As for the topic at hand three things stick out

1. Most importantly both candidates realize that education is very crucial to our national economy and well being and that No Child Left Behind needs to be restructured. They take different ways to get there Obama’s plan is more top down and McCain’s is more bottom up but in the end I think they want to and would accomplish the same thing.

2. The $4000 towards college for community service is a great idea; unfortunately it’s nowhere near enough though to really make a difference for someone who couldn’t afford or would have trouble affording college to begin with as Obama seems to be claiming.

3. I don’t know whether or not I like the idea of vouchers but they do seem to be going in the right direction in terms of addressing the importance of leveling the playing field. They may or may not be the key but somehow we need to make private schools available to more than just the rich.

Why is it that someone is not called to explain when they claim that the schools are being “dumbed down”? Does anyone have any proof?

In today’s broadcast, someone mentioned that there was a serious loss of $$$ between the tax payer and the school. Why whs this not questioned for clarification?

These things keep me awake at night… (-:

Gary

Public schools are run by people who are part of our communities. The principals and teachers live with us and their kids attend the same schools. The government should encourage and fund community input and participation in the development of public schools. Folks just can’t pick and and take their kids 10-20 miles further just because their local schools are not performing.

If charter schools work better then apply the same strategies to public schools. If a school is not performing, then let’s get parents and teachers together and empower them to make changes. Demonizing principals and teachers and setting up public schools as an icon of underperformance somehow separately from the communities they serve is moronic. It plays well into the strategy of Republican education policy of divide and conquer.

I want my public school to be better and I want my government which I have elected to represent me and collect my taxes to use that money to make the school in my community work better — not fund entrepreneurs that provide choice at more cost and distance.

The schools are now requiring special needs children in the mainstream classes and the teachers are being made to adapt to teaching these children (no matter how much extra time is required) as well as teach the other 30 students and make sure they all get it. Many of our parents at Redcliffe are nonworking parents and can sit outside the school for an hour or two congregating with other parents in the parking lot while they could spend that time in the school volunteering to work with the students or assist the teachers.

I work a full time job, volunteer on the PTO as much as possible, take my children to sports activities and still find time to work with them on their studies. It is not the job of the schools to raise our children. If a parent is unemployed then they should be required while unemployed to work at a school a minimum of hours during the week in order to receive benefits. Especially free lunch and other things their children get while I am at work paying for these benefits.

I am tired of sinking tax dollars into a sinking school system where the parents don’t give a darn. We live in a poverty area, but because of that we get special things and the parents still don’t give a darn. You can’t use poverty as an excuse when the resources are there, programs provided by the school for the parents are there, and the parents just won’t participate. Is that the government’s fault?

I am for the McCain Vouchers which I never thought I would be because I want my children in a learning environment where the parents will participate and the kids are willing to listen and learn.

Not under the guise of democracy unless we teach subjects framed by civic participation. There is an eerie connection between filling out a test and filling out a ballot, and thinking the latter is sufficient civic participation will not lead to a good place.

Also, everyone wants better education and to be able to fund it. Which candidate is willing to talk about cutting the military budget and corporate welfare in order to get there?

In the US, teachers are ridiculed by politicians and pundits (ever hear of the phrase, “those who can, do; those who cannot do, teach”?), parents demand that their children be coddled in the classroom (parents actually contacting teachers to request extra credit for their child and providing every conceivable excuse for bad behavior in the classroom and laziness), and administrators do not support teachers by enforcing discipline of students.

Why are we so surprised that US students are so far behind students in other industrialized countries, when we do not value self-discipline and education? Why are we so surprised that kids do not understand the concept that education is an active process, not a passive process, when our society places such a high value on the passive act of being entertained? Why are we shocked by the lack of civic awareness and responsibility of teenagers when their parents don’t even know who their congressional reps are and feel entitled to something for nothing just because they are American?

We must re-examine our values in this country if we can ever have success in remaking our education system.

Further, I had the misfortune to hear Phyllis Schafly, apparently one of the principal architects of the Republican platform, dismiss Mr. Obama as “elitist” because he attended expensive schools. Is this really a party that values education?

I worked with high school kids in LA whose schools didn’t even have the money to pay for repairing non-functional bathrooms. These kids had to go home or to a local MacDonald’s if they needed to go to the bathroom! Can you begin to imagine what the teachers have at their disposal for teaching, or even what their paychecks are like in these situations?

The whole idea of teachers being the root cause of poor education is wrong, and is a way to find a convenient scapegoat that makes everyone look in the other direction. The fact is that LOCAL TAXES pay for public schooling, and there are PLENTY of poor towns and cities that are struggling to make ends meet, while well-to-do towns and cities thrive with the best of everything. Kids that are coming from low-income households are also dealing with other significant issues such as health care, parental presence and more.

What parent that has to work 2 or more jobs has the time and energy to work with their kids on homework?

They are not advocating anything except punishment and exclusionary tactics.