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Schools have failed to produce educated populace

Friday, March 23 at 12:01 AM

This Speakout has not been edited

By Richard Becker, Broomfield

The Rocky Mountain News story of 3-14-07 "Plan tackles ed funding" concerned increasing funding for education, and preventing dropouts, by freezing real estate tax cuts. Why? The rise of high school remedial work for college freshmen and vocational students occurred despite increased spending on schools to "improve education" because schools have failed to create an educated populace.

A U.S. News & World Report of 9-1-75 notes that ".....money spent per pupil has more than doubled" from $484 to $1,255 K-12 in ten years. Using the inflation calculator (http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl) from the CPI website, the $484 per student in 1965 translates to $3,117.57 and the 1975 increase translates to $4,733.08 in 2006 dollars. And, teachers and school officials clamor for more spending for "literacy programs" to improve education as quality has declined despite increased spending to $7,000-$10,000 per student K-12! Part of the dropout problem is due to the inordinate focus of school on college preparation as the only presumed option that requires an academic high school education. It was naively assumed that students entering vocational schools had no need for an academic high school education because they would be "trained in vocational skills. Academically capable but not interested in college, they become bored and dropout due to lack of relevance.

In reality, an academic high school education, equal to that of college preparation, has always been a prerequisite. Core knowledge in reading, writing and math is essential for acquiring the core knowledge of machining. Especially since 1977 when the current Computer Numerical Controlled machines tools were developed, where the computer digitally operates the machining process via stepper motors and other electronic devices replacing the manually operated controls of the past. A computer that has to be "programmed" by assembling two-digit codes representing the various machining functions written in the software.

The need for remedial work became so great that the 2000 legislature passed HB 00-1464 ("Concerning students admitted to higher education") requiring high school graduates requiring high school remedial work in the core basics to complete that in community colleges. And, the Machining Technology nd other 2-year programs for the Associate of Applied Science Degree requires an assessment test to determine whether they were academically prepared. If the test showed they were not reading at the college level, they had to take REA 090 College Preparatory Reading also used to remediate high school graduates as college freshmen.

If the K-12 schools are doing such a good job for the money already spent, how can high school students graduate with high grades required for college entrance, and still require College Preparatory reading? Of course, Grade inflation. The same thing that showed up on the NAEP report where high school students enrolled in AP courses were getting high grades but testing showed they were deficient in reading, writing and math.

READER COMMENTS

To:
Educated when it meant something
Re:
Irony

"let's through more money at it!"

Posted by KJ on March 23, 2007 01:24 PM

You know the anser to this, let's through more money at it! (Even though it hasn't worked in the past)

Posted by Educated when it meant something on March 23, 2007 10:24 AM