Comments on: What Happened To “Accountability”?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:24:02 +0000

In reply to Badtux.

As we both know this is going to end up badly, in the streets, with violence. The 1% just don’t understand what the result will be, and won’t understand why the mob is taking them to the guillotine. They have let their personal greed overcome their common sense.

The Soviets knew how to use schools, but the 1% don’t want to bother.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 05:25:08 +0000

The Republicans want to destroy society – that’s the only logical conclusion for what they are doing.

Cancun.

That’s their model for America. Filthy rich white gringos living in absolute luxury with every possible creature comfort and servants catering to their every need, and then the servants go home to crude tin hovels crowded with a dozen children and the family goat. That’s their model. Education just makes servants uppity, so why pay for it? It’s the same reason why white plantation owners outlawed teaching blacks to read. Wouldn’t want your slaves to be gettin’ none of them thare fancy *idears*, right?

– Badtux the Cynical Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 04:35:08 +0000

As near as I can tell based on reporting from all over, the charter/private schools really suck at math. They can place students in the middle with reading scores on national standardized tests, but they just don’t seem to have people who can teach math. We are talking about arithmetic, not anything higher, and kids in the private schools are just not being taught the basic skills to go any higher. How do you get a job?

My county does OK, but then we get a stream of students who have been attending DoD schools on bases, which have a standardized curriculum and certified teachers. They show up with the skills they need. I worry about the kids who start at our elementary schools and have to attend base schools when the family moves. They will probably have to repeat a school year to catch up.

The Republicans want to destroy society – that’s the only logical conclusion for what they are doing.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 03:55:11 +0000

Been there, done that, bought the TCAT… actually it was called TAKS until this year; I don’t know the new, improved acronym. All we got for our troubles were an increased de facto dropout rate, a rapid departure of the better teachers unwilling to teach solely to the test as ordered by their school administrators, and a general decrease in basic skills students need in the job market… reading and doing sums. The “Texas Miracle” is that any student in Texas who graduates from high school is actually able to read and do basic math. If one of them accidentally can do those things, it’s no thanks to our current and former governors.

BTW, to the extent private schools in Texas have been evaluated (they don’t have to use the test), they are often enough well below even the sorry standards of public schools. But the SBOE is working as fast as it can to remedy that discrepancy… by lowering the quality of public schools.

I’m glad my late father, secondary science teacher and guidance counselor, and warrior before the SBOE, didn’t live to see this steaming pile. It would have made him cry.