There's a War on War

Matt Welch | August 26, 2008

Oh goody, a new War on Something, from the convention floor!

Rather than burning through billions of dollars on failed foreign policies and an open-ended war, Barack knows that the real war to be fought is for the education of our children, the future of America's economic health.

Something tells me Mike Honda's War on Education will involve that magic word that begins with "re" and ends in "sources." Sho nuff!

Sadly, over the past eight years, the misguided Bush/McCain priorities have bled our schools' resources dry, shutting down that gateway to success, and hijacking our children's capacity to achieve the American dream.

Wait, we're spending less on education than we were eight years ago?

Comments

|8.26.08 @ 9:18PM|#

Is anyone watching MSNBC's coverage? I swear: Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann are about to have a cat fight.

SIV|8.26.08 @ 9:31PM|#

Wait, we're spending less on education than we were eight years ago?

Despite many of the leftist twits who comment here who believe I'm nothing but a Right wing Republican shill, I didn't vote for Bush in 2004
in part because we were spending more Federal money on education.The SOB was governing domestically like he was in the DemocRAT Party.

Phillip Conti|8.26.08 @ 9:38PM|#

All government spending on education is just really an inefficient compulsory substitute for private initiative.

|8.26.08 @ 9:46PM|#

you gonna lose...you got to lose

|8.26.08 @ 9:50PM|#

Wait, we're spending less on education than we were eight years ago?

The standarized-testing model of schooling jammed down the country's throats by Congress and the Department of Education has imposed all sorts of expensive mandates on schools, without paying for them all.

Screw NCLB.

BDB|8.26.08 @ 9:52PM|#

Still no read meat at the convention.

SIV|8.26.08 @ 9:53PM|#

I may not be up on my "education policy" but wasn't NCLB all new Federal $$$ and the schools didn't have to take it unless they wanted to participate in the program?

SIV|8.26.08 @ 9:55PM|#

Still no read meat at the convention.

Didn't you see the pic of the ObamaNation truck ?

BDB|8.26.08 @ 9:57PM|#

The one with a photo of a dead embryo on the back? Yeah. Bizzaro world. Was Fred Phelps driving?

Dan|8.26.08 @ 9:57PM|#

Great Wilco reference

|8.26.08 @ 10:39PM|#

Let's compromise by turning the schools into military academies. That way we can spend more money on schools and the military at the same time.

Orange Line Special|8.26.08 @ 11:14PM|#

Considering their policies, why is Reason trying to give people like Mike Honda even more power?

I guess some things are more important than others!

|8.27.08 @ 2:35AM|#

The standarized-testing model of schooling jammed down the country's throats by Congress and the Department of Education has imposed all sorts of expensive mandates on schools, without paying for them all.

Screw NCLB.

I can fully understand how a federal program could jam all sorts of expensive mandates on schools... and standardized testing is a really really bad way to teach - So, in theory I really agree with you.

However, have you looked at the standardized tests? Actually looked? They really are only testing for the most rudimentary and basic skills. So while I agree with you in theory joe, in reality the only "expensive mandate" that NCLB places on schools is the most basic, barely acceptable, levels of literacy and arithmetic.

Most students in German, or Sweden, or your typical European country could pass the U.S. standardized testing, without any sort of pre-preparation or coaching, and that is with them doing it in a foreign language.

The fact is, if schools consider what is being testing in these tests to be onerous, they shouldn't be receiving federal money and should not be accredited in any way.

It is truly embarrassing how utterly low our national standards are compared to countries in Europe. In reality, the NCLB testing requirements are a joke, and any school that has trouble meeting the standards is criminally negligent.

jtuf|8.27.08 @ 9:48AM|#

Let's withdraw our forces from government schools.

|8.27.08 @ 10:41AM|#

All government spending on education is just really an inefficient compulsory substitute for private initiative.

With a few exceptions for "night watchman" functions, of course.

jtuf|8.27.08 @ 1:41PM|#

joe | August 26, 2008, 9:50pm | #

Wait, we're spending less on education than we were eight years ago?

The standarized-testing model of schooling jammed down the country's throats by Congress and the Department of Education has imposed all sorts of expensive mandates on schools, without paying for them all.

Screw NCLB.

I'll grant that many states designed bad tests, but testing is still part of education. Sometimes the teacher uses more informal evaluation methods (ie, verbally asking the student, "what does that passage mean?"), but teachers always use some evaluation method. Without that feedback, a teacher can't verify knowledge or correct mistakes. Saying testing is not an education cost is like saying your monitor is not a computing cost.

jtuf|8.27.08 @ 1:46PM|#

I've spent enough time warehoused in a segregated "special ed" English class to appreciate NCLB. Joe, you might think that letting in special ed students is ruining your classroom averages, but I realize the importance of desegrigating (aka aggregating) test scores.