Just dropped my granddaughter off at school. Being as anal-retentive as I was with my daughter, I walk her to her classroom and pass her off personally to her teacher.
What I see there is lots of happy kids, eager to learn the lessons of the day. Teachers who are excited to be there and seem to really care about "their" kids and instill really neat ideas to help them learn. For instance, instead of practicing their letters on the lined pads we used (back in the dark ages), they get to practice their letters by tracing them in shaving cream!! I kid you not!! These young teachers have some really neat ideas to get kids involved and have fun while they actually learn! It's only been 2 weeks, but my granddaughter is really better at her letters, and can read simple words (she already had some of them like "play" and "exit" from our computer games we play together) and I am amazed.
As I drive away, this year's election is on my mind, again.
Currently, Texas ranks:
Globally, the United States ranks:
Romney plans to enact sweeping cuts to education, proposes a voucher system (which does nothing to help public schools) and prefers privatizing schools. Paul Ryan's plan cuts Pell Grants, but does nothing to reduce the cost of secondary education.
President Obama's plan calls for:
You can read more about Obama's vision for education at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education.
You can read more about Romney's vision for education at: ____________________________ (if he has one, I haven't heard about it, and I've done several internet searches. I'm just going by Paul Ryan's budget, since Romney hasn't had an original thought since he started running for president 6 years ago.)
What I see there is lots of happy kids, eager to learn the lessons of the day. Teachers who are excited to be there and seem to really care about "their" kids and instill really neat ideas to help them learn. For instance, instead of practicing their letters on the lined pads we used (back in the dark ages), they get to practice their letters by tracing them in shaving cream!! I kid you not!! These young teachers have some really neat ideas to get kids involved and have fun while they actually learn! It's only been 2 weeks, but my granddaughter is really better at her letters, and can read simple words (she already had some of them like "play" and "exit" from our computer games we play together) and I am amazed.
As I drive away, this year's election is on my mind, again.
Currently, Texas ranks:
- 49th in Verbal SAT Scores
- 46th in average Math SAT scores
- 36th in high school graduation rates (yep, that "No Child Left Behind" really worked!)
- 33rd in teacher salaries (avg. $48k annually)
- Texas ranks 6th in the nation in student growth, but ranks 40th in expenditures per pupil. In 2005, Texas was the ONLY state to cut student expenditures
- Between FY 2002-2006, average cost at public universities rose 61%, and tuition at community colleges rose 51%
Globally, the United States ranks:
- 31st in K-12 education, due to low rankings in education expenditures
- 61st in teacher-to-student ratio
- #2 in student enrollment, but 74th in students graduating with engineering or science degrees
Romney plans to enact sweeping cuts to education, proposes a voucher system (which does nothing to help public schools) and prefers privatizing schools. Paul Ryan's plan cuts Pell Grants, but does nothing to reduce the cost of secondary education.
President Obama's plan calls for:
- Continue funding of Head Start and public & private pre-K (crucial for young, rapidly developing minds)
- Higher standards and better assessments; replacing "No Child Left Behind"
- New attention to turn around low-performing schools
- Adding funding for more K-12 teachers
- Increasing the amount and number of Pell Grants available;
- Investing in community colleges
- income-based repayment of student loans
You can read more about Obama's vision for education at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education.
You can read more about Romney's vision for education at: ____________________________ (if he has one, I haven't heard about it, and I've done several internet searches. I'm just going by Paul Ryan's budget, since Romney hasn't had an original thought since he started running for president 6 years ago.)
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