Politics and Education
So in California they are talking about decreasing the school year in high school to 155 days. That equates out to around 775-798 hours for high school in California. To top that our students do not get field trips, technology, arts, and possibly no sports at all. If people still cannot see the damage that is being done by politicians to our children’s education, then I guess there is nothing more to be said. However, here is some information for you to look at: This full article is located at: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Organizing-a-school/Time-in-school-How-does-the-US-compare
Do other countries require more instructional hours for students than the U.S.?
China and India are important comparisons, but other countries could provide even greater insight into whether U.S. students are spending as much time in school, particularly countries that typically score high on international assessments, such as Korea, Japan, Finland, and Canada, as well as economic competitors such as England, France, Germany, and Italy. The data set that allows us to do this comes from the OECD. It does not include the number of school days, but looks directly at required instructional hours.
According to the OECD, the hours of compulsory instruction per year in these countries range from 608 hours in Finland (a top performer) to 926 hours in France (average) at the elementary level, compared to the over 900 hours required in California, New York, Texas, and Massachusetts. Of particular note, no state requires as few hours as Finland, even though Finland scores near the top of nearly every international assessment. As a matter of fact, Vermont – a high-performing state7 — requires the fewest number of hours (700 hours) for its elementary students (grades 1-2) than any other state, and it still requires more than Finland. Vermont’s requirement is also more than the 612 hours high-achieving Korea requires of its early elementary students. Moreover, all but 5 states require more hours of instruction at the early elementary school level than the OECD countries8 average of 759 hours.
At the middle school level, total hours of instruction range from 777 hours in Finland (a top performer) to 1001 in Italy (an average performer). Three of our 5 large states, New York (990 hours), Texas (1,260 hours), and Massachusetts (990 hours) would rank near the top of all industrialized nations in number of hours required. California and Florida would rank near the middle at 900 hours but still above the OECD average of 886 hours. It should be noted that even at the middle school level, countries like Japan and Korea require fewer hours (868 and 867 respectively) than most U.S. states. So by the 8th grade, students in most U.S. states have been required to receive more hours of instruction than students in most industrialized countries, including high-performing Finland, Japan, and Korea.
In most countries, there is a significant increase in the time students are required to be in school at the high school level. In the U.S., most states require the same number of hours in high school as in middle school. Just as they did at middle school level, Finland (856 hours) and Italy (1,089 hours) required the fewest and most hours of instruction respectively. Italy’s 1,089 hours surpasses all but 2 out of our 5 selected states. Texas requires 1,260 hours of instruction at the high school level, while California requires 1,080 hours. (California used to require this, but it has not for awhile) Korea requires 1,020 hours of instruction at the high school level. Nearly half (22) the states require more instructional hours than Korea. Moreover, the vast majority of states (42) require more hours of instruction than the OECD average of 902 hours. Again, there’s no evidence that students in other countries are required to receive more instruction than students in the United States.
Achievement
You must be careful when you buy into the achievement material that the politicians publish. The whole system is setup to deny funding to schools. It has become one of the biggest scams that politicians were able to pull off. The majority of “Funding” never reaches the actual school. The state government takes their share, the county takes their share, the district administrators take their share, and then whatever is left goes to the wages of the workers at the school site, and lastly the kids. The politicians use the achievement scores to deny funding to the schools. The sad part is…The schools that need more funding are the ones that are doing poorly.
My point is that our system could work if we would stop allowing politicians to manipulate our educational system. The politicians do not know how much a gallon of milk costs, or how much gasoline costs. How could politicians know what your child needs educationally? Just like the Common Core material that is on the door step now, and that program assumes that all jobs in 2018 will require secondary (college) education. Did anyone look at the California Department of Labor and their projections? There are very little jobs that will require a secondary education. We are talking about 5,000 total for the whole state of California. So one high school district in California could to fulfill all the job openings? It is outrageous to say that all students will need a college education! Considering that many of the school districts are in agricultural areas.
Our politicians have lost touch to what our children need. We keep cutting schools until there is no way for the schools to survive. I feel there is a big push by politicians to privatize schools. If we allow that to happen then what will happen to the kids in the middle class or poverty? Those kids will not get much of an education. Don’t believe me? Look at Medicare or social medicine… Do any of you want that kind of service when it comes to the education of your children? I know we are almost at that point now, and many of you feel we are. When is that last time that your kids got a field trip? When is the last time that you did not have to pay for sports, band, art, dance, etc.
The bottom line is that the politicians are not touched by the lack of funding in education from elementary all the way to college because their kids are in private schools. The politicians want you to hate your local teachers. By the way that attitude of disrespect for your local teachers you have goes to school with your kids. You are being manipulated and your children will end up without an education if you do not do something to try and change all of this garbage. As for me… I am not worried because I will home school my grand-kids. I feel sorry for the rest of society.
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