[Wondergirl]

And the story of the 15-year-old boy in Albuquerque who had no history of problems but Saturday used a semi-automatic assault rifle to kill the four members of his family (because he was mad at his mom)?

[paraclete]

Let see if I get this straight, you can't raise taxes on anybody, and when teachers are being cut you want them to volunteer and be armed guards for our kids. But you don't want to pay for more cops? About the size of it?

That's the size of it and he actually thinks Local Government is a better manager of money than Federal government. Local government is run by politicians too Tom, if schools could manage funds better and had waste they wouldn't have to lay off teachers and you think school funds should be used not to employ teachers but to employ armed guards. I really have to ask, what sort of pecular world do you live in; where guns are more important than children, where guns are more important than education

[tomder55]

I know what school funding is now ;and I can tell you that they could build schools with gold lining for the amt of money wasted in schools. But the left thinks throwing more money at schools solves problems. No surprise there since they think throwing money at problems solves everything. The only problem is that it doesn't... kids don't get better educations... results get worse ,not better .

[paraclete]

I know what school funding is now ;and I can tell you that they could build schools with gold lining for the amt of money wasted in schools. But the left thinks throwing more money at schools solves problems. No surprise there since they think throwing money at problems solves everything. The only problem is that it doesn't ..... kids don't get better educations...results get worse ,not better .

Must be your system of allowing local government to be involved in education, the boondoggle economy. I expect that if more money is provided they expect it to be invested in teachers, but what happened to the Bush era boondoggle of no child left behind? Are you really criticizing the initiatives of the Republicans and their legacy

[tomder55]

Absolutely... the Federal Government should not be involved. If it were up to me ,I'd dismantle the Dept of Education . NCLB was one of those reach out programs that Bush did when he "reached across the aisle " and " compromised" with Ted Kennedy. That was one of his big government initiatives . The other was the biggest expansion in Medicare since it was created .

[paraclete]

Okay so now you are willing to throw Bush overboard along with teachers if you could just have your guns, If Bush made a hash of education, is it possible dumbo made some mistakes in military adventurism, and in so many other policies, that mean the situation you find yourself in was a republican debacle not a democrat one. No wonder the people want to keep Republicans out of office

[tomder55]

What are you talking about. The libs have been in control of the school systems in my state for decades.. and they suck. Kids get left behind and we vote the culprits back in for more. At least NCLB was an effort to go a different direction. I would move towards privatization... but that's just me.

[paraclete]

Wait a minute you were just against that program. So now you would like to privatise schools. Schools run for profit, not a model that has been found to work very well unless you are elite and can afford to pay. Your community is already staggering under the weight of providing tertiary education on that model and you would impose that burden earlier on parents. I see a lot of kids left behind on that model because parents wouldn't be able to afford to send them to school. You would create an underclass but then that has always been the capitalist objective

[NeedKarma]

The libs have been in control of the school systems in my state for decades.. and they suck.

I've asked this before : why are the conservatives so incredibly powerless in this respect? Is this not a priority for them?

[tomder55]

NY doesn't even have a viable Republican party

[talaniman]

They suck in Mississippi as far as education also and they have a viable republican party. Lets be fair, the political affiliations have nothing to do with an effective national education system, since locals who have authority have dwindling resources, but eliminating the Dept of Ed. May be great on paper, but where would the impetus be to achieve a global standard instead of a local one?

Separate but equal is a disgusting way to educate, and a waste.

[Tuttyd]

They suck in Mississippi as far as education also and they have a viable republican party. Lets be fair, the political affiliations have nothing to do with an effective national education system, since locals who have authority have dwindling resources, but eliminating the Dept of Ed. may be great on paper, but where would the impetus be to achieve a global standard instead of a local one?

Separate but equal is a disgusting way to educate, and a waste.

Exactly, the whole idea is to depoliticise education as much as possible.

Perhaps you do education a bit like electing the President in the recent elections. Some states do it very well and others do if very poorly.

On that basis I would agree that you need some national standards otherwise rise becoming ethnocentric.

[speechlesstx]

Exactly, the whole idea is to depoliticise education as much as possible.

Perhaps you do education a bit like electing the President in the recent elections. Some states do it very well and others do if very poorly.

On that basis I would agree that you need some national standards otherwise rise becoming ethnocentric.

I see national standards as standardized mediocrity.