Clinton has recently started pressing for more federal money to spend on education. However, there is no evidence that more money will solve the problem. The best education systems in world, as measured by tests, are NOT made by spending taxes. Japan, Singapore, and Germany spend about the same or less of their GNP on education as a percentage.
I am afraid that much of our problem is related to culture, parenting, peer pressure, and other factors only remotely controllable by the White House. Clinton is wasting our flippen money!
Below are some practical suggestions that do not require a lot of money, and may even save some.
If there are behavior problems in a classroom, then have a bouncer-like person walk the back of the room. This bouncer would simply observe who is misbehaving and keep a log. If a student gets out of hand, then the bouncer simply calls in a "discipline expert" to take the student out. The disrupting student could be made to watch boring educational videos in a booth by him/herself (with nearby adult supervision).
This bouncer does not need to be a high-wage person. The government has a way of inflating the credentials needed for most positions. The bouncer needs to be no more than a high-school graduate with about 20 hours of "bouncer" courses and given a background check. Note that the bouncer has very little verbal contact with the students.
The bouncer also frees the teacher to focus on the subject rather than baby-sitting trouble causers.
As a subject matter, math is a lot like law. They are both very specialized subjects and one has to use them often to keep the knowledge from growing rusty.
However, they are treated very differently in the education system. Math is forced down students like it is all they will do when they enter the real world. On the other hand, law is only brushed over briefly until college requires a course or two.
Why!? Please tell me why math is given such a lofty position? If math is so important, then why are there not more math consultants? Unless you are an engineer or researcher (about 2% of the population), you will rarely use higher math. Why spend roughly 1,500 hours of our life learning something that we will use only for about 4 hours or less after we graduate? Why not spend the 1,500 hours of teaching resources on something else. Instead, form a Bar-like council of math consultants (if they are even needed).
I do agree that there are many math and math related concepts that are still important. Changes are listed below that are based on my observations of the work world. There is a lot of junk that IS A WASTE OF STUDENT TIME AND TAX PAYER MONEY! Is it busy work to keep students quiet? It is a crying shame.
Less: Long division Fractions Highly mechanical operations (step-happy) Calculus More: Ratio and percentage concepts Quick estimations Interpolation & Extrapolation Practical statistics Boolean logic Debate logic
To much teaching is spent trying to get students to memorize steps or trivia. The real world is an open book test. Finding information and learning how to learn on one's own is more important than walking around with a bunch of trivia in one's head. Too many workers are afraid of instruction manuals for instance. They expect somebody else to TEACH it to them because they are used to this approach to learning.
It is all an image game. People ASSUME that the big name universities are the best at teaching because of research credit mentioned in the trade magazines. The smaller universities are forced to use the same books and subject matter as the big namers in order to look like they are keeping up.
Although it is true that the big name universities attract the best students from highschool, there is NO evidence that the teaching or subject matter itself is better. Why then do people worship the names and teaching material of these universities? Go buy a Guchi handbag and you will understand.
A well rounded education is a nice thing to have. Two-parent families are also nice to have. Yet the second is not forced on people, while the first is. To me this a anti-American.
I suggest having more varied types of degrees. Offer a well-rounded version, and a major-only degree for example. This would not only allow some students to finish school faster, but also reduce the growing costs of higher education. Stop the coercion, give the people a choice!