The coolest political ad. Ever.

[sirs]

The GOP thinks that the way to improve education is to declare war on the teachers and to give perhaps 2 to 3% of them large bonuses and starve the rest.

What the frell??  This ability in completely making this kind of AMBE up, is quite an art form

[Xavier_Onassis]

That is what they advocate: no raises for the majority and huge bonuses for the select few. Since you are a teacher, you do not follow this, I suppose. The war of teachers is certainly not a hidden one.

[BT]

Congress gave the dept of ed authority to enact and through the states enforce NCLB. And all i heard were excuses from teachers complaining about standards and then teaching to the test or in some cases falsifying results.

[Xavier_Onassis]

NCLB was a very flawed program, from what I hear.

[Amianthus]

We need MORE uniformity between the states, nor (sic) less.

I thought the argument against NCLB was that it imposed central standards that are not good for teaching, according to the Democrats.

[Xavier_Onassis]

It was the way that it was administered, basing performance on only reading, writing and math tests, that caused school administrators to focus on those things and to ignore the rest.

I do not think that "the Democrats" had any unified position on this.

I don't think it was a total failure, and probably did some good in many places.

[sirs]

That is what they advocate: no raises for the majority and huge bonuses for the select few.

Says who??  Name me one prominant Republican politician that's advocates that nonsense

[BT]

It was the way that it was administered, basing performance on only reading, writing and math tests, that caused school administrators to focus on those things and to ignore the rest.

I do not think that "the Democrats" had any unified position on this.

I don't think it was a total failure, and probably did some good in many places.

So there is no accountability at any level. Well hell let's double the number of administrators at the fed level and pay them twice as much.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I dd not say there was no accountability. I said they were relying too much on one or two tests. I did not say that they should expand the Dept. of Education, I believe that they need to investigate how other countries raised their standards and try what has worked best thee as well as here. Abolishing the Dept of Education will not improve education, It will make it worse.

Paul has no chance of being elected, and the Dept of Education will not be abolished. I hope it is improved, along with education in this country.

[Plane]

It was the way that it was administered, basing performance on only reading, writing and math tests, that caused school administrators to focus on those things and to ignore the rest.

I do not think that "the Democrats" had any unified position on this.

I don't think it was a total failure, and probably did some good in many places.

   So a national standard , if poorly administered , can inhibit the excellent no less than it goads the sub par?

[sirs]

That is what they advocate: no raises for the majority and huge bonuses for the select few.

Says who??  Name me one prominant Republican politician that advocates that nonsense

Still patiently waiting for some facts to back up the currently ridiculous claim

[Amianthus]

It was the way that it was administered, basing performance on only reading, writing and math tests, that caused school administrators to focus on those things and to ignore the rest.

There were also requirements for science tests. And more subject based tests in high school.

And I still don't understand how 1 test a year is a big deal...

[Xavier_Onassis]

One test is not going to serve to ascertain how much has been learned for the entire year.

NCLB is better than nothing, but it needs a whole lot of improvement.

I am not referring to any specific Republican plan, just what actually happens when some school board tries to divvy up the money among the teachers. They are told to reward the best, but have insufficient funds to reward more than a few, leaving less for raises for all the rest.

[sirs]

So the asanine claim that The GOP thinks that the way to improve education is to declare war on the teachers and to give perhaps 2 to 3% of them large bonuses and starve the rest, was pure made up BS.  Gotcha

[Amianthus]

One test is not going to serve to ascertain how much has been learned for the entire year.

It serves to determine if the student is at grade level, does it not?