Post 2 of ???

[gentdirkly]

Today we're going to look at a little slice of Education.  The candidates, predictably, both say that our education system is flawed and that they know how to fix it.  Unfortunately, they cannot even agree as to what the problems are

Comments

clarification

[gentdirkly]

I agree with you that Obama's website lays out a couple of possible ways to increase pay to teachers that work hard. I didn't include that information in my synopsis and here's why: He would give more money to older teachers *if* they mentor younger ones and more money to any teacher who volunteers for a 'high-need' school. Both are perfectly admirable ideas. The problem is that both have been proposed many times in many places and teachers' unions have balked. Obama clarifies that any policy he implements will be in concert with the wishes of these unions, so I did not include any of this. Policies like this, if they happen, have to be imposed on the unions.

And to your response to McCain's plan - the first section of one of these posts is merely to paraphrase the policy. Sure, my word choice here and there may give away how I feel about it, but it's not supposed to. When I get to the second stage and criticize it. In general, I agree with your "fuck the tests" attitude. I think a child's standardized test scores are great for parents and teachers to know about, but I don't like how of late they've become high stakes tests that measure the school's reputation and funding, hence, teaching to the test. I agree with you.

To your last point I will only say that I went to what some have called the best public high school in the country and Episcopal High students kicked our ass in competitions like Math Olympiad, Science Olympiad, Thespians, etc. Religious != stupid.