Quote:
Originally Posted by SwampYankee
Serious question, not being a wise a$$, I must be missing something.
For example, according to CT's Attorney General, No Child Left Behind is an unfunded mandate which costs the state millions of dollars. For what? Why does it cost so much to administer a test and send them off to be scored? Are the states responsible for printing/copying them? Is there more to it than losing one day of school to pass out a test?
I can see the state's argument that the CT Mastery Tests are more stringent than the NAEP test and that it's repetitive but I just don't see what all the money must be going to. No one ever addresses that part of it, just that it's an "unfunded mandate."
Please help, I'm sure there's an easy explanation. I've just never heard/read it.
|
The US Constitution says the national congress has the authority to compel the states to do certain things, then it's up to the state to raise the revenue top pay for them, in any way they like. In the past, people have lobbied for cash for these mandates, but previously to that,
a) there were many many fewer mandates;
b) the states just figured out a way to pay for them.
Educational unions and the NEA lobby have created a giant bureaucracy which the congress and the people have to jump through have chosen to jump through instead of scrap. It's done to create a power base and to support (financially) their own interests, just like the UAW and the Teamsters created make work programs like the Jobs Bank (where you get paid for doing nothing, literally). This enables these guys to create their own power elite.
Education gets shortchanged because the only way to make the system work is by creating emergency loopholes tohire competent part-time substitute teachers.
Simple example: to be a French teacher, you don't need to know French, you just need a degree in language education and courses in French. No one EVER checks to make sure that you can do the job.
I was a government French interpreter for NATO and translator for a two-star admiral, a four-star general and for corporate vice presidents. When they would send me people to help, I interviewed the former language teachers first, figuring they would be the best, since they use it every day, right? They were the worst. One kept her certification by taking French cooking classes (they were"culture" classes. Culture of what? yoghurt?).
In the real word I have been French-language voice talent, recording training programs etc. in French. I've been the French sound track for Big 3 CEOs when the message went to foreign news sources. The video studio didn't care about how many degrees I had (I have three, one from a French university) , they wanted to see me perform, because that's what they pay for.
Hence, those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And don't give me that crapola about "oh you don't know...bla bla bla). I have also been a high school teacher and a grad school business prof.
So the answer is: squeeze all the fat out of the school system (convert to biodiesel?
), and save the money, using it for value-added stuff, not bureraucracy and other things, then you will have the money to educate, not subsidize industries or political cronies that can't make it on their own, because their managers are too dumb,greedy or short-sighted.
In Detroit, no one knows how they spent 4 million bucks of school district money. The Detroit superintendent is fired, but she still wants her 250K salary for three years after she's gone. The governor is taking forever to appoint a state-controlled administrator to take over the purse strings, in the meantime, $30,000/day is disappearing
...where's it going?
Aren't you sorry you asked about "unfunded mandates"....