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GOP Senator says Obama’s education program allows too much Federal influence

August 1, 2011 by  

A Senator recently criticized the President's education program.Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) says that the government’s “Race to the Top” education initiative allows too much Federal influence on the country’s school system.

Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, said that in certain ways the program gives the Federal government power over decisions that should be determined on the State level, reports Reuters.

“I’m concerned that the scoring process for Race to the Top applications essentially mandates which interventions should be used by States and local school districts to improve student achievement,” Shelby said at a recent meeting of the panel. “The Federal government, I believe, should give States the flexibility to implement critical reforms.”

The Race to the Top initiative involves States competing for $4 billion in Federal grants. The program is part of President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus plan, and was designed in part to encourage States to adopt uniform standards.

A number of States have declined to compete for Federal funding offered in the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, citing the fact that the grants aren’t worth the burden of providing such extensive information to the government, according to The Washington Times.

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  • http://lives RAYMOND HARBIN

    WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE INFORM ME OF ******ANYTHING******* OF CITIZEN’S PRIVATE BUSINESS, THAT IS NOT LOUSY, AND INFINITELY OVERLOADED WITH FEDERAL INFLUENCE AND ABSURD PC.

  • Dan

    And those little “indoctrinated drones” will be happy to inform on their parents, if they oppose “Big Brother”, just like the Hitler Youth did in Nazi Germany !!!

  • ONTIME

    Since the hippies took over the education system the number of true idiots has increased ten fold and putting decent people in office has become a monumental challenge, voting against those who are emeotionally geared and not logically ready to vote is a ever increasing hazzard to this country’s survival and welfare.

    Kids lack the skills to think on their feet, they look more toward some type of government solution for menial problems and comprehension is usually a series of learned lies with no substance. We are letting schools raise the kids and the parents who are responsible are becoming fewer each year…..Re-Pare the government and put schools back in the hands of the states.

  • MANS

    It Is A Very “DUMB” Idea To Have A Federal Dept. Of Education, Need To Put This Responsability In The “STATES” !!!

    • Rich

      totally agree with you. education has not improved with billions spent. shut down dept of ed and leave it to the states!
      http://www.goooh.com will allow Americans to work for such common sense ideas such as this. i’m so tired of republicrats.

  • Raggs

    Yet more corrupt communist tatics of control.

  • Bob Marshall

    This reminds me of Bush’s plan for No Child Left Behind which resulted in much cheating so student could pass. our children deserve an education baseed on fairness. Not every student is on the same level. Not necessarily a bad thing because so many fields have positions needing to be filled.What happened in Atlanta is a good example of teacher giving undeserving grades to meet the governments qouta. i would like to see more home schooling until the government gets their act together.why not visit the countries with the most succesful educational systems and see why their system works and our governments doesn’t. A young mind need not be wasted but each student does need a fair chance to become a productive citizen.

    • eddie47d

      We won’t take the best from other educational systems in the world because most are European and conservatives will reject anything that is foreign. The same with healthcare where we are 36th in mortality yet other systems that are working better are outright rejected. The world learned from us and benefited and now we are stubborn and reject what the world has to offer us. We are stuck in decline mode.Then we have those who look at anything different as part and parcel of communism and refuse to take their blinders off when something better comes along.

      • Jay

        Eddie:The world learned from us and benefited and now we are stubborn and reject what the world has to offer us. We are stuck in decline mode.Then we have those who look at anything different as part and parcel of communism and refuse to take their blinders off when something better comes along.

        I have always found your liberal, vague, double-speak amusing eddie. You say that, the world learned, and benefited from us. But generalities will not do, eddie. What exactly did the world learn from us, and how did it benefit? And what is it that they now have to offer us, that we so stubbornly reject? Is it a reflection of what we used to be? Hardly! And when you say “the world”, exactly to whom are you referring to? Yes, we are in decline, but if prior to our decline we lived as such that the world, as you say, thought of our way as a good model to emulate, and benefit from, then why don’t we return to the ways that so mesmerized the world, that the world deemed worthy of emulation?

        Eddie: Then we have those who look at anything different as part and parcel of communism and refuse to take their blinders off when something better comes along.

        What is this? What do you mean by anything different? If we did in the beginning what so desirable that the world wished to emulate, why not return to such, rather then accept something different? This something different, as you rightly stated, is, in fact, communism! If it isn’t, then what is it? Speak, why don’t you, and if it all possible, make it plain! Thank you.

  • s c

    Have ANY of you social engineers ever taught kids in a school? The obvious answer is NO. That means you’re well-versed in crap that your political gods want you to “know,” but you no longer know the difference between theory and reality. That makes YOU dangerous to America’s kids.
    ‘Teachers’ who can’t teach their own content area are DANGEROUS. Anyone in a state capital who aids and abets the current education system is DANGEROUS. Since the late ’50s, America’s schools have slowly dumbed-down so many people that I’m amazed that they haven’t screwed-up the sciences.
    There is only one answer to America’s FAILED schools. Take the kids OUT, or join up with the SOBs who destroyed the schools.
    We’re at the tipping point. From now on, it’s
    either a) your kids or b) Uncle Scam. CHOOSE, America. And, please remember that when your kids have a piece of paper that says they’re educated but they can’t get a job, they will blame YOU.
    CHOOSE NOW!

    • FlaJim

      Worst thing that happened to Fla schools was when the state took over all local school taxes and redistributed them on a per capita basis with just a tad extra for tiny counties with no kids so they could build valuable educational assets such as tennis courts and swimming pools. That was under Jeb Bush.

      Then his ‘conservative’ brother became president and gave the federal Dept of Education more money than it ever dared dream of.

      Soon after a state constitutional amendment initiated and promoted by the NEA passed to limit class size. Brilliant. Our teachers can’t teach, so let’s hire more of them!

      The only answers are a choice between private schools and home schooling. Graduates from either are far more advanced than their counterparts from the public system.

    • 45caliber

      One MAJOR problem with public schools now is that the teachers are NOT taught the subject they are teaching.

      For instance, math teachers are not math majors. All prospective teachers take a couple of basic math courses meant for high school students and that is that. The colleges say they are graduation teachers but these graduates only know how to write up programs of what to present to kids. They insist that they don’t need to know what they are teaching; it is the presentation that is important.

      My oldest boy had an algebra teacher who could not work algebra problems. She simply copied examples from a book onto the board. She could not answer any questions. After I discovered that, I taught him algebra and he did very well. His teacher retired a year later after having taught it for thirty years. I felt sorry for most of her kids.

      We need teachers who KNOW what they are teaching more than we do teachers who know how to present it. Then the kids might actually be able to learn the subject.

      • Robert Smith

        45 says: “My oldest boy had an algebra teacher who could not work algebra problems.”

        Why learn about Algebra if you don’t ever plan to go there?

        Rob

      • Jay

        That is the dumbest statement you posted so far!

      • Robert Smith

        Yes Jay, I can appreciate how and why you would think that. It’s OK there are some who will accept you.

        Rob

      • Jay

        Robert, having re-read your comment I realize that you were making a funny. Its actually not bad. I retract my rude response, and do so, with an apology!

  • 45caliber

    The ONLY thing I believe the Feds should do in education is administer a test country wide to graduates to determine if they are being taught the basics (reading, writing, arithmetic, sciences, history, government) as they should and to determine what school systems are actually working. Too much of our school time is spent on things that do NOT add to the basics, which results in our students not being able to compete on a world market. And we need some truth when one state insists it’s students are better than some other state’s students.

    • Jeep

      45, we need the federal govt out of primary education, period. Let the states and local communities educate their young. If a state does not prepare their children for college, then so be it. We have already seen the results of a federal “solution”. It’s time to let communties handle their own problems.

      • 45caliber

        Jeep:

        The reason that I want to keep the test is that states tend to lie about the quality of their education to get businesses to come in. California was famous for that. They were number 1 in the nation for years – until they were forced to use the same test others were using. Then they dropped almost to the bottom of the list.

        When I finished the 6th grade in AR we moved to CA for the summer. But CA released their students a month after AR did. They made me go back to school for that final month. And I was immediately the best student in my class. The reason? The sixth grade in CA was using the same exact books I had used in AR – in the FIFTH grade! I was a full year ahead of all the students in CA!

        AR was considered one of the worst educational systems as compared to CA’s No.1. But their students (me as an example) were better than what CA had to offer. I like the national test to keep everyone honest.

      • http://?? Joe H.

        45caliber,
        I wholeheartedly agree, but instead of waiting till they graduate, which is too late to correct, give it to them at fourth or sixth grade! Then again at ninth! that way you have a chance of catching the students in time to help better educate them, AND you catch the crappy teachers and admin that AREN’t teaching them properly!

  • Ellen

    The government can throw all the money at every level (local, state, federal) but they will still not see improvements. The problem is that the poor don’t value education, so their kids don’t strive to achieve. Look at our Asian immigrants (China, India) who do value education and their kids are the top performers. To make matters worse, 40% of kids born each year in the US are born into poverty. We can expect 40% of our population to be uneducated in the next generation. Why do we expect teachers to handle social problems? Teachers are there to teach. Social problems need to be addressed separately, not as part of our education system. We spend more per child on minority children and get absolutely no return on that investment. If we stop the growth of poverty, we can start to fix our education system.

    • Jeep

      The govt’s “war on poverty” is over 50 years old. And, what have “we” acheived? Nothing…Our ploiticians cannot even agree that credit cards are bad and balancing the budget is good. How can we expect a politician to “fix” poverty?

      • 45caliber

        Most of our politicians haven’t even had to balance a budget of their own since they inherited most of their money or married into it. They depend upon some accountant to pay their bills for them. Just like they depend upon we taxpayers to pay their bills for them.

      • http://?? Joe H.

        Jeep,
        Credit cards are not all bad if used correctly! We have two and we have never paid a cent of interest on either. We don’t charge more than we can afford to pay off each month! It helps us to keep close tabs on how much gas we are using, paying for groceries, and other such. The problem with credit cards is the people using them having no restraints! Then, you have the people like a guy I used to work with. He was in debt, and went out and charged all kinds of things like shoes, clothes, bedsheets, all kinds of things that wouldn’t be reposesed. then he came into work that day and cut up all his cards and said he was going to see a lawyer and file banckruptcy!! Well, I told him he was the same thing as a theif as he took the stuff and never meant to pay for it! WE, you and I and all the other people here are the ones that have to pay for that with higher prices!

    • 45caliber

      Ellen:

      Exactly how would you end poverty?

      Give them more money? But then they would decide that education isn’t needed because they are getting more money which is the same reason they don’t care if their kids are educated now. It just gives them more to spend – it doesn’t solve poverty problems. If the people themselves refuse to work, depending upon handouts to live, then they will ALWAYS be in poverty – simply because they refuse to work.

      • Ellen

        I would limit welfare to 1 child per woman. I would not allow anyone under 18 who has a baby to collect welfare. If they are under 18, their own parents are responsible for that baby until mom turns 18. Then she can apply to transfer the welfare to her. But, she is still limited to collecting for just that 1 child. I would make mom name dad on the birth certificate if she is going to collect welfare. Then I would make dad partially financially responsible for the baby he partially created. We would see the number of baby daddies drop drastically if dad had to pay. It’s all about personal responsibility. Unfortunately, welfare has shifted responsibility to the taxpayers and has created a society that can’t stop repeating the cycle. Eventually, I would make welfare available as a loan. If mom still wants to collect welfare knowing she has to pay back every dollar, then she can. I believe there would be a drastic reduction in babies born into welfare if the parents were held responsible. All related issues would be positively impacted, too, by the reduction in welfare – education, STDs, crime, moral values, etc.

  • Jay

    Unfortunately Michael, the majority of our youth are already well indoctrinated to hate America, worship the earth, and have become the useful idiots, and communist drones, of the socialist/Marxists party line. The majority of our youth are so confused they couldn’t find their azz with both hands, and their azz! They are confused as to what it means to be an American, they are confused about their gender, they are confused about ethics, clueless of our political system, they have no concept of American history, most have no idea what a “Constitution” is, much less that is was forged by the founding fathers and for the protection of their freedom. They have been stripped of all critical thinking and will, and thus rendered to non-thinking, non-resisting empty vessels, where the religion of socialist/marxist relativism, and god-lessness can take hold, and grow, thus reshaping America in the god-less image of communism! And all thanks to our education system, and the anti-American, useful idiots that work in it. We, parents, all parents, must wake up and realize, and have no doubts as to what is taking place in the public education system. And that is, the systematic, purposeful, and methodical indoctrination of our youth.

    http://www.ordination.org/dumbing_down.htm

    • Ellen

      We can add their damaged brains to the list of things we do to our kids. Why do we begin vaccinating them at 2 months old when they don’t even have a functioning immune system? Clearly, their bodies aren’t making antibodies to these diseases. We’re just poisoning their bodies that also still lack a working digestive system and presumably a working de-tox system. As we’ve added more vaccines and started vaccinating prior to fully-functioning bodily systems, we’ve seen a huge increase in autism, ADD, asthma, and food allergies, yet no one can connect these changes.

    • Michael J.

      Jay,
      Sounds like you get it Jay. What has happened, and what is still happening is not a mistake or a coincidence, but rather a 100 year old plot to conquer western capitalism VIA Political Correctness and Communist Subversion. The people, names and places of responsible parties are well documented on the internet, you merely have to search for them.

      • Jay

        I’m in total agreement Michael!

  • Michael J.

    Get the Fed out of education, unless you want little Johnny and Suzie to be indoctrinated into communist drones who hate America and worship the Earth as a deity whose importance rises above that of humans.

    • Robert Smith

      Hey Michael, it was Bush who started the “No Child Left Behind.”

      Rob

      • ValDM

        Mr. Smith,
        EVERY prez since Carter established the dept of non-Education has had their pet education “theme”. Race to the Top????? More like Sink to the Bottom. We are currently throwing 81 billion/yr at a failed system : reading scores in the lower 50th percentile, math scores following the same trend. We don’t teach geography any more & what passes for history is appalling. But we have money to throw around for sex education for 5 yr olds in Kindergarten???? More money is NOT the answer. Educate the “educators” so they can actually TEACH something besides political correctness on my tax dollar.

      • 45caliber

        It would certainly help our students if the teachers were actually taught the subject(s) they are required to teach. The teaching program in most colleges emphasises providing information for the students to learn – but the teachers aren’t required to know what they are teaching. The teachers should at least have some knowledge of what they teach so they can answer the kids questions. One of my children had a math teacher in algebra who could not work algebra problems herself.

      • Michael J.

        Robert Smith said:
        “Hey Michael, it was Bush who started the “No Child Left Behind.”

        Another off the wall comment from a left behind.

      • JC

        Robert Smith says:

        August 1, 2011 at 8:17 am

        Hey Michael, it was Bush who started the “No Child Left Behind.”

        Rob
        ___________________________________________________________________

        Yes it was. And the furtherance of the same communist crap with a new name is no excuse for Obama. So much for “Change” eh Robert?

    • Dan

      And those little “indoctrinated drones” will be happy to inform on their parents, if they oppose “Big Brother”, just like the Hitler Youth did in Nazi Germany !

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