• GOP lawmaker proposes abolishing Department of Education
    43 replies, posted
[quote] On the same day the Senate confirmed President Trump’s secretary of Education pick by a historically narrow margin, a House Republican introduced legislation to abolish the entire department Betsy DeVos will lead. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie’s bill is only a page long, after merely stating the Department of Education would terminate on Dec. 31, 2018. Massie believes that policymakers at the state and local levels should be responsible for education policy, instead of a federal agency that’s been in place since 1980. [/Quote] [URL="http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/318310-gop-lawmaker-proposes-abolishing-department-of-education"]The Hill[/URL] Just hours after DeVos was confirmed, this was proposed.
Seriously, what is the deal with the GOP. Why does it have so many people like this in it
I don't know whats worse. Fully getting rid of the DoE or having DeVo lead it.
[QUOTE=Sitkero;51790452]Seriously, what is the deal with the GOP. Why does it have so many people like this in it[/QUOTE] I've been wondering this for years now. I swear the Republicans TRY to be comic book villains. It's surreal.
Is this some sort of trick? Get someone who's abhorrently bad into a department of education, then submit a bill that would abolish the entirety of the department of education so that democrats would actually consider it?
[QUOTE=MissingGlitch;51790454]I don't know whats worse. Fully getting rid of the DoE or having DeVo lead it.[/QUOTE] I'm not American, but I imagine it could prove difficult to reestablish if it was abolished. So for worse or even worse, better that DeVos lead it so that someone more competent can one day take over.
So like, exactly what will happen in the long run without the dept of education?
[QUOTE=J!NX;51790558]So like, exactly what will happen in the long run without the dept of education?[/QUOTE] Education would be handled on a state level. Depending on your state this can be decent or really really bad.
I swear the Republicans are trying to destroy everything so that they can take the money and run with no chance of anyone catching up to them
It's a hell of a lot easier to remove a limb than reattach it. All I see is Republicans tearing stuff apart instead of actually fixing any of this countries problems. But at least they're "getting stuff done, unlike Obama!"
Yeah, let's just leave it up to the states to decide what is and isn't important for education. What could possibl--oh wait. [URL="http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/texas-teachers-are-rebelling-against-a-new-racist-textbook-that-portrays-mexicans-as-lazy-drunks/"]Texas teachers are rebelling against a new racist textbook that portrays Mexicans as lazy drunks[/URL] [QUOTE]Texas college and high school teachers say a textbook that has been proposed for [B]Mexican-American Studies[/B] high school class is chock-full of errors and omissions. If that isn’t enough, it’s also racist. According to Fusion, Texas State Board of Education member Ruben Cortez Jr. demanded that the board reject the textbook on the basis of the racism but also on the 68 factual errors, 42 interpretive errors and 31 omission errors. “It is an utter shame we must deal with racially offensive academic work,” said Cortez Jr. at a press conference. The Texas Tribune cites one passage in the commission report that states, “Stereotypically, Mexicans were viewed as lazy compared to European or American workers … Mexican laborers were not reared to put in a full day’s work so vigorously … It was also traditional to skip work on Mondays, and drinking on the job could be a problem.”[/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2015/06/25/controversial-textbooks-texas"]Controversial New Textbooks Go Into Use This Fall In Texas[/URL] [QUOTE]The new standards are causing controversy in part because they require that Moses be cited as a major influencer of America's founding documents. Marisa Perez and four other Democrats on Texas' 15-member State Board of Education voted against adopting the new textbooks. [...] Ratliff says he wasn’t a fan of proposed changes to the textbooks that would have called scientific consensus about climate change into question. Those changes were actually avoided because - after an uproar - textbook manufacturers removed the controversial passages at the last minute. [...] "And so I trust science teachers and I trust parents and school board members and principals to cover material in a way that is relevant and accurate. And so [B]I'm not too concerned about a generation of kids growing up and thinking that mankind has nothing to do with climate change,[/B]" [Ratliff said][/QUOTE] [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_and_evolution_in_public_education_in_the_United_States"]Wikipedia: Creation and evolution in public education in the United States[/URL] Fucking Christ, no. Vast swaths of the south will regress a century.
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;51790564]Education would be handled on a state level. Depending on your state this can be decent or really really bad.[/QUOTE] I can see how state level can be better in some ways. Don't like one state? Move to another. Except when you take into account that moving states is fucking insanely expensive and also might not work out and also that certain states want to literally make bible study a required course So I mean, its better, right? [editline]7th February 2017[/editline] :v:
[QUOTE=J!NX;51790619]I can see how state level can be better in some ways. Don't like one state? Move to another. Except when you take into account that moving states is fucking insanely expensive and also might not work out and also that certain states want to literally make bible study a required course So I mean, its better, right? [editline]7th February 2017[/editline] :v:[/QUOTE] If you don't have the money to move to another state, that's your own damn fault for not working hard enough. /s
[QUOTE=Mmrnmhrm;51790658]If you don't have the money to move to another state, that's your own damn fault for not working hard enough. /s[/QUOTE] If your children aren't losing their arms and eyes to work then your family isn't really working yet!
[QUOTE=J!NX;51790558]So like, exactly what will happen in the long run without the dept of education?[/QUOTE] colleges become utterly unaffordable for everybody, states enact extremely stringent loan programs (see new jersey), individual states lacking federal oversight enact quacky education standards that do nothing to prepare kids for college or workforce and so on
Imagine being that country without a ministry/department of education
[QUOTE=Sitkero;51790452]Seriously, what is the deal with the GOP. Why does it have so many people like this in it[/QUOTE] destroying our country's education system ensures a new generation of republicans
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;51790564]Education would be handled on a state level. Depending on your state this can be decent or really really bad.[/QUOTE] Hm, that sounds highly abusable, I shouldn't be surprised though.
all this would do is raise a generation of students who are even farther removed from cross-cultural knowledge. people in the south will know little to none about slavery, equal rights movements, etc and become more conservative from the ground up. similarly, people on the west coast/northeast will grow up with a much more liberal mindset. this is just going to be a civil war due to brew in 20-30 years.
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;51790604]Yeah, let's just leave it up to the states to decide what is and isn't important for education. What could possibl--oh wait. [URL="http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/texas-teachers-are-rebelling-against-a-new-racist-textbook-that-portrays-mexicans-as-lazy-drunks/"]Texas teachers are rebelling against a new racist textbook that portrays Mexicans as lazy drunks[/URL] [URL="http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2015/06/25/controversial-textbooks-texas"]Controversial New Textbooks Go Into Use This Fall In Texas[/URL] [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_and_evolution_in_public_education_in_the_United_States"]Wikipedia: Creation and evolution in public education in the United States[/URL] Fucking Christ, no. Vast swaths of the south will regress a century.[/QUOTE] Well what the Department of Education did to fix these?
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;51790564]Education would be handled on a state level. Depending on your state this can be decent or really really bad.[/QUOTE] interestingly, this could lead to a potential future where state cultures are so massivley different that there would be way less interstate culture overall and the us would fracture to the point states make so many of their own descisions while the federal government does so little that it'd be a similar system to what we had in the very very early days of the USA
[QUOTE=Sitkero;51790452]Seriously, what is the deal with the GOP. Why does it have so many people like this in it[/QUOTE] GOP is a mix of corporate interests, religious interests, and "state's rights" people who want the Federal Government to be subservient to states, rather than the other way around.
The education system in the US is already so fucked this would probably be a good thing for the states that have their shit together, others not so much. School in the US right now is all about learning how to pass standardized tests and if you don't conform you'll fail.
[QUOTE=J!NX;51790558]So like, exactly what will happen in the long run without the dept of education?[/QUOTE] more people voting for the GOP
[QUOTE=The golden;51791602]Most countries have a handful of parties that represent the right, left, center, and mixes. Then they usually have fringe parties off to the side which are extreme right or extreme left. Usually they're just there to make a stink and get attention. In the case of the US you only have two major parties and one of them are actual literal fascists.[/QUOTE] And we only have the two big parties because of a terrible voting process that causes people to be either "pragmatic" or vote make what amounts to a statement in alternative choices.
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;51790604]Yeah, let's just leave it up to the states to decide what is and isn't important for education. What could possibl--oh wait. [URL="http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/texas-teachers-are-rebelling-against-a-new-racist-textbook-that-portrays-mexicans-as-lazy-drunks/"]Texas teachers are rebelling against a new racist textbook that portrays Mexicans as lazy drunks[/URL] [URL="http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2015/06/25/controversial-textbooks-texas"]Controversial New Textbooks Go Into Use This Fall In Texas[/URL] [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_and_evolution_in_public_education_in_the_United_States"]Wikipedia: Creation and evolution in public education in the United States[/URL] Fucking Christ, no. Vast swaths of the south will regress a century.[/QUOTE] That second quote actually seems to be in support of climate change.
[QUOTE=Sitkero;51790452]Seriously, what is the deal with the GOP. Why does it have so many people like this in it[/QUOTE] I believe the impetus is that the DOE, like many other federal bureaus, is seen as unnecessarily restrictive and more trouble than its worth. The idea is that we would all be better off with local municipalities in charge of their own schools rather than kowtowing to the demands of a far-off and sometimes out-of-touch federal bureaucracy. [QUOTE]Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children's intellectual and moral development. States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students[/QUOTE] Whether this is actually true is hard to tell, we don't really know what modern public education would look like without federal rules, unless you count the often high-performance charter schools as an example. I wouldn't, since they still receive public funds to an extent, but it's something to think about. [editline]7th February 2017[/editline] There's also the cost-cutting line of thinking, which is always welcome if we want to get our budget under control, as far as I'm concerned. Or maybe some folks just [I]really[/I] want DeVos out.
I think some states would be better off while some would suffer horrbily. States in the bible belt or south would try to do dumb shit like teaching bible class as mandatory and stripping most sciences in favor of creationism. Overall its a necessary evil
[QUOTE=Tinter;51791646]That second quote actually seems to be in support of climate change.[/QUOTE] Yes. The highlight was that the publisher tried to rush in a whole bunch of crap, including climate change, at the last minute, but the climate change stuff was abandoned at the 11th hour, and only by that gasp of common sense is this Texas educator confident that students will be properly educated about climate change. And Texas is such a large textbook consumer that its textbooks are often adopted across most of the US, so what Texas does and doesn't distort matters. I didn't include tons of the full article that adds this context in my quote because rules, sorry if it was unclear.
[QUOTE=Chonch;51791683]Whether this is actually true is hard to tell, we don't really know what modern public education would look like without federal rules, unless you count the often high-performance charter schools as an example. I wouldn't, since they still receive public funds to an extent, but it's something to think about.[/QUOTE] Students of charter schools actually perform lower on average.
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