Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Monday April 16 2018, @01:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the going-nationwide dept.

Common Dreams reports

Colorado's teachers' union expects more than 400 teachers at a rally that's planned for Monday at the state's Capitol in Denver.

[...] Englewood School District, outside the capital city, announced on Sunday that schools would be closed the following day as 70 percent of its teachers had indicated they wouldn't be working Monday. It was unclear on Sunday whether more school districts would be closing.

"We are calling Monday, April 16th a day of action", Kerrie Dallman, president of the Colorado Education Association (CEA), told KDVR in Denver.

[...] According to[1] KMGH in Denver, "The CEA estimates that teachers spend on average $656 of their own money for school supplies for students." The state's teacher salaries rank 46th out of 50, with educators making an average of $46,000 per year.

Public schools are underfunded by $828 million this year, Dallman told the Post, and lawmakers have said they could inject at least $100 million more into schools--but they have yet to do so.

[...] The planned protest follows a trend that was seen in West Virginia and Kentucky before moving west this month to Oklahoma and Arizona as well as Colorado. In all the states where teachers have walked out and rallied at their Capitols, teachers have reported paying for school supplies out of pocket, working second and third jobs to make ends meet, and coping with funding shortages while their legislators hand out tax cuts to corporations.

[1] For a laugh (or perhaps a deep sigh), check out all the whitespace in the source code of the page.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @08:07PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @08:07PM (#667779)

    but that is not 100% of public education.

    Yes, more like 95%, since it's all that is required to solve the vast, vast majority of homework assignments, tests, and standardized tests. Our priorities in this country are absolutely atrocious. True understanding of the material is more difficult and expensive to test for, so it happens less often.

    but even still what we have is loads better than what would happen if we just told kids to teach themselves X number of topics.

    I don't advocate for that, since I think there needs to be at least some guidance.

    When you put forth the opinion that school is worthless and gives zero advantage in the labor market, well some morons will believe you!

    If they're morons, then they were already doomed to begin with.

    Not only that, but I, at least, don't care about the labor market. I value education in and of itself, which is something that is beyond the comprehension of most people. Our culture focuses too much on shallow things like money and jobs, and education suffers because of that.

    Furthermore, school - even our atrocious schools - are not completely worthless. If they at least manage to teach many students how to read, write, and do basic math, then they have some value. However, that is not sufficient in the 21st century.

    They'll stop trying in school and start dropping out.

    Well, that would probably be a net good if they pursued their education via another means, such as homeschooling or even self-education in some cases. But maybe that isn't considered to be truly "dropping out", since they're still being educated?

    At the very worst, it would likely be a neutral course of action; it's almost to the point where a trained monkey could graduate from our schools, frankly. I don't care about drop-out rates nearly as much as others seem to, since the quality of the products our school system produces is lacking.

    From the content of your 2nd paragraph it is obvious you have an axe to grind and while I agree with your points I disagree strongly with your approach.

    I have an axe to grind with many things, from the NSA's mass surveillance to our abomination of a school system. I'm not going to refrain from expressing the truth merely because 'impressionable young minds' might see it and realize that the quality of the education they are receiving from their schools is severely lacking. What am I supposed to do, only write these "cold hard truths" on an age-restricted website (which can be trivially bypassed anyway)? I don't understand this point. People - including young people - can make up their own minds.

    You're pushing the rote memorization bit too hard, it isn't nearly as dire as you present it.

    I don't think I am pushing it too hard. It is one of many major issues with our school system.

    You will cause anyone reading your opinion to devalue their own education, even the good parts and even if only a tiny bit.

    If they went through our school system, then chances are they didn't have much of an education to begin with. Now that they know this, they have the opportunity to fix it. Things are not as hopeless as they seem for individuals who are truly interested in learning, especially in this age.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @11:47PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @11:47PM (#667854)

    I know plenty of successful people who went through public education. Actually pretty much all of the people I know did. You're being ridiculous about the state of education. Bad? Yes. Bad as you make it out to be? No.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 17 2018, @06:56AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 17 2018, @06:56AM (#667961)

      I know plenty of successful people who went through public education.

      It was not my position that no successful people went through public schooling, so that's just a straw man. However, were they successful because of public schooling, or in spite of it? Perhaps they went above and beyond what was required of them and, to some extent, took their educations into their own hands. Or, perhaps your definition of 'successful' simply means that they make a decent amount of money; in that case, they could be quite uneducated and still be capable of such a feat. Our school system pumps out worker drones in massive numbers, so that would be no surprise. Just being able to earn money is not a sign that someone is highly educated.

      Either way, I suspect we have radically different standards. As our school system (as can be demonstrated by the tests and the standards) is mostly based on rote memorization, I believe things are every bit as bad as I have said. Under no circumstances could such a horrendous system ever be adequate to me.

      Actually pretty much all of the people I know did.

      Since the first group of people you brought up were "successful people," that appears to mean that these other people are not part of that group. Why even bring them up if they're not "successful" by your own standards? That adds nothing to your argument.

      You're being ridiculous about the state of education.

      No, I simply value real education, and I do not think that our current system comes anywhere close to providing that. It has some success teaching the absolute basics, but little else.

      Bad? Yes.

      So even you believe that a bad school system can produce "successful" (however you're defining that) people. So, again, what was the point of bringing up the "successful" people that you know of if such people can arise even in bad schools systems?

      It is good that you recognize that our school system is lacking, however. Quibbling over how bad it is exactly probably isn't all that useful.