During discussions around the education system a phrase that comes up quite a bit is this idea of School Choice. School Choice basically gives parents the power and freedom to choose their child’s education based on the school's quality and their children's needs and not their home address. This freedom to choose is supposed to encourage healthy competition among schools and other institutions to better serve students’ needs and priorities.
When it comes time to choose my where my child will go to school some important factors are going to be the school's graduation rates, it's facilities and resources, motivated students and teachers, and an environment that will best prepare him for college.
When my wife and I were deciding on where we would be moving recently, a critical piece of that decision was to make sure that it was located near what we considered good schools based off the criteria listed above. The High School in the area we ended up choosing had an average student GPA of 3.6, average ACT score is 24.5, 92% of the students graduate, 87% of those students will go on to college and is on the list of Newsweek's 2012 Best High Schools in America. Seemed like a perfect school district to raise our child in.
Yesterday, I was reading through our local newspaper and saw that there was an article about that very same High School which talked about how it was considered failing according to No Child Left Behind Standards. The article also mentioned that 2/3 of all Illinois schools including all but 11 high schools failed to make adequate yearly progress according to NCLB standards. Now having gone through our Public Discourse class and having understanding the lack of credibility of the NCLB standards, this really didn't surprise but only reaffirmed my belief that the criteria in which current reforms measures school success is, for lack of a better term, crap.
This made me wonder, how many other people read that same article or chose not to send their son to that High School because they heard that it was considered failing, when in all actuality it's an excellent school where nearly every student graduates and most move on to higher education. This was just another example of how current reforms and the way they measure success vs. failure are extremely skewed and need to be changed.
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Thursday, November 15, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
2012 Elections: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
As I had a few days to reflect upon the 2012 Election and the campaigns prior to the election, there are some highlights that really stick out in my mind that I will remember from this election. Regardless who won, this election has exposed many things wrong with our country and now more than ever we need these elected officials to step up and deliver on their promises. Below is a brief summary of my thoughts:
The good: It's over. America can finally take a break from all the media hype and political ads that have taken over our televisions, radios, telephones, and computers. It was also good to hear President Obama mention that the immediate next steps will be for both parties to attempt to work together to start to improve our nation. Now whether this will actually happen...only time will tell.
The bad:
- Campaign Spend - This year's Presidential campaign was the most expensive in history and as I mentioned in previous blogs, our nation is in desperate need of money and many other issues could have been addressed with those funds rather than wasting millions on television ads that few people even watch. Additionally there were allegations of misuse of campaign spend like Jesse Jackson Jr. who felt it was appropriate to furnish his home and buy his girlfriend a $40K watch with campaign money.
-Attack Ads - It was very discouraging to see this year that almost every candidate's ads focused on attacking the character of the other candidate rather than addressing the issues.
-Media Coverage - In my opinion, the mainstream failed when it came to informing the average citizen about the important issues and the candidates stance on those issues. Instead of focusing on what really matters, the media seemed to focus on candidate slip-ups or other stories which had no relevance to to their political strategies. So when the average citizen votes on an individual based off their personality rather than policy, we can't really blame them because that is all they hear about through mainstream media.
The ugly:
-Voting Polls - you would think that in this day and age and the technology that has become available we would finally be able to structure voting polls in a manner that allows people to get in and vote without any barriers or controversy. Voters in Miami-Dade County waited over 6 hours to cast their votes for the election and were still standing in line well after President Obama was projected as the winner. In Pennsylvania there was an issue where a voting machine lit up for Romney even when the voter was trying to vote for Obama. The election Protection coalition of civil rights and voting access groups said they received more than 80,000 complaints regarding this years voting process.
-Chicago voters - I can honestly say that I am embarrassed by the fact that the city of Chicago re-elected Jesse Jackson Jr. and Derrick Smith. Jackson has been accused of adultery, misuse of campaign funds, (to buy home furniture and a $40K Rolex for a girlfriend), and hasn't been performing his duties since the summer because of "illness" which I attribute to Igotcaughtitis. Additionally it has been reported that he has been in talks with authorities about a plea deal regarding the campaign finance allegations.
Smith was impeached and tossed out of the state House after being arrested in a federal sting for accepting a $7,000 bribe.
Chicago has made national headlines because of it's politicians who engaged in corrupt activity that took place after they were elected which you can't necessarily blame the voters for. But there is absolutely no excuse for re-electing representatives that have already proven they are corrupt. Has moral character lost its meaning? If one thing good came out of these two individuals being elected was that it proves all the money spent bashing the character of the other candidate was a complete waste. So hopefully this sends the message that they should use invest that money where it's really needed. In my opinion, the election of these two candidates is a black eye on our state and an embarrassment to the entire political system.
The good: It's over. America can finally take a break from all the media hype and political ads that have taken over our televisions, radios, telephones, and computers. It was also good to hear President Obama mention that the immediate next steps will be for both parties to attempt to work together to start to improve our nation. Now whether this will actually happen...only time will tell.
The bad:
- Campaign Spend - This year's Presidential campaign was the most expensive in history and as I mentioned in previous blogs, our nation is in desperate need of money and many other issues could have been addressed with those funds rather than wasting millions on television ads that few people even watch. Additionally there were allegations of misuse of campaign spend like Jesse Jackson Jr. who felt it was appropriate to furnish his home and buy his girlfriend a $40K watch with campaign money.
-Attack Ads - It was very discouraging to see this year that almost every candidate's ads focused on attacking the character of the other candidate rather than addressing the issues.
-Media Coverage - In my opinion, the mainstream failed when it came to informing the average citizen about the important issues and the candidates stance on those issues. Instead of focusing on what really matters, the media seemed to focus on candidate slip-ups or other stories which had no relevance to to their political strategies. So when the average citizen votes on an individual based off their personality rather than policy, we can't really blame them because that is all they hear about through mainstream media.
The ugly:
-Voting Polls - you would think that in this day and age and the technology that has become available we would finally be able to structure voting polls in a manner that allows people to get in and vote without any barriers or controversy. Voters in Miami-Dade County waited over 6 hours to cast their votes for the election and were still standing in line well after President Obama was projected as the winner. In Pennsylvania there was an issue where a voting machine lit up for Romney even when the voter was trying to vote for Obama. The election Protection coalition of civil rights and voting access groups said they received more than 80,000 complaints regarding this years voting process.
-Chicago voters - I can honestly say that I am embarrassed by the fact that the city of Chicago re-elected Jesse Jackson Jr. and Derrick Smith. Jackson has been accused of adultery, misuse of campaign funds, (to buy home furniture and a $40K Rolex for a girlfriend), and hasn't been performing his duties since the summer because of "illness" which I attribute to Igotcaughtitis. Additionally it has been reported that he has been in talks with authorities about a plea deal regarding the campaign finance allegations.
Smith was impeached and tossed out of the state House after being arrested in a federal sting for accepting a $7,000 bribe.
Chicago has made national headlines because of it's politicians who engaged in corrupt activity that took place after they were elected which you can't necessarily blame the voters for. But there is absolutely no excuse for re-electing representatives that have already proven they are corrupt. Has moral character lost its meaning? If one thing good came out of these two individuals being elected was that it proves all the money spent bashing the character of the other candidate was a complete waste. So hopefully this sends the message that they should use invest that money where it's really needed. In my opinion, the election of these two candidates is a black eye on our state and an embarrassment to the entire political system.
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