If a certain segment of the population is excluded from the decision making process of the financial market and the political process then would their specific generation be responsible for the quagmire we face?

what I'd still like to know...., is why, after adding Education to the President's cabinet, spending Billions of Federal dollars in this new department, hiring all these so-called experts, test scores are lower than when I graduated College and when none of this bureaucracy was in place. Seems to me, instead of ceating a wasteful bunch of govt jobs, the money could have been better spent at the individual school level, based upon need. Stop talking, stop posing, start cutting the dead wood and multiple levels between our tax dollars and needy schools.

:iagree: There is something seriously wrong.
The problem seems to be beyond the ability of people good intentioned or not to solve the problem.
When an issue (any issue) gets out of hand
(which is where society is today) then it becomes beyond the ability of
anyone to solve the problems we face.

It requires humility, and a desire on the part of those who
take the lead in running the country to work together to solve
issues. But that's not going to happen when people decide
their political party, their ideology, or whatever is more
important the the issues that require practical attention.

But that's what happens when everyone thinks their
position is the right way to go about solving problems.
Too bad for John Q citizen. In the end the results are
just as you describe, system wide mediocrity.

:iagree:, Mark...Hear, hear! But, the multiple levels and bureaucratic bs

are "at work" at all the levels, imo. School systems that I am familiar with,
here locally in NC, locally in Naples,FL and back in Jersey where my adult
kids live, are all in a mess, for various and slightly different reasons, but
I promise that "gov't" and the over stuffed admins that run these systems
are not helping any kid, anywhere, anytime, imo.

Education is big business. It is not about teaching and learning anymore. No Child Left Behind was a failure and a joke, IMO.

I live in Ground Zero Liberal land where most of the County, City, School Boards and other organizations are VERY Liberal in their ideology. We have some of the highest taxes in the Country and even when the cash flowed in during the peak of the economic boom our schools were deteriorating. Yeah you could say our Governor is Republican but it would be a stretch to call him Conservative. Even if he were the Legislature is so tilted to the Left it would not make much of a difference.

So much money is and has been wasted in Fluff Feel good programs while schools have been left by the wayside. I blame Nancy Pelosi and the band of feel good Liberals who have and continue to have control of the government in Northern California. Her power as House Speaker has done nothing but go to her head. Now that the cash has run dry the schools are in more trouble...But the fluff feel good programs continue to be funded.

I blame Government and those in control on the local level where I live.

So, what does Pelosi have to do with education here in Louisiana and in other states around the country? No Child Left Behind was a program introduced by Bush and passed by a Republican controlled senate.

Govenor Bobby Jindal (R) just took an axe to education here in Louisiana.

I grew up in the Bay Area and graduated high school in San Jose in 1991. Education was much, much better then than it is now.

Pelosi has nothing to do with education anywhere.

Good education starts at home by making sure
young people are focused and education oriented.

Rather than being wrapped up in the internet, text messaging,
chasing skirts/pants, playing video games, watching too much
TV and the rest of the nonsense young people waste too
much time with, young people need direction and values
so they can make sensible choices.

Parents need to get off the dime and get to work and stop
whining about public education. In stead Go to the school
and demand the best education for your child. If the teacher
doesn't deliver, show up at school and kindly get the teacher
back on track.

Yes that's what we did as well as taking time to work
with our children making sure they knew what was expected.

:iagree:

I think that is the crux of tomorrow's speech. Personal responsibility.

I am a product of San Jose Unified School District. Granted, the district was better than most, but my education was my responsibility. Not all of my peers took learning seriously, and not all of us turned out well.

:iagree:
Very well written, QwkAg...dunno if it was "simpler", "easier", or
less frantic when we were raising our kids, but parents need to
step up and get Johnny and Jill back on track, imo. Time outs, appeasements,
trading FaceBook time for hitting the books, etc., is not the answer.
Otoh, I am glad my parenting is basically over.
BR,mD