America's public school system

[superboots]

In my sociology class, we are learning about America's public school system, and how badly there is inequality between school districts, and how badly in repair many schools are.

We learned that in order to completely fix all the schools in the country (like new buildings, new books, new resources, etc) it would cost the country 100 billion dollars.

yeah. that seems like a lot of money, right?

but do you know how much money our lovely country has spent on the war? Over 87 BILLION DOLLARS.

now tell me that this is right.

We can finance a war but our children cannot get a proper education.

and a lot of states (michigan is not one of them) receive money for schools solely through property taxes.

just another form of social inequality, i tell you. just another way of class polarization. the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

discuss.

[Venom]

In my sociology class, we are learning about America's public school system, and how badly there is inequality between school districts, and how badly in repair many schools are.

We learned that in order to completely fix all the schools in the country (like new buildings, new books, new resources, etc) it would cost the country 100 billion dollars.

yeah. that seems like a lot of money, right?

but do you know how much money our lovely country has spent on the war? Over 87 BILLION DOLLARS.

now tell me that this is right.

We can finance a war but our children cannot get a proper education.

and a lot of states (michigan is not one of them) receive money for schools solely through property taxes.

just another form of social inequality, i tell you. just another way of class polarization. the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

discuss.

So you're saying that its better for US kids to have "perfect" schooling than it is for a country of 23 million to have jobs, schools, hospitals, fresh water, food, an economy, stability, etc?? Thats a very narrow minded view. You in turn are saying that you have more of a right to have "perfect" schooling than those people over there have to even having anything at all? Sounds kind of selfish to me.

[superboots]

perfect schooling?

i'm talking about adequate schooling

and when you go to a school where your roof is leaking, your textbooks are outdated, and you don't even have a computer in your school, you definitely are not receiving an adequate education.

i am just saying, if our country can fund 87 billion dollars for the war, why can it not fund our schools?

[Corey]

Because money for the war goes back to the country. (bombs don't build themselves).

Also, it is the state's responsibility to clean up the schools. If the people in a district are unhappy with their school system, then they should vote to have taxes raised.

[doug]

*cough* privatize *cough*

i'm sorry. i'll go now.

[Neil]

*cough* just watch my ticker everytime you see me post


Damn country.......hell with Bush, I'm voting for Wesley Clark!

[nelison]

I would think that before you go fixing other countries you might want to make an example out of yours.

[Random Name]

because the world sucks and we would rather make bombs then have a tolarable school.

but i do have to say that 100 billion is a lot. and with the cost of the war, so school funding doesnt seem like its in the near future.


which is why I canada.

[Corey]

*cough* just watch my ticker everytime you see me post


Damn country.......hell with Bush, I'm voting for Wesley Clark!

Didn't you use to be a part of the "Re-elect Bush campaigne"??

[Random Name]

Ever since I researched the War on Terrorism and US human rights violations, I am so completly against Bush that it isnt funny.

[thirdhour]

*cough* privatize *cough*

i'm sorry. i'll go now.

This doesnt help inequity between the classes

Now, the rich PAY to go to good schools, and the poor can't afford anything. greeeaat

[Neil]

Didn't you use to be a part of the "Re-elect Bush campaigne"??

Dude....only kidding I'm just really strong as far as upping how much our country spends on educational upgrades

[Venom]

Looks to me its not the govenments fault its how the school districts spend thier money, I would like to point out that Corey is right. Its the states responsibility not the federal governments.

http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/international/IntlIndicators/index.asp?SectionNumber=3&IndicatorNumber=30

US spends more money per student than the countries listed here which are all highly educated countries, if not the BEST educated countries.

http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/international/IntlIndicators/index.asp?SectionNumber=3&IndicatorNumber=31

As you can see from the above link the US is in the middle for percentage of GDP spent on education. It also needs to be stated that the countries that are ahead of us rely on us for much of their military protection. (cough *Canada* cough)

[Neil]

Some states are freakin reDICULOUS when it comes to educational spending......

[doug]

social inequality is a hard fact. there will always be rich & poor. there's no solution for it.

[nelison]

Don't put the blame on protecting other countries. Thats the way the US thinks. It's as if they believe that must police the world. They don't need to spend money on missile defense shields and billions of dollars worth of nuclear weapons. The money they use to police the world could easily be put into education properly.
That's the problem. Other countries are clearly getting more bang for their buck. If you're paying so much for education where is that money going? To administration? Probably. The children aren't seeing the cash, and that's why so many students (especially in urban centres) are forced to go to private schools if they want a decent education.

Here's the results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. You'll see that American student progress declines over the eight year span between grades 4-12 and that by grade 12 they are below the average international standards. You would hope that the people who police the world would also be the brightest, but obviously that isn't the case.

[/url]

[Narbus]

I would like to take this time to point out that it's more likely than not a social issue than an economic one. Studies have been done (I can cite if you really care) that show that parents in America are typically lax when it comes to expecting high grades and quality work from their children. Chinese children, who have a worse situation in terms of class size, materials available, etc are scoring consistently higher on standardized tests in all subjects (some to the point where the worst chinese student is on the same level as the best american student).

[nelison]

Oh I agree with you there, but the quality of schools should at least meet certain standards, considering the USA is supposed to be the greatest powerhouse in the history of the world. Student marks may also be related to morale. Not many kids actually wanna go to school, but if they saw that money was being spent on computers, and other learning aides, then I'm sure they'd enjoy school more, and when people are motivated their performance increases.

[Corey]

I'll also like to add to that. Because the quality of life in the US is so high, less and less priority is placed on education. American students don't realize the importance of education because they aren't afraid of living a crummy life. Change our focus to China as Narbus pointed out. The competition is extremely higher than in the US. What with a high paying job at 20 cents an hour. Also, to say that the average student in China is more intelligent than the average student in the US is a bit misleading. First of all, they comprise of about 1/4-1/3 of the World's population. Because the schools are so crowded, several children aren't even attending. The illiteracy rate is staggering. The reports you'll see are of those kids that actually GO to school where the US figures is fairly representative of all kids (because it is law that they all receive an education).

[Corey]

Ever since I researched the War on Terrorism and US human rights violations, I am so completly against Bush that it isnt funny.

Do you spend the same amount of time researching the human rights violations of the countries the US acts against or even the human rights protection procedures of the US? If not, I can point you to a few books.