President Obaba suggest more school time

[mrstickball]

Akvod said:

TheRealMafoo said:

MontanaHatchet said:
I've visited schools several times (one of my friends is studying to become a teacher), and the problem isn't the length of the day, or how many days there are. The problem is kids who don't listen or even care, bad teachers who don't care about the kids, lazy and disengaging lesson plans, and a generally incompetent system of higher-ups who don't know anything about teaching kids. 20 extra days wouldn't make a big difference if most kids can't even pass as proficient in reading and math. Seriously, I can't think of many things easier than being proficient in a school subject.

Kids in East Asia and various other regions of the world perform better than American kids because their system is better and their parents push them harder to succeed.

This.

I also find it odd that Montana and I agree on this part, but disagree about what governments role in Healthcare should be.

I think the thing that makes me shake my head the most, is that Obama doesn't see this. Fix the schools (privatize them), and all this goes away. Kids can get a better education, and go to school the same or less amount of time, not more.

What if a kid can't afford private education? O.o And how do you deal with something where geography plays a huge role? In order to go to the best or cheapest school, depending on what you can afford and want, you'll have to force everyone to send their kids to boarding schools.

I'm not a liberal or conservative. I just find that there's a lot of potential problems and that you kinda over simplified the solution...

How can a kid afford public education? Public education costs as much or more than private education. The difference, is that (currently) the private education has no federal & state funding.

In Ohio, the average tuition for a private school is ~$5,000 per year. For a public school, it's $10,000. The difference is that taxes are levied to pay the public bill. As Mafoo said, if you had a voucher program that allowed any student to get a free education wherever they wanted to go, they could 'afford' private school. In fact, it'd save a whole lot of money (to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year). 

Secondly, I am not understanding the geographic question. If private schools got federal funding via vouchers, we would see more and more spring up all over the country, thus limiting geographic impact. If anything, it would actually help build more schools, and closer schools to where you live. We currently have this wonderful districting thing that forces schools to monopolize swaths of land. If private schools compete, you'd most likely get closer schools.

And no, there are less potential problems with private schools than fixing the current mess of public schools. I am sure Mafoo or myself would love to answer any other questions you have.