[MD] Public Education

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Krimel <Krimel at Krimel.com>:

> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Platt Holden [mailto:pholden at davtv.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:30 PM
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Subject: Re: [MD] Public Education
> 
> 
> [Arlo]
> > Some thoughts and numbers.
> > 
> > International Comparison of Math, Reading, and Science Skills Among 
> > 15-Year-Olds: "More than 250,000 15-year old students from 41 
> > countries participated in the assessment. The countries included all 
> > major industrialized nations (results for Britain were not available) 
> > and 11 other nations that chose to participate. The test scores are 
> > from 2003." (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923110.html)
> > 
> > The U.S ranked 28 out of 41 on Math. The top countries were Hong 
> > Kong, Finland, South Korea, Netherlands, Lichtenstein, Japan, Canada.
> > 
> > The U.S. ranked 12 out of 41 on Reading. The top countries were 
> > Finland, South Korea, Canada, Austrailia, Lichtenstein, New Zealand.
> > 
> > The U.S. ranked 20 out of 41 on Science. The top countries were 
> > Finland, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Lichtenstein, Australia.
> > 
> > All the top have public schools. None have a "voucher" system.
> 
> All the top schools spend less per pupil annually than the U.S. 
> 
> Australia	  $6,484
> Canada	    6,482
> Finland   	    6,501
> Japan		    6,842
> Korea		    5,174
> Netherlands   6,439	
> New Zealand  5,419
> U.S.              8,935
> 
> http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2007/section4/table.asp?tableID=738
> 
> Obviously throwing more money into the government-union school system in 
> the U.S. is not going to the solve the  problem of the system's failure. 
> 
> [Krimel]
> Notice that in the numbers that really matter, percentage of GDP, The US is
> about average in spending for Elementary and High School. In post secondary
> spending where privatization is high and a greater portion of the cost is
> borne by the students, we are at 2.9% GDP, the highest in the world. This is
> one area were foreign students are coming here and kicking GPA ass because
> our students are less prepared for the level of analysis involved at the
> college level as opposed to memorizing "facts" for tests.
> 
> I wish you would stuff this government-union crap. I live in right to work
> state and unions have zero impact here.

The NEA and AFT, the teacher's unions, have great influence in the public school system.


-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/