Educational Think Tank Topics for Radio Listeners and Online Readers
Welcome to our radio show, today’s topic will be um curso em milagres and we will cover a number of side topics along the way. Just so you know the ground rules, and they are very simple; I talk and you listen. After 30 minutes I will open up the phone lines, or if you are reading this transcript online as an online article that you may leave a comment below for an upcoming future program. Okay so let’s begin, as you know I don’t like to waste time.
I guess it goes without saying that a nation is only as strong as its education system was 20 years prior. And that makes this topic very important, especially because it is now October 25, 2012 and we have an election coming up in only 10 days. Although both candidates are very strong for education, our path forward will be determined by the presidential leadership which follows. President Obama is very strong with his belief in the need for education, especially giving everyone a fair chance, regardless of ethnic background, or socioeconomic status. In fact, he himself could not have become president without his college education.
His opponent Governor Mitt Romney is also strong in education, in Massachusetts while he was governor they boosted their state to the number one slot, a remarkable achievement for any state. Further, both presidential candidates believe that we need ongoing research in our universities and colleges, and we must carefully focus on math and science for our technologically advanced future. Very few could deny those are good policies, but it won’t be free. Local school districts and states have complained that the federal government all too often passes laws such as; NCLB – No Child Left behind Act, and similar mandates without funding them or sending money to the schools.
Most teachers unions claim that the heavy hand of the federal government is too much oversight and too restrictive for their teaching in the classroom, and they are afraid that too many teachers are teaching to the test to ensure that all the kids are able to read, and therefore it becomes more of a “no child allowed to advance” doctrine. Of course, those are hardly the only problems, as we see right now college tuition has gone through the roof, and the default on student loans is now at 10%. Regardless if you are a left-leaning socialist professional academic, you only have to look at that number to realize that it is; unsustainable. To borrow a trendy socialist term, now then, the let’s go ahead and talk about what’s going on with regards to these high tuition costs.
