On Wed, 20 Jun 2012 20:33:03 -0700, "Califbill"
wrote:

"jps" wrote in message ...

On Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:10:43 -0700, "Califbill"
wrote:

"jps" wrote in message ...

On Sat, 16 Jun 2012 22:07:37 -0400, Earl
wrote:

X ` Man wrote:
...income inequality among nations and the society havoc caused by
massive inequality.

TED is an interesting presentation of talks on a number of subjects by
recognized experts in many fields.


http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson.html

For those who can actually think, it's an eye opener.

We all know that statistics can be manipulated to reach a desired
result. That said, there are too many illegal aliens and welfare
slouches in our country. They skew the statistics considerably and put
a bad light on the US. Returning the aliens to their home countries and
drug testing the welfare recipients would save the US billions every year.

Let's focus the light in a different way. We've stopped taking pride
in our elementary to high school educational systems. We turn out
not-college-ready candidates who cannot compete with overseas students
for the best colleges.

We turn out html coders instead of real engineers.


-----------------------
And almost all that can be laid on the very liberal, who seem to run the
teachers schools these days. They are the ones who want to ban grades and
competitive scoring. Self esteem of the child is more important than
actually learning.

Yes, the "very liberal" are responsible for underfunding schools and
fighting to keep their myopic view of science being science and not
embracing the fundamentalist fantasy of intelligent design.

How much wasted energy has gone into that bull**** and the fight about
teaching sex ed?

The states with the worst education outcomes are invariably the red
states, which also suffer from the highest rate of teen pregnancy.
---------------------------------
Schools are not underfunded!!!! And funding does not seem to be related to
results. Washington DC has over a 50% dropout rate, and also the highest
per student funding in the country. What we have is a bloated bureaucracy
sucking up enormous amounts of the school dollar. 20 years ago, there was 3
teachers per non-teaching in the system. Now it is 1:1. My generation sent
man to the moon, using a slide rule for calculations. We could read and
write when we left high school and went to college. Very few had to take
bonehead English. We did not have a teachers aid in most class rooms, or 40
sub deans and other administrators. Now it is something like 80% require
remedial English and math when entering college. Look at the amount of
money the Federal government takes from schools! The Dept of Education has
a $68 billion budget. How much waste in that funnel? How many strings are
attached to the funds that are returned to the states?

Duh, great funding isn't ever going to make up for extreme poverty.
You cite the worst example and expect the rest of your screed to be
consummable?