sure it socks to loose your job but if you such at your job you shouldn't have it in the first place.

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0 votes,
May 7, 2015

I am not advocating higher pay for administrators - quite the opposite. As a former teacher the biggest problem I saw was top-heavy, over-paid, micro-managing administrators!
I also did not mention anything about unions. I am not here to make policy statements about our education system...which is easy to attack if that's your goal.
I was simply answering the question, "how should society take care of it's poor?"

Education.
Basically, I'm saying you can either give a hungry man a fish.....or teach him how to fish.
That's it.
I'm not making any other arguments here.

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100
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1 vote,
May 7, 2015

This is the best response by far, I couldn't have worded it better myself. Attack the source of the symptoms, not the symptoms themselves.

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