Educating For Success

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President Obama has just created a new "bailout program" for education. An article in Epoch Times states that he has promised "a share of $900 million in new federal aid to schools that improve their graduation rates and post major gains in academic achievement." This article reports that President Obama proposes 4 options to improve public schools: 1. Turnaround model - " require low-performing schools to replace their principal and half their staffs" 2. Restart approach - "replace the school altogether with a charter system" 3. Closure strategy - "shutter the struggling school and require district administrators to enroll its former students in better-performing institutions" 4. Transformation plan - "prescribe a series of changes to school curricula, governance and structure" As an advocate of excellent education, the daughter of two professional educators, a college graduate with a degree in education, the wife of a former public school teacher, and a mother of 7 children, I want to see our public education system prepare its students successfully to enter the work force as contributors, not just consumers. Yet this proposed plan appears to be just another government bailout that will not solve the problems faced by the education world. Instead, it will cost tax-payers almost another billion dollars that could be better spent by the educators and administrators themselves. And from an administration that has been telling us it seeks to create jobs, it looks like teachers and administrators alike are already in jeopardy of being down-sized. (That means "fired.") The article explains: "12 percent of schools across the nation account for approximately 50 percent of student dropouts. The $900 million will go to the 5,000 lowest performing schools in each state. Schools will only receive money if they comply with government improvement strategies." I thought socialism, which is the "change we can all believe in" is, provided equally for everyone. This distribution of the nation's taxpayer's doesn't seem quite fair to me. What incentive is there for good schools who are juggling budget and social issues and handling everything well? Not only are they not being rewarded, they are in fact being punished. The article also reported, "Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the president said, 'For America to compete and win in the 21st century, we know we will need a highly educated workforce.'" What? We're not training our children to compete in the 21st century, we should be educating each of them to do exactly what they are called to do. There is always work to be done and those who are willing to do it can create jobs if none are available. That has always been the strength of this country, home-grown entrepreneurialism. We shouldn't put the pressure of "competing for jobs" on our students. Instead, we should prepare them for the direction they want to go in. Education should encourage them and prepare them to be the best at what they do to glorify God, serve others well, enjoy what they do, create income to support their families and contribute well to their society with whatever gifts and talents they have.

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