Education

How could anyone NOT agree with this?

Pretty much agree. But it should be obvious that part of the problem is that public schools tend to be run by elected school boards, which often are more interested in politics and ego than education. So we see schools spending millions for new athletic facilities or new admin buildings while shutting down arts and music programs. Music, in particular, is complementary to developing the brain for technology.

We also see too many administrators who are overpaid for the results they get, while many of the best teachers are underpaid for the results they get. And too much reliance on the latest education fad to get the results the administrators are too incompetent to get on their own.

I agree with nearly everything stated, but I would be quite wary of proposing merit pay. Merit pay can only be instituted based upon the results of standardized tests, which are a very flawed representation of personal growth and learning among the students. Increasing pay based upon increased performance on standardized tests will do one thing, and one thing only: It will create the incentive for teachers to teach what will be on the test, and little else.

It removes a teacher's flexibility, and ability to modify their teaching style to ensure that each student gets maximum benefit from their time in class.

We should make any form of education accsible public, private, charter, home schooling . On another note we need to be more involved in our public schools and get more active in Sci. Math and especially Foreign Languaage

There are two problems with standardized tests. The first is that the teachers quickly become aware of what is and isn't on the test. The tests can't be so predictable that teachers CAN teach to the test. That also means that students can't get weekly sample tests to prepare them for the real test.

The second is that teachers tend to be evaluated on the results of the current test, when they should be evaluated on the difference between the current test results and the same students' results on the previous test, especially if the results are below the desired level. IOW, evaluate the teacher on how big a difference they made, not on the failures of the teachers before them.

It also needs to be much easier for certified teachers to get certified in different states. Our society is a lot more mobile than in the past.

For example, my wife is already certified to teach in four states, went through a considerable hassle to get each certification (basically going through the same extensive bureaucratic process for each additional state), and, now that we've moved again and she has to get certified yet again, has pretty much given up on the idea of teaching any more.

With all due respect to the religious beliefs in favor of creationism; it is without a doubt *not a scientific subject, it is a religious belief* and therefore has no place in a *science* class room. However, I have no objection whatsoever to the inclusion of creationism in a world religion class or anthropology/history class.

Besides an emphasis on Math and Science, I believe Social Studies/History should be reformed into a practical course of study in elementary and high schools. I can't speak for all American schools but in the one's I have attended and heard about, history is presented as a fact sheet of trivia where important relations between cause and effect are not emphasized.

Forming relationships between even seemingly unrelated historical events, I believe, is important in understanding how the world has become as it has, and builds better skill for analyzing current events. If you want people to believe that staying informed on the world around them is important than you must make that important in a class about the world.

Education can be the silver bullet to killing so many of this nation’s problems. We need to place everything we can into education. We need to hire the best teachers and in order to do that we need to pay more. I would love to be a teacher and with my masters of science in engineering I think I could teach math, science and engineering related courses fairly well. But I can't afford the $50k a year pay cut I would have to take in order to make that happen. Raising the level of teacher pay would automatically raise the standards. You would begin to get competition for the jobs and by choosing only the best candidates you elevate the level of education.

Next we need to re-organize the way schools are run. But a national standard on how to run a school district should be mandated. Like Supreme Court judges, school board members should be appointed by the state education department for life, or at least a very long time, so that they don't have to worry about being fired for an unpopular but generally good action. The school board members should be selected from the administrators and faculty of the school district and be chaired by a non-voting member of the city/county council who does change with every election. This way the board is made up of people who understand education rather than parents who want special treatment for their children or the elderly who have no children in school and tend to vote in large numbers against school spending.

Next, in order to get more competitive teachers we form the RTTC (Reserve Teacher Training Corp). This is just like ROTC. The government pays for the college education of the best and the brightest who will teach in a public school system we send them to for four years. While they are earning their degree they take extra drill courses throughout their college career to earn a national standard teaching certificate, good anywhere in the country (which should also be implemented).

To make all this work we raise property taxes slightly across the board. All the property taxes are collected by the federal government and redistributed on a student population basis to all of the districts. I know that this means Manhasset School District on Long Island and Newport Beach School District in Orange County will take a potential pay cut but it also means that Detroit City Schools and New York City Schools may get a bit of a boost.

Once our public schools are fixed we can revisit the idea of school vouchers for private schools but at the moment I'm against it.

I'm not sure about "The school board members should be selected from the administrators and faculty of the school district". I haven't found that many administrators that "understand education". Too many (though even one is 'too many') seem to be former teachers who couldn't teach, but had connections and were promoted past their 'level of incompetence'.

Yet by raising teacher pay the basic teaching capabilities would be elevated. And yes, sometimes that is the case, but I know quite a few extremely competent administrators. People in every field get elevated above their capabilities and this would be no different, but by raising the bar on admission their capabilities should be higher too.

Again, I agree with you lcarter. Merit pay based on standardized testing has its own problems that are not being addressed here. As an engaged employee in the public education system, I see firsthand how these well intentioned standardized tests undermine actual teaching of our future citizenry. Teachers in underfunded schools and who are already often overwhelmed with existing classroom conditions, seem to spend more time teaching to the test than actually educating our students. Adding merit pay to increase these scores, which by the way, are also a result of external factors such as family support (or lackthereof), income, etc...will simply exacerbate the situation.

Unfortunately, charter schools are not the complete answer either. Why? Because while they are public and open to all students, in actual application, they often cannot accommodate certain classes of students, such as special needs for example. These students often cannot meet the charter school's educational standards without accommodations that these schools often cannot provide for while public schools are mandated to accommodate everyone. For example, I know of a student who was rejected by a charter school because he had a medical condition they could not accommodate. Remember that charter schools must maintain a certain API score (which are based on standardized testing) in order to stay in business. This means that they will reject students who do not contribute to that. Ultimately, this means that they are not truly public in their application. The profit motive simply does not work for everything in our society.

Having said that, our public education system is certainly in need of reform and most who work in the system know this. But I think that the actual professionals who do the job day in an day out need to be consulted in order find a better solution rather than have the bureaucrats create naive blanket solutions to problems they rarely understand in much detail themselves.

Eric Hill

Very well put Eric. Yet, the issue would be separating out "professional educators", from "professional bureaucrats". I don't want to sound anti-union, but here in NY, its clear that the teachers union often works at counter purpose to the student's education, by empirical observation of action, not by sound bytes. The folks with that perspective should be marginalized in any strategic discussions imho. I also realize that may not be practical.

Thank you Gene. Yes, when I was referring to 'professionals', I meant professional educators. Ideally, bureaucrats should be replaced by professional educators, but that would be impractical for many reasons. A more realistic solution, in my humble opinion, would simply be to require and implement input from professional educators in bureaucratic decisions. Professional educators (aka working teachers) often understand first hand what the problems are with the system. This knowledge is invaluable but seems to be disregarded.

Indeed Eric. I just attended, last Thursday, my 10 year old's 5th grade parents orientation. Here in NY, public schools are caught up in "teaching to the test". His teacher was very forthright about the shortcomings of that, and how she is able to juggle that and true education.

Like me at my first job at a large Wall Street firm where one of my first directives from a respected old hand was , " You passed your test and now you have to know your #1 rule, protect your clients from the firm!"

And now we have very good teachers doing the same, protecting our children from state decrees. I cannot generalize this to other states, but it has become a real problem in NY, where the cirriculum is "centrally generated". Non-compliance means loss of funds, so you almost have to. And you sure cannot be a maverick all by yourself. I know you live this day to day.

His teacher, and you, are exactly the sort of dedicated professionasl we need to listen to, and legislate for. Period. For the kids, not the collective bargaining units, nor to foolish policy from up above.

and they play "games", which , I beleive, is counter productive. Last year, a few of the standardized ELA tests were revamped by NYS, resulting in dramticallyu lower scores. According to our dedicated professional, it was utter nonesense. This shows me that the current "system" has meet it's logical end ( almost to perversion), is not showing any increased efficacy, and needs to be revisited.

The real travesity locally is the Buffalo City School disctrict where the graduation rate hovers in the 40% range, and yet we continue to send kids through a system that almost guarantees failure.

New York is a prime example of teaching to the test. They have been doing so for decades thanks to the Board of Regents exam. I attended high school for my junior year in Kendall, NY. In most of my classes the vast majority of homework consisted of taking exams from prior years.

That is not education (though one might call it indoctrination.)

Gene wrote: "His teacher is exactly the sort of dedicated professional we need to listen to, and legislate for. Period. For the kids, not the collective bargaining unit."

I can only speak of my own experience with the teachers and their unions here in Los Angeles, but I would say that most here are not in favor of centralized planning. NCLB is often talked about as a good idea gone bad. In fact is it has been union teachers who have asked to come to the table when legislators have been attempting to make reform, yet they are not listened to.

If anything it is the charter system which emphasizes this ideal of centrally planned education, in my opinion, primarily because their business depends on that system. The public system never really had to operate under those conditions until centrally planned education (NCLB) was implemented in the early 21st century. The results speak for themselves.

I don't mean to sound anachronistic here, but Public education in this country was established for the express purpose of educating ALL our citizens, not just those who 'meet the standard'. We cannot let that system decline in the hopes that privatization will save it. Education is a communal process and we are only as strong as our weakest link as a nation.

We need something equivalent to the National Education Defense Act (NEDA) of 1958. In the wake of Sputnik, the government became alarmed at the prospect of the US falling behind the Soviets in scientific achievement and enacted NEDA.

I believe that there are two things we could do immediately that would help address the problem.

1) Lengthen the basic school year to 50 weeks of eight hour days. The KRIP model in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers is my reference.

2) Make it a priority to identify and develop gifted students. Not everybody is cut out for school, but when somebody is they should be supported, encouraged, and given the resources to go as far and as fast as they possibly can. We have done a lot to provide access to many people who are underprivileged or with disabilities, and I applaud that. Now it is time to do with students of science and math what we do with athletes and sports programs; maximally develop the real talent we have.

Personally I do NOT support a stronger emphasis on math and science in schools. I think we're already seeing a big push in that direction, first of all, and I think it's dangerous to rank those two as the most important subjects.

Math and science certainly are important, but what will children do if they don't learn how to communicate effectively by having good English classes? How will people participate intelligently in politics if they don't have a decent working knowledge of history? What about music and art? I don't believe that the fine arts are even remotely dispensable. What kind of a soul-starved society would we live in if no one could appreciate or enjoy culture?

Math and science teach you how to think logically, but the humanities and social sciences teach you how to think *critically*--how to analyze a situation, form your own ideas, and express those ideas in a coherent way. How on earth could we neglect those skills just in favor of getting higher standardized test scores in a couple of subjects?

Teaching professionals have one of the most important work in the country, teaching and developing the children who will be responsible for the future of our country.

These professionals deserve an excellent salary with the expectation of excellence in their performance and outcomes.

Eliminate tenure.

All needed supplies should be provide in the educational budget. No teacher should have to buy what is need from their own money.

I think that Reading, Writing, Languages, History of the US and other countries, geography, science and math, government, art and music should all be included in curriculum from the beginning of a students education, according to their and in a form appropriate to each age group.

There should be separate schools for students who excel or are gifted and need additional opportunities to develop to a higher degree than others.

One area that rarely gets mentioned is student comportment, expectations and responsibility. Discipline is essential. If there are chronically disruptive students, I think there should be schools specifically designed to take those students and work with them in a different model to find a way to change their direction.

Dress codes should be implemented, and in my opinion they should wear uniforms. The dress style of today is significant in the attitudes and demeanor of students. It is also a way of social exclusion.

Students should be expected to arrive, work and leave a class room and behave respectfully. Parents should be held accountable for that as well.

Make a contract with each student, explaining what it is and its importance.

Teachers cannot pamper, or ignore bad behavior, or toss up their arms in defeat. Nor should they have to.

Education needs to elevated to something everyone can be proud of, seen for the importance it is and respected. This makes it an honor and privilege, not a past time, or a prison term. Students need to be honored as well for their achievement and progress.

Education is a team effort that involves all of us.

Question: If property taxes are not used for funding, how do Whigs propose to fund education?

I think eliminating the Department of Education would be a good first step in improving the state of education in America. There should be greater local control and by all means there should be choice for parents as to what school their child attends. Additionally, vouchers would be the greatest asset to school improvement.

Why?

Don't just give your opinion. Give us the reasoning behind it.

Regarding your comments on appointing school board members. I don't think that is the appropriate road to take. If school board members were appointed by the Adminstration and the Faculty you would run into issues where those members are beholden to those entities.

I've been on a school board for 9 years (without any children) and have served with many people, some of whom have had and some have not had children in school but they all seemed genuinely interested in operating the school for everyone's benefit, not looking for favoritism or against school spending. Maybe that has to do with me being in a more rural area, I don't really know but I don't think we should go to appointed positions.

I agree entirely, we need to revamp our education system in order to compete in the world economy. I wrote about our need to recommit to being the best on my website http://commonsensepolicies.com/blog/2011/12/american-exceptionalism/ in order to compete with other emerging economies. I lay out my own plan to improve our education system within that post and give me your feedback.

merit based pay is a horrible idea. as stated , teachers can all to quickly know what to expect from standardized tests & prepare accordingly.

This plank alone is almost enough for me to join the party. The only thing I have to add to that is that I actually think people spend too much time in college. For example, why do you have to spend 4 years in college before you go to something like med school? Britain doesn't do that, they just let you go straight to med school. People spend a lot more time and money going to school than a generation or two ago and the reality is studies are finding it really doesn't make the average person any more educated (or in a lot of cases, employable). Even high school in my opinion goes on too long. A lot of areas are looking into eliminating the senior year to save costs and honestly, I don't object - it's basically filler. There's a reason the term "senioritis" exists.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-01-18-littlelearning18_ST_N.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-02-25-senioryear25foronline_...

he Modern Whig Party is a United States political party whose stated intention is to be a party for the rest of us.Testking EX0-101 The Modern Whig Party describes itself as a mainstream, middle-of-the-road grassroots movement that caters to those voters who believe in various Republican issues but also believe in various other Democratic issues.

I like much of this education stance, but I am not in favor of any of my tax dollars going to religious schools. So, I would appose the Voucher program as it currently stands (I'm assuming this was one of the programs you had in mind when mentioning that you "favor the ideas of school choice"). I am not interested in paying for religious indoctrination; only secular education. If students are interested in a religious education, let them learn these matters from their churches, synagogues, mosques, etc. IN my opinion, religion is a private matter and they should be free to use their own money to attend (or not attend) the religious places of their choice. However, citizens should not have their tax dollars channeled to religious institutions that they might not support and that are able to teach however they like once they have received the public funds. As to the merits of teaching creationism in a science classroom, in my opinion, there are none. The debate on teaching myth as science is a social one not a scientific one; as creationism is not science.

I support the merit-based pay idea though I am still thinking about how we would actually measure this. I have read about the dangers of "teaching to the test" that other posters have written about, which leaves me wondering what is a better way to measure a teacher's merit? "Twitchy" put forth some good ideas about having a test that is so variable teachers are less able to teach to it, as well as measuring a teacher by how well students' performances have improved under that teacher's instruction. Both ideas sound like good starting places to me. I'll have to give this topic much further thought.

I also liked "CAGlaucus"'s and "Gene"'s ideas about improving the administration and creating a more competitive environment to attract the top teaching talent. "Peacelily" also put some good ideas forward (though I am a little hesitant to completely remove tenure until we can be sure instructors won't be arbitrarily fired for holding controversial ideas or teaching controversial subjects).

I would like to restate "Peacelily"'s question though (in my own words)..."What is the Whig's alternative way to fund education if property taxes will not be used?" Without that answer it appears like the Whig stance above is in opposition to a certain practice without offering a better alternative.

Public School funding should be taken completely off the property tax bills. Instead, all Americans will be taxed federally 1% of their salary for life. The proceeds will be distributed to whatever schools each taxpayer attended in his/her lifetime.

Thus, any school that produces large numbers of adults unprepared for a professional work life will get 1% of lower salaries. Schools that produce high numbers of CEOs, lawyers, doctors, will be more than adequately funded. This creates the "competition" that many are looking for, which a far more business-like application than test scores.

Furthermore, since those taxpayers are funding their schools, they will have the opportunity to "thank a teacher" that molded their lives, sending them an amount of money within their tax return (say, $5). This becomes the ultimate form of "merit pay", coming in the form of thanks from the actual students who appreciate their efforts, even into retirement.

Classrooms should be limited to no more than 20 students.

What people learn in HS science and math class should be taught early in elementary school. Things like sig figs, radians, and the metric system. In fact, the metric system should be taught instead of the British version.

I believe that students should evaluate their teachers, and merit should not be based on standardized tests, but the grades students have in the class and the curriculum of the class.

There should also be more trade schools for children who don't want to go into academia, as well as schools that focus on a single subject, like art, technology, science, and social studies.

I disagree with pretty much this entire platform. First off, It's the height of arrogance to deem that we need to force children into more science and math classes. I have made quite a nice career off my writing abilities, thank you, and all of those years learning Venn diagrams and calculating "if a train leaves Phoenix at 3p. going 40 miles an hour . . ." were a complete, utter, total waste of time and resources. Every child has aptitudes. Some are better at math, some are better at writing, some are better at art. Instead of forcing a budding artist to learn calculus, how about setting up a primary and secondary education system that will identify those strengths and talents and funneling them in that direction, so they have the greatest chance of success? Another area where schools have failed miserably is in teaching life skills. Instead of calculating square roots, how about teaching ALL students how to set up a budget, do their taxes, plan for retirement . . . in other words, things they'll actually NEED and use? And if a child is a budding scientist, then take that child, and teach him/her those calculus problems. And, Obama is dead wrong -- not everyone should go to college. We should adopt the German system, which funnels those not cut out for college into trade schools and apprenticeships. I know several plumbers and car mechanics whose income is quite enviable, and forcing them to fit the college mode would be yet another sure-fire recipe for disaster and massive waste.

And for those of you who are frightened of us who fail to say "seig heil" to the evolution theory, I remind you that the theory of evolution is just that -- a THEORY. It has NEVER been scientifically tested or replicated, probably because it's just as fantastic and Disneyesque as you claim intelligent design is. Universities should be marketplaces of ideas, and if you are so confident that your theory is right, then you should have absolutely NO reservations about holding a rigorous debate in the arena of ideas -- the classroom. I'm not sure how we came into being, but I know it wasn't from some primordial soup or other la-la land visions.

MDBuck,

The main thrust is that education is vital for our democracy to work and no one should be denied one. Start from there, and I think some of your objections can be seen, and stated, in a different light.

I don't think any of us want to have a "forced" education such as exists in other places, but rather, we want everyone to be able to receive as much education as they will benefit from.

The main goal is to have an educated electorate that has fully operational BS detectors when it is time to vote.

BS detectors? Man, sometimes I think the elctorate being able to read at a HS level would be admirable!

MDBuck,

I don't want this thread to turn into a "should religious beliefs be taught in the classroom" debate. However, I would recommended learning the difference between a scientific theory and a hypothesis; we should not make the mistake of believing the two concepts are equivalent.

"I disagree with pretty much this entire platform. First off, It's the height of arrogance to deem that we need to force children into more science and math classes."

I think iit is wrong not to not give young children the choice of gaining knowledge.

"Some are better at math, some are better at writing, some are better at art. Instead of forcing a budding artist to learn calculus, how about setting up a primary and secondary education system that will identify those strengths and talents and funneling them in that direction, so they have the greatest chance of success?"

Calculus is important in computing and graphic design. Furthermore most 10 year olds don't know what their special talent is, contrary to MLP:FiM says.

"And, Obama is dead wrong -- not everyone should go to college."

I agree, although community colleges can help people with trade jobs.

"And for those of you who are frightened of us who fail to say "seig heil" to the evolution theory, I remind you that the theory of evolution is just that -- a THEORY."

A theory which has been tested and oserved.

"It has NEVER been scientifically tested or replicated, probably because it's just as fantastic and Disneyesque as you claim intelligent design is."

Um...

http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v82/n1/full/6884120a.html

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/23/7899.abstract

http://biomed.brown.edu/Courses/BIO48/12.Molecular.Evolution.HTML

http://www.springerlink.com/content/aq10866526v08u65/

http://www.chem.duke.edu/~jds/cruise_chem/Exobiology/miller.html

...Yeah...

"Universities should be marketplaces of ideas, and if you are so confident that your theory is right, then you should have absolutely NO reservations about holding a rigorous debate in the arena of ideas -- the classroom."

Science is not determined by a debate, it is determined by evidence. If you actually paid attention in class you would know that.

See, science classes are important! You will actually know what you are talking about!

"I'm not sure how we came into being, but I know it wasn't from some primordial soup or other la-la land visions."

Can't handle the truth? Lol.

A little dose of "Whig Zen-see" to add to this boiling cauldron....

Context: Buffalo NY is one of the U.S. poorest cities, and as you might expect, the School District is failing ( 40% graduation rate). So I pay attention to what is going on, as I personally see the continued alienation of our inner city youth as a STRATEGIC issue.

I know Whitey, Mr. Charlie that is, is more concerned about Iran, BUT I AM NOT. ( sorry for the racist quip - I am as white as you can imagine, so I can call out Mr. Charlie if I want!)

As I listened to the local news on NRP this am on the way to the shop, what struck me as a bit of Whig Zen-see is this simple notion, could it be that the more that the omnipotent US Department of Education controls local schools via performance tied to money payouts, that control/responsibility or management/accountibility of the school district leaves local hands. I mean, can it be the case that the NCLB push has had an unintended consequence of blocking reform by removing the responsibility for it from the local level?

My Whig Zen-see often "sees" disaggregation/decentralization as a beneficial structural reform. ( given the gross aggregation that the government has accomplished over the last quarter century - it would seem natual) Is this another instance where aggregation and central control is working, in a subtle but permanent way, to block true reform and accountibility?

If this has been covered in this discussion prior, I apologize in advance.

Merit should be based on standardized tests, not grades, but two things need to be part of that. First, the tests have to be a lot less predictable. It should be very difficult to "teach to the test".

Second, teachers need to be evaluated on how each of their students improves on the test, not on how the entire class does on one iteration of the test. That will help make the truly effective teachers stand out, and not penalize a teacher for the poor job done by last year's teacher. If a fifth-grade teacher gets a class of students who are at a second-grade reading level, should s/he be penalized or rewarded because they test at a fourth-grade level at the end of fifth-grade?

Making it dependent on grades will only lead to grades becoming even more inflated and meaning even less.

And, yes, students need to learn the difference between a scientific theory, a hypothesis and total drek. Evolution is a well-established scientific theory. Creationism, including so-called intelligent design, is drek.

Rather than eliminating the department of education change it from setting mandates to setting guideline derived from input from educator around the country, basically a national data base created by teachers for teachers. What works in on intercity may work in another intercity. I agree that the educators should have more control of education than the bureaucrats. After all that’s what they studied. Having bureaucrats run the education system is the same as firefighter writing the electric code. There are many codes that are needed but the whole book is written based on voltage and anything fewer than 50 volts is not covered. There is a 50 volt plating system where I work that operates up to 2000 amps. Anyone want to touch that? Dragging you feet on a carpet can cause a charge that can be 10,000 volt+ but little current. My point being, let the professionals who specialize in the field set the guidelines.

Also, I do not support the idea of voucher programs based on reviews of the DC Voucher program. A review of the program showed that the program did little to help student who need help. First, only student that are eligible for the program are student who are already have passing grade and does nothing for students who need help. Secondly, the claim is the program allows parent to choose private schools so that their child can get a better education. The problem is, those parents already have that choice the difference being that they can use our tax dollars rather then getting financial aid, which bring me to my final point. The voucher program takes public money from public schools that need it to help problem children.

In conclusion, I question both the merits and the results of such a program. Are the results great enough to justify the cost of the bureaucracy it would take to manage such a program?

http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20094050/summ_1.asp

Friends,
I am new to MWP but share many commonalities and beliefs presented here. After a 30 year military career, I too am disgusted with the direction our elected officials are taking us in. So much so that I plan to run for state office in 2014 or 2016 to serve in a different way. I have strong innate beliefs on many topics but am striving to improve my depth of knowledge in order to improve my methodology, hence my comments below on Education:

My frame of reference on our education system comes from raising two children to adulthood as well as serving as a Professor of Military Science (ROTC Commander) at a Private University with the additional responsibility of supporting 17 High School (HS)JROTC programs = I have spent alot of time looking at HS programs/students/teachers and University programs/scholarships/curriculum etc.

Obviously I agree that education is critical to success and shaping our society and I also agree that we are behind many nations in terms of our success and "how we do business" in our schools.

I would agree with MWP stand on some reforms to support public schools, however, I am not convinced that these reforms will make a huge impact on our success. The areas that, from my experience, need to be addressed may not be something that Whiggery will address as it is too far down "in the weeds" so to speak.

After three years of traipsing through high schools, I have seen well-educated teachers, mostly above average facilities, a wide spectrum of specialized courses, charter schools and extracurricular activities-frankly, I was blown away when comparing these schools to my own high school.

So what's the problem?

In my opinion, the students themselves and the limitations placed on school administrations are the problem (lack of respect for authority/peers; violence against teachers/students; disruptive behavior; administration's lack of ability to enforce real discipline; teachers forced to teach social skills/behavior (parent's responsibilities) instead of core subjects)).

In almost every school, the majority of energy (according to school officials and faculty) is on maintaining a safe environment where students can learn. Student's disruptive behavior, disrespect for authority and lack of interest in education are more disruptive to the education process than any issues of funding, curriculum or teacher pay. After sitting through one HS Media class, I asked the teacher how she managed to reach her students. She said flatly "I teach the 20% that pay attention and ignore the other 80%." Additionally, the limited authority for any school administration to take effective disciplinary action to set the conditions for learning (outside of suspending students)is virtually nil due to the threat of lawsuits and liabilities and "student's individual rights." We have seen too many examples in the media (and likely from our own children's stories from school) to validate my observations.

So, if we all agreed, for the sake of discussion, that our secondary schools major challenge is establishing and maintaining an environment that is conducive to productive learning, would there be an MWP stance on this at any level (County, State, Federal) or is this a social/moral issue that we leave to parents, teachers and administrations?

Second Comment-University Education

How do we use our MWP methodology to impact the skyrocketing cost of a university education and the coinciding mountain of debt that most graduates are incurring to get the diploma? Economically, it's almost a self-defeating system. I believe that this situation keeps potential students away from higher education, drives some students out because they can no longer afford to attend, and places graduates in a financial hole that they may never crawl out of.

If the points that I have raised here are not something that Whiggery would address in some way to make a contribution to improvement, is there MWP methodology that might indirectly effect these problems?

I value your thoughts/comments on these topics.