News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch called for an overhaul of the U.S. education system to preserve the middle class and prevent the country from slipping further behind the rest of the world.
“The failure rates of our public schools represent a tragic waste of human capital that is making America less competitive,” Murdoch said today at a Media Institute awards dinner in Washington, according to the prepared text of his remarks. “Upward mobility in America is in jeopardy unless we fix our public schools.”
Murdoch, an Australian native who became a U.S. citizen in 1985, said it’s imperative the U.S. measure its performance against the world and provide parents with more data about teacher performance to give them choice among schools. “Our middle-class way of life may disappear” if another generation goes through the current education system, he said.
“In plain English, we trap the children who need an education most in failure factories,” said Murdoch, 79.
Students who do graduate often do so with “worthless” degrees and others never learn the basic skills needed to provide for themselves, he said.Here is more
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We do have a Federal Department of Education with a requested budget of $50B and a bunch of employees. We also have Educational departments in all other layers of government in State, County, and City. With so many people and so much money "helping", how can education possibly be failing?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should get rid of the students.
I don't believe the whole of this situation falls at the teachers feet. Parents must take an interest in their children and their education. Some children are not academically motivated, they are 'hands on' and need a vocational tech environment to learn skills. The students also need to be held to accountability, of course some of them wouldn't be able to spell the word upon graduation.
ReplyDeletemurdoch is spot on. our public schools have been failing for years and teacher tenure and no accountability is just part of the problem.
ReplyDeletebanish the dept. of education; the teachers union and all the other useless agencies that waste money and give us lousy results.
our students aren't prepared for a fast food restaurant job let alone professional careers.
not everyone is cut out for professional careers, but they can certainly be trained in a skill such as plumbing, electrician, welding, construction, etc.
let's start putting the students first and get rid of what hasn't worked for years.
"I don't believe the whole of this situation falls at the teachers feet"
ReplyDeleteAs 3.00 PM eludes to, you you realize how many ADMINISTRATORS you have to go through before you reach the "teacher's feet"? Also, "held to accountability" would be more correctly stated as "held accountable". I guess it's all relative.....
Take the schools out of the Governments hands. Privatization is the most efficient way to go. Better grades less tax dollars.
ReplyDeleteThe problem I see as a teacher is the goal of our current educational system - we assume every child must be prepared to be a college graduate.
ReplyDeleteNow, that's an admirable goal. But not every kid wants to go to college. A lot of kids want to be cosmetologists, machinists, welders and nursing assistants. And there's nothing wrong with that.
The programs may be expensive, but we need to expand vocational education. We have to get away from the assumption every kids MUST go to college. We should offer the chance to go, but we should offer the chance to get ready for a lifelong career, too.
As a retired teacher and school administrator, I think we have been missing the whole idea of education for years....kids. I agree with abolishing the teacher unions, and the whole idea that more money will fix public education. The truth is that there are too many personal agendas in public ed, too much "me, mine" mentality. Parents need to be held to some sort of responsibility, but so do the teachers and administrators. Test scores only tell part of the story, and frankly, the Maryland tests have so many holes in it, along with the state curriculum that you can drive a truck through it. Testing is not child centered at this point, and the really bad news is that a national curriculum is coming that is even worse. If parents were wise, they could end this whole mess in one testing season. Simply write a letter to your school principal to tell them that you do not want your child to take the MSA/HSA tests. Now, imagine what happens if that occurs at even a 50% rate - it would blow up all the testing norms and make the whole test invalid. Now, apply that to a larger scale. Imagine if only half of the parents of school age children do this across the country - I'll tell you the answer - the end of NCLB. WHat a wreck that would become and our president, the congress and all of the 'educrats' would have a coronary. In my professional opinion with over 40 years of experience (if that counts for anything) is that alone would shake up the education establishment, and parents would be in a much better position to then demand an end to tenure. If teachers and administrators knew they would be fired if they didn't serve students completely, the state of public education would DRASTICALLY change for the better - and you would have massive and positive school reform without spending a dime.
ReplyDeleteNow, THAT would be change, something Washington could never do.
Joe, any thoughts on this from you? Might be worth some interesting discussions here as I know that your readership is large, and this could definately be a jump off point for a real grass roots movement.