Recently, a rather prominent site who purports itself to be an objective source of political news published a story which asked whether public education really stinks. Their answer was no.
My first reaction: What????
My second reaction: Is this a joke? Maybe an article from the Onion?
My third reaction: I wish someone could ask an actual high school student their opinion on that question.....
Oh right. Or maybe a college student...
Oh...
My fourth reaction: Wait a second, does someone know something that I don’t?
(Did some Googling....looked at the numbers....noticed that the pass rate for proficiency in math in Alabama in 2010 was 18%, Mississippi 14%, New Jersey 40%, Connecticut 35%, New York 30%, Arizona 26%, and California 24%. When it came to reading, most scored between 20% and 35%, with the worst score of 12% found in Washington, D.C. and slapped myself in the face for thinking twice about it).
My fifth reaction: There must be a new study that I've missed that makes all previously reported data irrelevant?
(More Googling....didn't find anything new but did find a study which estimated that the U.S. will have 120,000,000 job openings over the next 25 years......and only 50,000,000 qualified Americans for those jobs which will force the remaining 70,000,000 to be filled by qualified members of the foreign workforce)
My sixth reaction: Oh yeah, I forgot, that's where American jobs are really going, not to illegal Mexican immigrants. No, our problems are much, much worse than American landscapers having their jobs taken by illegals from across the border. American teachers and engineers and bankers and managers and electricians and plumbers and mortgage brokers and real estate agents and nurses and doctors are going to have "their" jobs taken because they aren't qualified for them and those who are qualified from other parts of the globe will take them. Anyone have an idea who society depends on to qualify the workforce? Ah yes, our oh-so-successful public education system.
My seventh reaction: Nope, no new study. No new pertinent facts. Just the propaganda wing of the White House and more creative writing that ignores relevant facts so that the federal governments unmitigated disaster of a public school policy doesn't look so bad and everyone forgets that the President’s education policy is as much of a disaster as every other aspect of his policies, both foreign and domestic
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