President Biden's Executive Order (EO) forgiving up to $20,000 of student debt for past borrowers is not a solution to a $1.6 Trillion student debt problem. It is the fulfillment of a campaign promise blatantly intended to bring more "grateful" young voters to the mid-term polls this November. Young voters are traditionally not a significant
In 1970 a high school diploma implied that the graduate had mastered basic arithmetic, could read and write a coherent paragraph demonstrating comprehension of what they'd read and possessed some knowledge of basic science. Maybe not enough to be admitted to Harvard or UC Berkeley but certainly enough to begin to build a middle class life – an auto mechanic, building trades apprentice, chef, miner, farmer, police officer, fireman, US military member or factory worker. Fast forward to 2016 there are still hundreds of careers that can be built on a 1970s high school education including new careers like network administrator or computer programmer -- jobs that pay +/- $70K or more a year – after only about a year of technical training. The problem is that a high school diploma in 2016 does not require the same mastery of basic math, English, science and civics as it did in 1970.
"A free college education for every student at every public college or university in America" is as likely as being swept up in a tornado, landing on your head still holding your dog, and living to tell about it – i.e. assuming the Wizard of OZ is a true story!
The State Legislature and the Governor have banded together to do a favor for the California Teachers Association (CTA). The Governor is expected to sign legislation that would end student performance testing - no academic achievement testing (API) and no school performance evaluations.
Over the last 40 years instead of nurturing our students, we’ve been nurturing our teachers unions. Albert Shanker, American Federated Teachers (AFT) President 1974-1998, is reputed to have declared "when schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children”. Teachers’ union dues became a guarantee of job security regardless of performance.
There is absolutely NO reason to keep testing the proficiency of our students year after year if the results do not lead to reform.
Governor Brown stands at a crossroads. Will he challenge the “education establishment” to “step up”? Or will he continue to support the “experts” -- his powerful political ally, the California Teachers Association – allowing our children to remain ranked 44th of 50?
Elected member of Campbell school board told me she couldn’t “tell” me “what Common Core is” except to say it had something to do with more oral communication, more oral reports delivered by the kids in front of their classmates. Common Core begins in August,2013 - Amazing! Unbelievable! Scary!