Education thread

[neoplacebo]

I do not agree with the banning of the AP from press access. The AP provides a useful foil.

AP is also part of the conspiracy, victim SoupySales?

I wrote on my calendar yesterday that you and I agree about something. But I don't think AP is a "useful foil." I think of them as more of a factual alternative to such drivel as Newsmax, OAN, RSBN. etc.

MAGA detests higher education, too:

A New Kind of Crisis for American Universities

I read something the other day where the idea that the right wants to create a large and cheap labor force.....opposition to education certainly facilitates that. And since their nonsense about bringing manufacturing back to the US from China is nonsense, the only thing left to them is to create an army of cheap (uneducated) workers. Hell, trump used to say it loudly....."I love the uneducated." MAGA

[O Really]

Turns out if the Dept of Education cuts funds to public schools, the effect would be much more negative on rural areas (which coincidentally mostly voted for Trump) than in urban areas that have higher tax base, more people, etc. to fund their schools. But yeah, Trump loves the uneducated and wants to keep them that way.

[Whack9]

USA abdicating it's global scientific leadership position:

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science ... rcna191744

This is simply the end.”

That was the five-word message that Rick Huganir, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, received from a colleague just before 6 p.m. two Fridays ago, with news that would send a wave of panic through the scientific community.

When Huganir clicked on the link in the email, from fellow JHU neuroscientist Alex Kolodkin, he saw a new National Institutes of Health policy designed to slash federal spending on the indirect costs that keep universities and research institutes operating, including for new equipment, maintenance, utilities and support staff.

“Am I reading this right 15%??” Huganir wrote back in disbelief, suddenly worried the cut could stall 25 years of work.

In 1998, Huganir discovered a gene called SYNGAP1. About 1% of all children with intellectual disabilities have a mutation of the gene. He’s working to develop drugs to treat these children, who often have learning differences, seizures and sleep problems. He said his research is almost entirely reliant on NIH grants.

...

From cancer researchers to those working in maternal health, Huganir’s predicament is familiar to many scientists across the country right now. Less than a month into his administration, President Donald Trump has embarked on a cost cutting program that threatens to reshape the infrastructure that has made the U.S. the envy of the world in medical innovation. His administration has frozen federal grants, ordered sweeping layoffs across federal agencies, cut funding for biomedical research and issued executive orders that threaten to shutter government programs focused on gender or diversity.
The search for a cure for these rare disorders is a race against time, because researchers think treatment will be most effective if administered when patients are children.

[Vrede too]

The subject was meant to be a dark joke. Sorry.

Trump Signs Executive Order To Dismantle The Department Of Education
Congress would need to act to fully eliminate the critical agency, but Trump could still stop many of its key functions.

It's a generational plan to create more RepuQs. They're playing 4-D chess while we're playing checkers. We're reverting to a time before 1939 when the Federal Security Agency was created, 14 years before HEW.

Experts Reveal The 'Real Damage' Trump's DOE Cuts Will Do To Our Schools
“This executive order isn’t the real danger."

... Completely eliminating the department will require Congress’ approval. But Trump has reduced the department’s workforce by half already, which could make it impossible to carry out its basic functions anyway. “We’ve cut the number of bureaucrats in half,” he said at the signing.

... Lexi Barrett, a former Department of Education Chief of Staff under the Biden administration, said that in spite of these changes, education is and always has been a local issue. But one aspect people should be concerned about is that the Department of Education ensures state compliance. “I worry about students not getting that access to education,” she said. She explained that the department is made of career-long education experts who genuinely come to work each day with an “intense level of commitment and mission to serving students and making sure they get what they need.”

... “Getting rid of or dramatically defunding the Department of Education will change what’s taught in schools, but that’s because it will mean reducing funding for recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, increasing school and program closures in rural communities, limiting access for supports and services for students with disabilities,” said Jasmine Bolton, policy director at Partnership for the Future of Learning and former senior counsel in the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. “This is absolutely the last thing students need as they continue to rebound from the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

... The American Civil Liberties Union shared in a statement on March 14 that the DOE cuts leave millions of students without “crucial protections” against discrimination in education based on age, disability, ancestry sex, gender, national origin, race and color. They are concerned students won’t have equal access to advanced coursework, be denied accommodations for disabilities, or be able to contest unfair discipline-based targeting. They issued a call to Congress to “act immediately to restore the federal government’s role in enforcing civil rights.”

... Students who are in communities already suffering from economic despair might see bigger class sizes, fewer specialists, or a “dramatic impact” on the number of teachers that can be employed, resulting in fewer services for students, Barrett says....

The order Trump signed is the culmination of a yearslong fight by conservative activists and Republican officials who have increasingly sought to use schools as a means for pushing right-wing ideology on children. They have smeared teachers as abusers, censored educators, banned hundreds of books from classrooms, mounted outright takeovers of school boards, and launched an all-out war on transgender kids by barring them from sports and bathrooms that match their gender identities....

Crap.

[Jasmine]

I’m all for getting rid of the department. At the very least, it will necessitate change. Our public education system has been failing for a long time, and by now it should be obvious that throwing more money atbthe problem isn’t the answer.

I teach Sunday School for middle schoolers, and the difference between my public school kids and the ones who attend private school or home school is dramatic. It’s scary bad.

[Vrede too]

Private schools, often xtian madrassas, cherry pick their students, actively by not having the resources for the developmentally disabled and troublemakers or passively by requiring parent transport. They're actually worse when adjusted for parental income.
Home school is 1 on 1 education, excellent personal attention for the families that can afford it. Of course the kids do well except for with socialization and teamwork.
Public schools have to teach everyone and their classes are as crowded as the resources they're given allow.

You're comparing apples and oranges.

[O Really]

My old high school. Hardly an example of "failing public school system". https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/bcchs/

A better way to express the issue would be that "public schools in some districts face student challenges that make producing competitive results difficult when compared to schools with better resources and demographic selection". As Vrede noted, if you can pick your demographics you can produce better results.

[1 CAT FAN]

Public schools have to teach everyone and their classes are as crowded as the resources they're given allow.

You're comparing apples and oranges.

There ya go, time for a change.

[1 CAT FAN]

I’m all for getting rid of the department. At the very least, it will necessitate change. Our public education system has been failing for a long time, and by now it should be obvious that throwing more money atbthe problem isn’t the answer.

I teach Sunday School for middle schoolers, and the difference between my public school kids and the ones who attend private school or home school is dramatic. It’s scary bad.

Leftists would rather continue on the same disastrous path. Thank you for your support of children.

[Vrede too]

My old high school. Hardly an example of "failing public school system". https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/bcchs/

A better way to express the issue would be that "public schools in some districts face student challenges that make producing competitive results difficult when compared to schools with better resources and demographic selection". As Vrede noted, if you can pick your demographics you can produce better results.

My public schools, also in Montgomery County, were excellent from Jr Hi on up and my high schools were better than bcchs.

[1 CAT FAN]

My old high school. Hardly an example of "failing public school system". https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/bcchs/

A better way to express the issue would be that "public schools in some districts face student challenges that make producing competitive results difficult when compared to schools with better resources and demographic selection". As Vrede noted, if you can pick your demographics you can produce better results.

My public schools, also in Montgomery County, were excellent from Jr Hi on up and my high schools were better than bcchs.

50 to 60 years ago.

[Vrede too]

Maybe superior public schools is why we aren't MAGAts.

[Whack9]

Maybe superior public schools is why we aren't MAGAts.

Books. Travel. Curiosity. Life experiences. Empathy. Family tree not shaped like a Christmas wreath.

[O Really]

Maybe superior public schools is why we aren't MAGAts.

...Family tree not shaped like a Christmas wreath.

Or one that does not fork.
(Jeff Foxworthy, "you might be a redneck if..."

[1 CAT FAN]

Maybe superior public schools is why we aren't MAGAts.

Books. Travel. Curiosity. Life experiences. Empathy. Family tree not shaped like a Christmas wreath.

Taught by someone in drag. Don't know which restroom to use. Identify as something else. Waves a rainbow colored flag. Leftist shit is about to be flushed down the toilet.

[Vrede too]

Maybe superior public schools is why we aren't MAGAts.

...Family tree not shaped like a Christmas wreath.

Or one that does not fork.
(Jeff Foxworthy, "you might be a redneck if..."

[neoplacebo]

Maybe superior public schools is why we aren't MAGAts.

Books. Travel. Curiosity. Life experiences. Empathy. Family tree not shaped like a Christmas wreath.

I like it. And home schooling tends to reinforce the circular nature of the dilemma. It's a tragic story filled with measles, stupid, and crazy wild religious stuff even trickling down to Christmas songs such as cum all ye faithful. When they get to that one, sneak out the door. ok

[Supsalemgr]

In following this thread it is clear folks feel their public education was very good. I am in the same boat. I suspect most of our public education came before 1979. Hence the point for dismantling the DOE.

[GoCubsGo]

There's a world of stupid and uneducated post 1979, look who has been elected president ( who happens to LOVE the uneducated, wonder why?) It's probably more of a red/blue state education problem.

[O Really]

In following this thread it is clear folks feel their public education was very good. I am in the same boat. I suspect most of our public education came before 1979. Hence the point for dismantling the DOE.

What do you think the Department of Education did to harm schools or education in general. Real question. Because they don't control curriculum, they don't control teacher hiring or certification standards. It seems it would be pretty hard to do much damage without controlling those two.