�I been reading without opinions 'cause I can't think of no answers. �Just wanted to plug this article I'm reading that defends the NCLB.
http://www.aecf.org/~/media/Pubs/Initiatives/KIDS%20COUNT/123/2010KCSpecReport/AEC_report_color_highres.pdf
P 12 says we need 60% of our population to have a four year degree by 2025 to be globally competitive. �Currently we have 30% educated thusly, putting us #2 in the world, but if you count only our newer younger generation of workers we're # 6 in the world. �
The education gap leads to a productivity gap. �If US students had met the educational achievement of other countries between 1983 and 1998 our GDP in 2008 could have been 1.3 - 2.3 trillion higher. �
They say the problem is in at the end of third grade when you stop read and start reading to learn. �Textbook makers assume you can read by then. �If you can't, you'll be lost and be at risk for a drop-out and a criminal. �
K. �Fine. �I agree with all that. �How does it help to water everything down? �I can see. �If there was a way to dis-engage from an educational timeline-that would work! �It's so tricky. �Who's going to pay to support somebody while they take longer to finish school? �Who's going to level the playing field so that the hairdresser earns as much as the banker? �Who wants to pay for the hairdresser's kids healthcare? �Who wants to quit watering down the education so somebody can make more reliable medicine so that it's free to heal people, free to feed people, and free to travel on vacation with free, earth-friendly fuel. �Why don't we have the technology? � And where's my rocket pack?
N.E. way, there's the other guy's point. �^^
** I guess education is social engineering because how else is it fair that the �busboy's kids can't have healthcare but the senator's daughter gets an inground pool. �So it's not fair to take from a family that earned it legally to give to the needy. �But how is fair to the GT to turn education into merely social engineering when it should be a natural opportunity? �It's that attitude of needing to "take someone down a peg" that's holding people back. �
