In a sense, yes, lack of education. But, the point being made was, in Mississippi, a good education is simply not available. Now, what is your suggestion for changing that fact.
Wifey B: Not available to a large segment of the population. However, that deeply affects all in the state.
Simple math coming up from someone not so skilled in math. You have more uneducated needing government support, what happens? Tax rate goes up to provide those services. Why does Mississippi have such a high tax structure compared to other states? And such a low level of services?
The reality is you either help the poor up front, through education and other services or you help them on the back end by supporting them. For boaters think of it as preventive maintenance. It's called the FRAM concept. :lol:
Mississippi just happened to come up as an example, but look at inner cities of major cities, look at other rural areas. Look at areas of West Virginia where life expectancy is like a third world country.
How do we change the educational shortcomings in this country, the students without access to a decent education? Wow. Post high school, both college and technical training would actually be the easiest with funding at the national level and that's likely the best place to start for quicker results. Guarantee all students access to post high school education or training. K through 12 is a nightmare. It's been left to the states and cities to manage and many have done a horrible job and all the testing in the world won't change that by itself. Giving them all Amway isn't going to help either. I'd like to say a groundswell at the local level could happen and lead to the change, but we've seen how that works. I understand. People struggling to get by aren't going to suggest more local taxes to improve their schools. We need to look very carefully at what other countries are doing more successfully. We've slipped with our pre-school programs. Then our students have fewer class days per year than others. By the time they graduate they will have gone to class far fewer days. Then just add in the days lost to extracurricular activities. Going nearly three months in the summer without school means a lot of effort just refreshing what was forgotten during that time. Eliminate things like hour and a half class periods too that exceed the concentration ability of students. Anything over 55 minutes is only marginally beneficial. But see it's easier to schedule fewer but longer classes. More shorter breaks just work better. Teachers Pay is important as Oklahoma median teacher's pay is $39,000, Mississippi is $44,000. Good teachers leave for other professions. Bad teachers stay and that's a subject too. There need to be standards for teachers as well. Paying bad teachers the same as good teachers sure doesn't help. Then teachers and educators need more influence. Education shouldn't be a political football of local elected officials who know nothing about teaching.
There are so many things done effectively in other countries that we need to look at. We need to admit we're providing a second class education and it's not just the Netherlands or Switzerland doing better, it's Canada, it's Russia, it's Singapore.
Unfortunately, it means Federal involvement. I think not so much in telling states or districts how to do things, but in telling them what isn't acceptable and holding them accountable. Yes, provide new ideas and standards, but have some type of accreditation. There is uproar over the State of SC taking over the Williamsburg School District. However, they gave the district chance after chance. I'm not convinced the state will do better, but they can't do worse. I'm so tempted to go build a charter school there but trying to see if there's a better way to help through the existing schools. SC is a state that has a statewide Charter District and those schools do get state funds. However, no one builds a charter school in the areas of greatest educational need. They build them in the most prosperous areas of the state.
It saddens me a bit to see all the political campaigns. Neither party has an education agenda. Yet, it took little time for this group of idiots (using the recent popular thread) to pinpoint it as the huge underlying problem. Then it takes the drive to insist, to not accept what we have. No local district wants to admit they're doing a lousy job. Of course not, they're elected officials. "I'm your school board, I'm doing a lousy job, re-elect me." Not a good campaign slogan.
Our most precious asset is our children. We need to love and nurture and educate them. All of them. We're failing. As a nation, we're failing. As a society we're failing. From K to College to Careers we're failing. We need foreign tech employees, we need foreign doctors, we need foreign nurses. Why? Because we're not educating enough. We have too many who can't get decent jobs. Why? Because we didn't educate them. When I see a kid who thinks he's dumb because no one taught him to read adequately, I cry.
That's where it starts. Now, I'm prejudiced. Reading is my specialty. That is where my Masters and Doctorate are focused. But if a kid can't read, he's not going to learn math or science. Every kid in this country should be taught to read well, no matter what it takes to do so. I have a four year old niece I adore so, Aurora. Aurora is so smart. But Aurora's been going to day care and learning since she was very young and at four she's starting to read. When I started school, I'd never had a book. There were none in our house. You get kids started reading prior to first grade and then you make sure they progress through first and second grade and you've done wonders toward turning their education around. If they have a lousy history teacher in high school, it won't hurt as they can read and absorb the material. It's really hard to defeat a reader. They'll be ready for college because they can learn, can be taught. If I was deciding what to do with tax dollars then, making college and career training accessible to all would be the step for quickest progress, school accountability would be important, but then for the greatest long term progress, I'd make sure every kid in the country learned to read early.
Federal funds can help in areas like reading if directed properly. I'm going to mention a federal give away program as many might label it. School lunches. I know for most of you school lunches were probably the worst meal imaginable. Not for poor girls like me. School lunch and then breakfast were the best meals I ever got and they're what kept me going. Prior to government provided meals, free for the economically disadvantaged, teachers were trying to teach hungry kids, malnourished kids. It's not just the inhumanity of thinking kids aren't being fed in the world's richest country, have you ever tried to concentrate and learn when you were starving? Seems like such a basic premise to make sure kids are fed. Parents should, but many weren't. I couldn't have paid for my school lunch. It sure hurt my pride to be one of the free lunch kids, but not so much that I wasn't happy and thankful for it. See, our taxes can be used in the right ways. I thank those who paid taxes so I got breakfast and lunch. Also so there was a school library and I thank the librarian who would let me stay late. And we did have a kindergarden program and I thank those teachers and my first and second grade teachers who taught me. So, I could eat the free meals, read the free books. Stay in the library as long as possible to avoid going home. Go home and take a book to my room and stay there. When I read, I escaped to a better place. Whatever I became it's because of the free meals, free books, good early teachers, pre-school. Your tax dollars at work because my family sure didn't pay taxes.
