World Politics

[Anonymous]

Stupid public sector should really learn to do things the way private enterprise does them.
Promise the same, then go bankrupt, f**k the workers out of their pensions, then their jobs. CEO keeps his millions and hires a bunch of Indians, business as usual after "reorganization".
It's the American Way.

Jolly good show sir! Jolly good!

 

[BroDeal]

Hmm, well how are they lying? By excluding all the non-lawyer graduates? I mean obviously some lawyers are raking it in...

They misrepresent the probability of raking it in by knowingly using bogus statistics.

 

[Anonymous]

This has to be one of the more idiotic things I have ever read. Under your plan, if I can call such stupidity a plan, what becomes of the child of a family living under the poverty line? Do they not get any education? Does the country then deal with a huge and uneducated underclass? Tens of millions of people who never went to elementry school, that will help the country.

Point to where I even so much as suggested that there be no education?

Really dude? Public is the only possibility?

 

[Anonymous]

Higher education in the U.S. has become one giant scam. Its method is to sucker the youth into taking out huge loans. The money then gets transferred into the pockets of the bankers, the professors, and the administrators. Essentially it works by transferring public money into private hands and leaving the students with life of crushing non-dischargable debt.

The most egregious example is the 200+ law schools, many of which are private. Even the ones that are not private are used as cash cows for the universities they are attached to. The average student gets out with roughly $100K in debt and no possibility of ever practicing law because the field is overcrowded and shrinking. There is no difference between the law school scam and the two year private schools that fill the advertising time on cable TV with ads about how you can get your "degree" in video game design or some other useless skill.

College textbooks are flat out robbery. A brother got to pay $200 for a Physics textbook, the first third of which is three hundred year old Newtonian physics. The system is one giant rip-off.

A bit of an under and over exaggeration. The under is that $100K is generous. The over is that there are no jobs. There are jobs that require bar passage. Over 80% of the 2010 graduates from our school are employed in the legal field (20% of those in JD preferred, but legal none the less).

I do however agree that it is a puppy mill. But I work my a$$ off anyway. The good news is that if I keep my grades where they are, I get a full ride in 9 months. That should help the cost. I also cannot get around the fact that this is all I have really ever wanted to do, and I love it. I am in school with a lot of people who are here for many different reasons. Those of us who are doing really well have one thing in common, and we talk about it: We love this sh!t.

 

[BroDeal]

Point to where I even so much as suggest that there be no education?

Really dude? Public is the only possibility?

If it is not public then how do you expect the poor to pay for it?

I can see it now: "Welcome to Walmart Elementry School, where you learn while your parents shop for low quality crap from China. This is teacher Jorge. He graduated from Arby's Junior High School and makes eight bucks an hour. What you learn here may one day get you a quality job like Jorge."

 

[Anonymous]

If it is not public then how do you expect the poor to pay for it?

I can see it now: "Welcome to Walmart Elementry School, where you learn while your parents shop for low quality crap from China. This is teacher Jorge. He graduated from Arby's Junior High School and makes eight bucks an hour. What you learn here may one day get you a quality job like Jorge."

Ever heard of vouchers?

Eliminating the public school aparatus does not mean there are no tax dollars spent on education.

I take it you are happy with the way public education is now. Got it.

 

[Rip:30]

A bit of an under and over exaggeration. The under is that $100K is generous. The over is that there are no jobs. There are jobs that require bar passage. Over 80% of the 2010 graduates from our school are employed in the legal field (20% of those in JD preferred, but legal none the less).

I do however agree that it is a puppy mill. But I work my a$$ off anyway. The good news is that if I keep my grades where they are, I get a full ride in 9 months. That should help the cost. I also cannot get around the fact that this is all I have really ever wanted to do, and I love it. I am in school with a lot of people who are here for many different reasons. Those of us who are doing really well have one thing in common, and we talk about it: We love this sh!t.

Exactly how it is in the biological sciences too. I think it's good to be cognizant of the job market place (over supply of PhDs, but the work's there if you're a standout applicant), but either way I knew I had follow my passion.

Another reason I choose a PhD over an MD or JD was that we come out with zero debt (in the sciences), but still mostly it was because I have always loved science and have no problem staying motivated to do stupidly complex things.

Career wise, a pinch of pragmatism with a heap passion has been working out very well so far.

I always tell my undergrads looking for advice on grad school/careers, to ditch the US News rankings and really delve into the details about the programs under consideration. Model your career arc on successful individual predecessors, and your vision for how you are going to solve problems, not some silly summary statistics about starting salary.

 

[Rip:30]

They misrepresent the probability of raking it in by knowingly using bogus statistics.

There are actually peer reviewed rankings as well that don't rely on self reporting from the schools.

Still I contend it's a mistake to use any of these ranking to try to predict one's career path.

 

[redtreviso]

Ever heard of vouchers?

Eliminating the public school aparatus does not mean there are no tax dollars spent on education.

I take it you are happy with the way public education is now. Got it.

Vouchers are always a lie..The same people who want to close schools and issue vouchers want tax breaks for their own kids that already go to private schools..They not only hate paying property taxes that support public schools they want to be relieved of it completely. and don't let any of those voucher kids show up at their Country Day School for little 7 yr old want for nuthin motocrossers..

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Grizzly bear, polar bear,what kind of bear? And why are they in particles?

The Biaviians have a saying…….. O-Qua Tangin Wann... Qua Omsa Lagee Wann" But friend Patrick it is obvious he is a” Stagyian…(who have a bony, leathery appearance and peaceful and scientific disposition.”

 

[patricknd]

The Biaviians have a saying…….. O-Qua Tangin Wann... Qua Omsa Lagee Wann" But friend Patrick it is obvious he is a” Stagyian…(who have a bony, leathery appearance and peaceful and scientific disposition.”

Are they critical thinkers?

 

[rhubroma]

Pretty much every field is overcrowded and many get through their degree(s) and end up serving coffee. It's presumptions to assume you are really going to be successful just by getting a bunch of degrees--it takes a lot more in this day and age. Still, you need to get that degree to at least have a chance in your field. How many lawyers didn't go to law school. Having a higher degree is better than not having one. It's true though, there are many many people who should not be in college. But there's not a whole lot of viable alternatives (in their mind). And the universities do help perpetrate the myth that they are there to help these overly entitled snots to get some prestigious job. If you look at the history of academia, this is not at all what it was or is about (law school is different being a professional school of course).

I don't think rip off is the right term, although I can see why it looks that way to many (myself at one point). It's not the educational system's fault that there are too many people who feel they are entitled to an extremely high standard of living--and all they have to do to get there is go to school.

Text books: yeah, larceny. But so is a lot of stuff. Like bike tires or carbon frames.

The university system today is a business, like any other, such that people leave with their heads held high, clutching their graduation diplomas, which they regard as life-long guarantees of something extraordinary, when all they guarantee is extraordinary mediocrity. And they pay an inflated fee for this extraordinary mediocrity.

Ninety percent of humanity believes that, with good final grades from the last school they attended, their life has reached its apogee. This is what most people think. It's enough to drive one up the wall.

 

[Anonymous]

Vouchers are always a lie..The same people who want to close schools and issue vouchers want tax breaks for their own kids that already go to private schools..They not only hate paying property taxes that support public schools they want to be relieved of it completely. and don't let any of those voucher kids show up at their Country Day School for little 7 yr old want for nuthin motocrossers..

Really? Blanket statements are always a bad idea.

Advanced Analyses of Randomized School Voucher ExperimentsPIs: William Howell, University of Chicago; Paul Peterson, Harvard University

Summary:
What are the effects of vouchers on students who switch from public to private schools, and how do we best analyze them? These questions frame the focus of this study. Researchers began by conducting randomized field trials of private school voucher programs in three large U.S. cities. However, these trials fail to address the issue of noncompliant behavior and the systematic differences between those offered a voucher who do not use it, or not offered a voucher who nevertheless switch to a private school. Thus, investigators are revisiting the data, estimating a wide range of alternative models that explore student attrition patterns, consider the influence of additional covariates in models of student achievement, and assess the influence of non-response rates on estimated impacts. They are focusing on five programs to learn voucher effects on test scores, parent satisfaction, parent-school communications, and political tolerance.


Findings:
Findings show that, after two years, African-American students who use vouchers to switch from public to private schools score substantially better on math and reading tests. By contrast, no significant positive effects on the test scores of other ethnic groups are detected. Findings also reveal that, while parents in all ethnic groups are generally more supportive of private education, African-American parents express particularly high enthusiasm for the private schools their children attend.

Public School Choice: Magnet Schools, Peer Effects, and Student Achievement
PI: Dale Ballou, Vanderbilt University

Summary:
Focusing on magnet school students, this study considers how peer influences affect student performance by examining students who win and lose the lotteries and tracking their progress over time. The study builds on previous research that analyzed five years of data from the Metropolitan Nashville Public School System, comparing magnet and regular public school student achievement, and examining the extent to which magnet school performance is due to favorable peer effects. Using newly available data, this study will extend that research to consider three areas: whether magnet school effects persist through the end of middle school, and, for students who return to regular public schools, into high school; whether the results are cumulative; and the nature and extent of peer influences in middle and high school.

Findings:
The previous research finds positive magnet effects and even larger peer effects in the middle school grades. Specifically, magnet schools raise academic achievement of fifth and sixth graders in mathematics, and in the more selective academic magnet, the positive effect on performance is fully explained by favorable peer effects. By contrast, controlling for peer characteristics diminishes only slightly the estimated effect of the non-selective magnets. Although peers do not explain the magnet school effect, peers have a dramatic impact on middle school achievement. The estimated difference between a school where students are 75 percent black and one in which students are 25 percent black is more than half a year’s normal growth in mathematics

In-depth Analysis of the Effects of Choice on Student Achievement in Charter Schools
PI: Caroline Hoxby, Stanford University

Summary:
With the growth of the charter school movement, many are eager to know if charter school students do better than students in regular public schools. This project investigates that question, specifically analyzing student achievement in Chicago, Florida, and New York City. The analysis is based on randomization, making use of the fact that charter schools with more applicants than openings hold admissions lotteries to decide which students may enroll. Thus, the students who are in the charter schools have been “lotteried in” and the comparison students are “lotteried out” and attending regular public schools..

Findings:
In July 2007 this project released a series of 44 reports on student achievement in New York City’s charter schools. Based on data from the 2000-01 through 2005-06 school years, the reports show that New York City charter schools tend to locate in disadvantaged neighborhoods and serve students who are substantially poorer than the average public school student there. The schools also attract black applicants to an unusual degree--relative not only to the city, but also to the regular public schools from which they draw. NYC charter school students test slightly better in math and reading than their peers in regular public schools. Specifically, the average charter school effect in math is 0.09 standard deviations and in reading is 0.04 standard deviations for every year a student spends in charter school.

For schools in Chicago, early findings indicate clear positive effects on the math and reading test scores of students who enter charter schools in kindergarten through 5th grade. In Florida, preliminary results reveal a unique school choice environment, in which a tapestry of several programs offers students a variety of opportunities--charter schools, virtual schools, tax-credit-funded scholarships, scholarships for disabled students, and until recently, scholarships for students from failing public schools. Some have voiced concern that under a tapestry approach students might self-segregate, but research in Florida shows little evidence for this.

More;
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice/

More;
http://www.allianceforschoolchoice.org/UploadedFiles/ResearchResources/Wisconsin-%20Greene.pdf

I don't know why I'm putting this up. It's not like you'll read it.

 

[redtreviso]

""Members of Congress are upset about a lot of things – the economy, the debt… the toilets?

Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, today went off on a tirade about toilets in the midst of an Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing on energy efficiency standards for certain appliances.

His unwitting victim was Kathleen Hogan, the deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency at the Department of Energy.

“You’re really anti-choice on every other consumer item that you’ve listed here, including light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets – you name it, you can’t go around your house without being told what to buy. You restrict my choices, you don’t care about my choices,” Paul said to her. “You don’t care about the consumer frankly. You raise the cost of all the items with your rules, all your notions that you know what’s best for me.”""


http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/03/rand-pauls-toilet-tirade.html

 

[Semper Fidelis]

""Members of Congress are upset about a lot of things – the economy, the debt… the toilets?

Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, today went off on a tirade about toilets in the midst of an Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing on energy efficiency standards for certain appliances.

His unwitting victim was Kathleen Hogan, the deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency at the Department of Energy.

“You’re really anti-choice on every other consumer item that you’ve listed here, including light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets – you name it, you can’t go around your house without being told what to buy. You restrict my choices, you don’t care about my choices,” Paul said to her. “You don’t care about the consumer frankly. You raise the cost of all the items with your rules, all your notions that you know what’s best for me.”""


http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/03/rand-pauls-toilet-tirade.html

This just in.....President Obama continues to do Nothing.

 

[redtreviso]

Really? Blanket statements are always a bad idea.







More;
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice/

More;
http://www.allianceforschoolchoice.org/UploadedFiles/ResearchResources/Wisconsin-%20Greene.pdf

I don't know why I'm putting this up. It's not like you'll read it.

sources.........................................

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/groups/alliance-school-choice

 

[redtreviso]

more right wing d-bags..and various scotty's john galt fantasy heroes

""The five most wanted enemies of public education in this camp are Chester “Checker” Finn,Frederick Hess , Eli Broad, Louis Gerstner and Arne Duncan. Finn and Hess are now working and or were supported by right wing think tanks, Finn from the Manhattan Institute and later the Hoover Institution, and Hess at the American Enterprise Institute. Finn is the current President of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation which is supported by the Broad Foundation. Eli Broad is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 93rd richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of around $5.2 billion. He and his wife Edythe have made reform in public education through their foundation a high priority. Arne Duncan is currently the ninth U.S. Secretary of Education and formerly CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. Lou Gerstner is the former CEO of IBM and his net worth as of 2002 was approximately $630 million.

All of these white males espouse the neoliberal agenda of privatization, the use of government to create markets in the form of charter schools and school vouchers, and have opposed school boards, teacher unions and schools of education. The kind of control required to reform public education fits that of the business community which requires top down corporate control (see Anderson & Pini, 2005). According to Harvey (2009) neo-liberalism was galvanized in 1971 by a confidential memo from Lewis Powell (later appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Richard Nixon) to the United States Chamber of Commerce in which he advocated that the Chamber “should lead an assault upon the major institutions---universities, schools, the media, publishing, the courts—in order to change how individuals think ‘about the corporation, the law, culture, and the individual’ """


http://cnx.org/content/m34684/latest/

 

[redtreviso]

""Glenn Beck has repeatedly used his Fox News show as a platform to villify labor unions, accusing unions of perpetuating violence, linking them to communists, likening union pensions to rape, accusing unions of wanting to destroy "the Western way of life," and claiming that unions are destroying children's education.
Beck Repeatedly Accuses Unions Of Being Violent

Beck Said Violence Is A "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy" Of Labor Unions. Beck said, "The unions are in bed with Washington and special interests and they are not in your or this nation's best interest anymore. They are following the playbooks from Europe." Beck went on to spell out the "playbooks from Europe," concluding that the process ends with "violence." He added, "This is a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Beck Used Blatant Distortions To Smear SEIU As A Violent Organization Of "Thugs." Beck fired off a series of false and misleading attacks to claim that Service Employees International Union members are "thugs" who "beat down" opponents and command elected officials.

Beck Suggested Progressive Coalition Will Become Violent And Riot "A Year From Now." In September 2010, Beck claimed that progressives were trying to "nudge" the United States toward "global governance," and said that "violence is a part of the overall strategy." Beck said that he believed that a labor march that was being planned at the time would be "peaceful," but he suggested that "a year from now" there may be violence and riots "when the cuts take place."

Beck Suggested Union Members May Kill Him. Beck criticized legislation supported by organized labor and said, "By the way, if I show up dead, check the unions."

Beck: Unions Share The Wealth "At The End Of A Baseball Bat." Beck said that "the unions and their pensions are in jeopardy, because sharing the wealth, whether it has been at the barrel of a gun like Maoists, or at the end of a baseball bat like unions, it doesn't work."
""

http://mediamatters.org/research/201103150016

 

[Semper Fidelis]

"The mere fact that you are means you always have been and cannot stop being."' obviously Biaviians

 

[redtreviso]

"The mere fact that you are means you always have been and cannot stop being."' obviously Biaviians

downwind from pesticide factories much?

 

[rhubroma]

""Glenn Beck has repeatedly used his Fox News show as a platform to villify labor unions, accusing unions of perpetuating violence, linking them to communists, likening union pensions to rape, accusing unions of wanting to destroy "the Western way of life," and claiming that unions are destroying children's education.
Beck Repeatedly Accuses Unions Of Being Violent

Beck Said Violence Is A "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy" Of Labor Unions. Beck said, "The unions are in bed with Washington and special interests and they are not in your or this nation's best interest anymore. They are following the playbooks from Europe." Beck went on to spell out the "playbooks from Europe," concluding that the process ends with "violence." He added, "This is a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Beck Used Blatant Distortions To Smear SEIU As A Violent Organization Of "Thugs." Beck fired off a series of false and misleading attacks to claim that Service Employees International Union members are "thugs" who "beat down" opponents and command elected officials.

Beck Suggested Progressive Coalition Will Become Violent And Riot "A Year From Now." In September 2010, Beck claimed that progressives were trying to "nudge" the United States toward "global governance," and said that "violence is a part of the overall strategy." Beck said that he believed that a labor march that was being planned at the time would be "peaceful," but he suggested that "a year from now" there may be violence and riots "when the cuts take place."

Beck Suggested Union Members May Kill Him. Beck criticized legislation supported by organized labor and said, "By the way, if I show up dead, check the unions."

Beck: Unions Share The Wealth "At The End Of A Baseball Bat." Beck said that "the unions and their pensions are in jeopardy, because sharing the wealth, whether it has been at the barrel of a gun like Maoists, or at the end of a baseball bat like unions, it doesn't work."
""

http://mediamatters.org/research/201103150016

Yes, here's a man that knows what he's talking about.

In Europe, which, if I'm not mistaken, is a not insignificant part of Western Civilization, the modern democratic state has been completely constructed on workers' unions and workers' rights with a strong imprint from Marxism in terms of workers' struggle, which means the masses, for dignity.

So the "Western way of life" of which he speaks exists uniquely, and rather stupidly, in his own head.

However, the idea of democracy for the Glenn Becks of America is exclusively about individual freedom, with no tolerance for the common plight of the masses, nor collective society.

Though this is a strange, if not to say perverse, concept of democracy in the sence of the demos.

Lastly I'd recommend to Beck that he consult the history books and expand his horizons, before making thoroughly idiotic statements, what's more it's the likes of the neoliberals like Beck, who demand the privatization of everything, even the public schools, that America has been turned into an unscrupulous commercial concern in which everything is bargained for and everyone is defrauded. And in no other country has the work of privatization been carried out with such horrendous efficiency as in America. Or so unscrupulously. The nation has been hoodwinked by the neoliberals, egged on and abetted by cynical politicians, with no sense of the state and even less for society. And one wonders why the public schools have been so eviscerated and mutilated over the past decades? Among our rulers we have had so many unscrupulous profiteers, so many obliterators of the state, that it doesn't bear thinking about; they all held onto their congressional seats long enough to promote and carry through the destruction and annihilation of the state, so that you think you're visiting a modern democratic nation of Western Civilization, but in reality you're visiting a monstrous business enterprise.

In no other country have they taken the brainless slogans of progress so seriously as in America and thereby ruined everything; that inevitably it has become a country where vulgarity and tastelessness prevail. So it's no wonder that the results are so ubiquitously shattering, above all in the public schools. A malign atmosphere prevails everywhere. For while these people were in power, destroying, despoiling, and more or less obliterating the state with their business fanaticism, they were simultaneously destroying the nation's soul, it's whole mentality. And the public school system could not have but suffered the devastating consequences as a result, as is plain for all to see. How can a nation that thinks like this and has been led by these greedy charlatans for this long have decent public schools? The souls of my compatriots have been depraved, their characters vulgarized and debased, by the neoliberal ideology, for which men like Glenn Beck have the depravity and vulgarity of an entire nation hanging over their consciences. How can a nation that accomodates a Glenn Beck, or a Rush Limbaugh, possibly have decent public schools, I've thought, when it is quite obviously impossible?

 

[fatandfast]

Obama getting ready for a cup check. Saudi's sending troops to keep the peace in Bahrain. Can't wait to see how big the no fly zone is going to be. Should just be everywhere south of France and Italy

 

[patricknd]

"The mere fact that you are means you always have been and cannot stop being."' obviously Biaviians

I think you may be right. And here I thought he was just full of crap. Thanks for correcting my obviously mistaken impression. You do this forum a great service.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

downwind from pesticide factories much?

"They can uh... set a headset on you, and download into your neurotronic syntaxes... uhhh various different... uh very complicated historical, uh and scientific equations and things of this nature... "

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Obama getting ready for a cup check. Saudi's sending troops to keep the peace in Bahrain. Can't wait to see how big the no fly zone is going to be. Should just be everywhere south of France and Italy

President Obama’s current lack of Presidential leadership his mind numbing at this point.

It is a major happening for the region around Saudi to have been called in to Bahrain to quell a uprising. Very close to the edge of destruction. Not much media coverage on it but I find it surprising that the country of Bahrain having issues with a revolt. What’s next UAE?