Obamas Choose Elite Private School for Kids

[Article 15]

Ahh, the old "it's not OUR fault that your kid is stupid after we waste the entire day on multiculturalism, political correctness, and empty self-esteem-building. It's YOUR fault for not doing our job after coming home from yours!" argument.

It's always ironic to me that the same people who insist that the failure of our education system rests with a lack of parental involvement are the same ones who are outraged and bewildered by the idea that parents should be involved enough to actually choose which school their children attend.

Yeah, how looney of me it is to suggest that parents know what is going on in their kid's lives and ensuring that they are getting their homework done and are prepared to take those mid-terms or have actually read the book that was assigned to them in English class.

Silly me.

 

[Isolde]

I'm all for reforming the public school system.

Vouchers?

Not so much.

It would be a little shot in the arm for the public schools... a 'who's your daddy?' moment

 

[DiveCon]

The NEA will not allow that to happen.

exactly

 

[xsited1]

Neither will Barack Obama and his acolytes, all of whom receive donations from the NEA.

That is correct. A dumbed-down electorate represents their primary voting base.

 

[Article 15]

The NEA will not allow that to happen.

Sorry, x, I missed this post.

Yeah, they are an obstacle. Though more so for the latter part, IMO.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Sorry, I have no idea what you are saying here.

Then you have no business trying to discuss this topic, because you don't even begin to understand the issue.

Let me draw you a picture. And take notes, because I rarely have the patience to do this for anyone who comes to the debate without their homework done.

1) America's public school systems pretty much uniformly offer substandard academic education in every subject, in every state. Our students consistently underperform students from around the world in math, science, pick your topic. We graduate - GRADUATE! - students who can't find their own country on a world map or pick their own Vice President out of a lineup.

2) Everyone knows that this is not just a problem, but an open national scandal. The prospective reformers point to a laundry list as long as your arm of problems and mismanagement, the NEA counters by saying they can't possibly be expected to actually produce results all by their lonesome and point fingers at the parents and demand more money to continue doing exactly what they're doing, and the people who can afford to take their kids and flee in droves to the private schools or homeschooling. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are trapped, with no option but to try to ride this dead horse and wring some sort of useful education out of a desperately broken system for their children.

3) People who support vouchers - many of whom are poor minorities who can't afford to send their children to private school or homeschool or pick up and move to a better school's district - do so because they want the option of using the money that is ALREADY BEING SPENT to educate their children for the purpose of actually educating their children. They are already paying for an education they aren't getting. All they want is to take that money and shop somewhere else, the same way they would with any other commodity.

4) Barack Obama, along with the Democrat Party and his ardent supporters, vigorously defends and supports the public school system, despite its manifest and ongoing failure, insists that it's plenty good enough for the nation's children and that we should just let him tinker with it a little, and strenuously opposes any hint of allowing parents to decide for themselves which schools should be paid to educate their children. Meanwhile, he himself does not choose to avail himself of the public school system he wants everyone else to make do with.

Oh, he also doesn't like homeschooling.

I hope this helps to bring you up to speed, and results in a marked improvement in your contributions to the conversation.

Yeah, I don't see that problem.

Once again, the Obama's can afford to send their kids to a better private school. Others can't and their kids go to public school.

So what?

Does everyone who goes to public school end up working a fryolater? Or maybe, just maybe, those students who take their education seriously and get good grades end up succeeding ... and those who don't will struggle more through life.

Whatever ...

Once again, that whole "I work and make more money, so OF COURSE I can afford to have better service than others" argument doesn't work with Obama or other leftists on any other subject.

And no one is asking for the entire nation to be able to send its children to Sidwell Friends. We're just asking to have a choice and some control over our children's educations.

Does everyone who goes to public school end up working in fast food? No, but virtually everyone who attends public school in America DOES end up being less educated and less able to compete in the international market with students from other countries, who vastly outperform us.

So you're telling us that the vast majority of high school graduates in the US who are standing there, clutching their new diplomas in their hot little hands and unable to tell you which rights are actually enumerated in the Bill of Rights just weren't applying themselves and caring about their educations? Then how the hell did they graduate? Are you seriously suggesting that kids who not only graduate but do so with grades high enough to make it into college and then have to take remedial courses to learn the stuff they SHOULD have learned in high school just weren't working and trying? Then, again, how the HELL did they graduate?

 

[Cecilie1200]

Yeah, how looney of me it is to suggest that parents know what is going on in their kid's lives and ensuring that they are getting their homework done and are prepared to take those mid-terms or have actually read the book that was assigned to them in English class.

Silly me.

I'd like to say this is a nice try at diversion and avoidance, but it really wasn't.

If you can't address the point, don't pretend to even answer the post.

 

[Article 15]

Then you have no business trying to discuss this topic, because you don't even begin to understand the issue.

No, your statement was a bunch of unclear jarble which is why I didn't understand it.

Let me draw you a picture. And take notes, because I rarely have the patience to do this for anyone who comes to the debate without their homework done.

Thanks.

1) America's public school systems pretty much uniformly offer substandard academic education in every subject, in every state. Our students consistently underperform students from around the world in math, science, pick your topic. We graduate - GRADUATE! - students who can't find their own country on a world map or pick their own Vice President out of a lineup.

2) Everyone knows that this is not just a problem, but an open national scandal. The prospective reformers point to a laundry list as long as your arm of problems and mismanagement, the NEA counters by saying they can't possibly be expected to actually produce results all by their lonesome and point fingers at the parents and demand more money to continue doing exactly what they're doing, and the people who can afford to take their kids and flee in droves to the private schools or homeschooling. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are trapped, with no option but to try to ride this dead horse and wring some sort of useful education out of a desperately broken system for their children.

3) People who support vouchers - many of whom are poor minorities who can't afford to send their children to private school or homeschool or pick up and move to a better school's district - do so because they want the option of using the money that is ALREADY BEING SPENT to educate their children for the purpose of actually educating their children. They are already paying for an education they aren't getting. All they want is to take that money and shop somewhere else, the same way they would with any other commodity.

4) Barack Obama, along with the Democrat Party and his ardent supporters, vigorously defends and supports the public school system, despite its manifest and ongoing failure, insists that it's plenty good enough for the nation's children and that we should just let him tinker with it a little, and strenuously opposes any hint of allowing parents to decide for themselves which schools should be paid to educate their children. Meanwhile, he himself does not choose to avail himself of the public school system he wants everyone else to make do with.

Oh, he also doesn't like homeschooling.

I hope this helps to bring you up to speed, and results in a marked improvement in your contributions to the conversation.

Sorry, I just don't see it that way. I think that sending a check out to people wont solve the problems. I believe that the "better" private schools will merely increase their tuition rates and keep the hierarchy the way it is. I also don't want tax dollars spent to send children to parochial schools as jillian alluded to earlier in the thread.

Once again, that whole "I work and make more money, so OF COURSE I can afford to have better service than others" argument doesn't work with Obama or other leftists on any other subject.

And no one is asking for the entire nation to be able to send its children to Sidwell Friends. We're just asking to have a choice and some control over our children's educations.

Does everyone who goes to public school end up working in fast food? No, but virtually everyone who attends public school in America DOES end up being less educated and less able to compete in the international market with students from other countries, who vastly outperform us.

So you're telling us that the vast majority of high school graduates in the US who are standing there, clutching their new diplomas in their hot little hands and unable to tell you which rights are actually enumerated in the Bill of Rights just weren't applying themselves and caring about their educations? Then how the hell did they graduate? Are you seriously suggesting that kids who not only graduate but do so with grades high enough to make it into college and then have to take remedial courses to learn the stuff they SHOULD have learned in high school just weren't working and trying? Then, again, how the HELL did they graduate?

What I am telling you is that if standards and requirements are increased and parents make sure their kids are getting the work done then our children wont be coming out of high school so woefully unprepared for college.

You have plenty of control over your kids education. It's called getting involved.

 

[PoliticalChic]

I was asked to post these articles from another thread:

They need to get serious about accountability. The unions want it eviscerated, and many Democrats are eager to sing their tune: denouncing No Child Left Behind, excoriating standardized tests, opposing consequences for poor performance, and demanding more money.

Read full article here: Change Our Public Schools Need - WSJ.com

and

The beauty of Ms. Rhee's tenure reform is that it would use financial incentives to help the best teachers. Unions love to say they are underpaid professionals. Ms. Rhee agrees. Under her reform, teachers willing to be judged on their worth could earn up to $130,000 a year. Her price: Disburse money as is in the real world -- on merit.

Rhee-Forming D.C. Schools - WSJ.com

 

[Article 15]

I'd like to say this is a nice try at diversion and avoidance, but it really wasn't.

If you can't address the point, don't pretend to even answer the post.

You were being an ass. You assume that I am some ideologue. I'm not.

Now I'd love to continue this as I enjoy a good condescending conversation but I have to go to work at my big city investment bank job. The one I got with my high school diploma from a public school.

 

[Againsheila]

Ahh, the old "it's not OUR fault that your kid is stupid after we waste the entire day on multiculturalism, political correctness, and empty self-esteem-building. It's YOUR fault for not doing our job after coming home from yours!" argument.

It's always ironic to me that the same people who insist that the failure of our education system rests with a lack of parental involvement are the same ones who are outraged and bewildered by the idea that parents should be involved enough to actually choose which school their children attend.

You should see what they say when the parents are so upset with the school district, they decide to homeschool their kids.

 

[Cecilie1200]

No, your statement was a bunch of unclear jarble which is why I didn't understand it.

I don't notice anyone else having a problem with it.

Sorry, I just don't see it that way.

Doesn't matter, because it's not a matter of opinion. The schools ARE broken. Our students DO underperform the rest of the world, some countries of which can't even provide clean drinking water to their citizens, but can educate them better than we can. Our tech base IS being taken over by immigrants because Americans simply don't have the education base to compete for the jobs.

I think that sending a check out to people wont solve the problems.

No one's talking about sending out checks. We currently fund public schools according to the number of students enrolled there. All that is being proposed is that that funding be directed to wherever the students happen to be enrolled. It's not a "throwing money at it" sort of solution, because the money is ALREADY being spent. It's a matter of changing the target at which the money is being thrown, and that WILL solve the problem.

I believe that the "better" private schools will merely increase their tuition rates and keep the hierarchy the way it is.

You say that as though you believe there are only a handful of good private schools in the country, which isn't true. And there is absolutely no economic basis for believing that schools would price their prospective customers out of shopping there.

Why do I suspect that everything you "know" about private schools comes from watching "Facts of Life" reruns?

I also don't want tax dollars spent to send children to parochial schools as jillian alluded to earlier in the thread.

What business is it of yours where and how someone chooses to educate a child you didn't create and don't support, so long as that child has the basic academic accomplishments required to become a productive, employed adult citizen? Tell me, if Obama's plan for universal healthcare comes about, do you think I should be entitled to a vote concerning which doctor YOU see and what treatments you get? Do you subscribe to the idea that no one should have any say in a woman's abortion except her and her doctor, regardless of whether or not it's funded with tax dollars?

What I am telling you is that if standards and requirements are increased and parents make sure their kids are getting the work done then our children wont be coming out of high school so woefully unprepared for college.

And what I am telling YOU is that public schools are not about increasing standards, nor do they have clue one of how to accomplish that even if they wanted to. Which they don't. The NEA and their Democrat butt buddies are virulently opposed to ANY attempt to require higher standards or accountability from schools.

And don't think I haven't noticed that you've utterly bypassed the question of why even the children who are said to be achieving and getting their work done are still woefully uneducated. Nor have I missed the way you glossed right over my earlier question of why it is you're so quick to blame parents for not being involved enough, but are flatly against letting them become TOO involved in terms of actually choosing an effective school they can work with successfully.

You have plenty of control over your kids education. It's called getting involved.

Yeah, but only with the school WE choose for you, and the curriculum WE want, and the priorities WE set, and otherwise, sit down and shut up and stop thinking you have any input here. Oh, what's that? Your local school is dead last in the national rankings and couldn't teach your dog to beg for a pork chop? Too bad, loser. You should just spend more time with your kid. It's all YOUR fault.

One wonders if this is a preview of the choice and control Obama Care would give us over our healthcare. Will we have assigned hospital and clinic districts, and if you want a doctor who went to Harvard Medical School instead of Guadalajara Tech, well, you should just work harder and earn more money so you can move? You have PLENTY of control over your health care. Just get more involved and diagnose yourself.

 

[Cecilie1200]

You should see what they say when the parents are so upset with the school district, they decide to homeschool their kids.

Seen it. I homeschool myself. Apparently, I am single-handedly bringing about the destruction of our nation's educational infrastructure, not to mention raising my child to be the next Unabomber.

 

[DiveCon]

I'm all for reforming the public school system.

Vouchers?

Not so much.

vouchers would be one way to go about the reform
just because parents would choose where to send their kids to school, doesnt mean it wouldnt be another public school system that was doing a better job at educating the kids than the one that was local

 

[DiveCon]

You should see what they say when the parents are so upset with the school district, they decide to homeschool their kids.

i saw that, it was a disgusting thing to say
hard to believe the person that said it, huh?

 

[Isolde]

Well, I'm here and I would love to fix it. You're just in serious trouble any time you put yourself in a position of needing efficiency and competent achievement from the government.

I'm sorry, my comment was for the Obama worshippers who refused to believe that it was broken for the simple reason that by admitting it was broken would somehow affirm that Obama was a hypocrite.

Sheeplettes.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Seen it. I homeschool myself. Apparently, I am single-handedly bringing about the destruction of our nation's educational infrastructure, not to mention raising my child to be the next Unabomber.

As a fellow homeschooler, I understand.

BTW, people like Joy Behar is perpetuating the myth that homeschoolers are "demented" and unsocialized. I do not watch the View, but her remarks were sent to me by other homeschoolers. Joy Behar is so uninformed about the world, she was previously fired from a radio talk show in New York.

Fast forward to 7:11 mark for Joy's comments.

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[Cecilie1200]

vouchers would be one way to go about the reform
just because parents would choose where to send their kids to school, doesnt mean it wouldnt be another public school system that was doing a better job at educating the kids than the one that was local

I know of a number of minority parents in my city who are currently fighting for the right to send their kids to the public school that is closest to them.

See, in an ironic twist, the black and Hispanic kids who actually live in that neighborhood are bussed out to schools in wealthier, primarily-white neighborhoods to promote "diversity". Apparently, they're supposed to learn better simply because they're sitting next to a white kid.

Meanwhile, the school district magnanimously decided to put their new, fancy magnet schools in poorer neighborhoods, to show how much they care about the people there and to lure the wealthy white folks into sending their kids there.

The catch is that the school district's affirmative action quotas limit the number of black and Hispanic kids that are allowed to attend each school, so the kids who actually live down the street from the best schools in town aren't allowed to attend there because it upsets the numbers balance. And many of the parents complain that they can't attend their children's extracurricular activities at the schools they're bussed to, because they're too far away.

The leftists are correct. We just need to give more money to the geniuses who created this system, and trust them to fix it.

 

[Angel Heart]

And what of all those city renters?

Their landlords still pay property tax.

 

[Cecilie1200]

As a fellow homeschooler, I understand.

BTW, people like Joy Behar is perpetuating the myth that homeschoolers are "demented" and unsocialized. I do not watch the View, but her remarks were sent to me by other homeschoolers. Joy Behar is so uninformed about the world, she was previously fired from a radio talk show in New York.

I homeschool my children so that they won't grow up to be like Joy Behar. And it must be working, because my son just turned 13 a couple of days ago, and he's already smarter and more charming than she is.