Should the US invest more in education?

Author: Alec

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Alec
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I think they should.  I have yet to read/hear a good argument from the opposing side but I'm willing to change my mind.
Polytheist-Witch
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I think putting money to a broken system is dumb. 
Alec
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@Polytheist-Witch
It works in preparing people for the future.  America has a high GDP per capita in part because of education.
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@Alec
No it doesn't. Most kids are pushed through, most can't handle college level work, most can't balance a check book or know what interest is. They still teach the way they did on 1920
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@Polytheist-Witch
If the education system is messed up, it can be reformed, then more money can be spent on it.
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@Alec
Where specifically would you spend the money?
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@blamonkey
I would want to pay the teachers higher salaries but they have to earn it.  They would all need PhDs in their subject to be able to legally teach.  This way, students learn from someone more qualified.  Another option would be to hire more teachers to reduce class size so students learn better that way.
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@Alec
College teachers only require a masters and you want PHDs in high school? How about quit having teachers stand in a front of a class and just talk. How about not teaching for testing but for life and life skills. 
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@Polytheist-Witch
they don't teach enough life skills and critical thinking, thinking for themselves, especially now.  I have yet to see any system that has been fixed just by throwing money at it.  We should actually remove some funding for colleges which will force them to lower the costs and or get rid of some of the asinine degrees they concocted.
What's scary is you just need a degree to teach you don't need any actual skill or desire.  At one time there was a teacher shortage.  To fill the positions they transitioned people who were in jobs for a prescribed period of time to be a teacher.  Imagine someone who has created and ran their own business successfully for 10 years, or worked in business, they probably can do a pretty good job teaching it if they had a passion for it.  Though I think the really successful people sell their knowledge in the form of books and courses.
Most current curriculums teach some really useless shit but ignore the important life skills that they actually need to learn.
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@Polytheist-Witch
It's harder to teach high schoolers then it is to teach college students.  High schoolers need more motivation.  The education system can be reformed if that's better for the students, but I think it could use some more funding too.
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@Alec
but I think it could use some more funding too.
why?

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@TheDredPriateRoberts
To better prepare our students for the real world so they get a goo life after school.  School is an investment.
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@Alec
To better prepare our students for the real world so they get a goo life after school.  School is an investment.
explain how that would work because I don't believe throwing more money at anything fixes it and very rarely makes it better and never makes it better to justify the increase.

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@TheDredPriateRoberts
If we have more money, we can hire more or better teachers which can help prepare our students better for the world so they can be prosperous.
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@Alec
If we have more money, we can hire more or better teachers which can help prepare our students better for the world so they can be prosperous.
why can't we hire better teachers without adding more money in the equation?
why aren't the bad teachers replaced with ones that are better?  
You don't need more money to do these things.
Do you think a little, some or a lot of improvements to the public school system can be made right now, today w/o any extra money?
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@TheDredPriateRoberts
In order for teachers to do a better job, they need to get paid more.  If more teachers are hired, it can cut class sizes in half so kids learn better.  If we instead, prioritize the PhD, then students can learn better that way.  Bad teachers tend to be not that well trained in teaching (maybe) and should either get help or get trained to be better or should quit/get fired.  However, to do this, money is required.

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@Alec
In order for teachers to do a better job, they need to get paid more.
so the current teachers aren't doing a good enough job then?

If more teachers are hired, it can cut class sizes in half so kids learn better.

are there no other ways to cut costs, waste or change things to allow to hire more teachers?  are there enough teachers looking for jobs?

do you believe people with no degrees or 4 year or less degrees could be good teachers, people with real world and work experience?

what is the minimum amount a teacher has to be paid for them to be good at their job?



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@TheDredPriateRoberts
so the current teachers aren't doing a good enough job then?
In some classes, they don't do a good enough job, like AP Chem.  In other classes, like Pre Calc, I get the material and can learn it.  I think the education system is better in ares that pay the teachers more because money does motivate people.

are there enough teachers looking for jobs?
Depends on the subject.  For English, there are dozens of people applying for one job.  For math, that's not the case.

do you believe people with no degrees or 4 year or less degrees could be good teachers, people with real world and work experience?
I think all federal teachers nationwide should have masters degrees.  This is partly why the North East is more wealthy then the South and the Mid west per person.

what is the minimum amount a teacher has to be paid for them to be good at their job?
I would place the minimum salary of a teacher at $50,000 nationwide.  They contribute a lot to society.  They should get paid more.
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@Alec
I believe there are a lot of opportunities to make the system better, use funds more wisely than to simply throw more money at it.  the starting point to address or fix something is the beginning and what you already have (imo) until those things are done expanding and adding isn't a good solutions and probably will make things worse.
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Yes.
Remove Betsy DeVos. She is cutting funding.
Don't think she has a good enough case to stop funding.

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@TheDredPriateRoberts
I guess you have a point.
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@Alec
we agree it needs fixing/addressing and has for a long time, we also agree about glass sizes and the quality of teachers, I always say you just need a degree to teach not the ability.  I'd rather have a teacher with the ability to teach than a degree.  Anyway, I generally want to fix what we can and are able first before adding more money or complications to the issue.  That is one of my views as to what it means to be a conservative.
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I have no idea what's happening with US education. You guys are the richest country in the world and are spending way more on average per student. And yet your teachers are seemly earning way less than average. There is zero incentive to enter into a profession that has an mediocre average salary. Clearly the solution is to raise teacher wages. I just find it bizarre that the wages are so low in the first place, with the average spending being so high
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@dustryder
what you fail to realize is some states have very powerful teachers unions, so it's not as simple as paying them more.  Depending on which state and area you live in, teachers do quite well.
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Alec
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@sadolite
College should not be free.
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@Alec
Excellent intellectual argument. College should be free because you say so.

7 days later

Christen
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@sadolite
College can't be "free". Someone is paying for it.
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@Christen
I know, I was being sarcastic.

218 days later

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@Alec
Feel as though most of the problems in the education system today can simply be solved without dumping billions. 

A prime example of this would be cutting out pointless standardized tests which are horrible for many reasons. The most catastrophic and arguably the most dangerous reason is, 

They take up 1 3rd of the entire curriculum

Today teenagers are overwhelmed with school work, after school programs, and social lives and removing standardized tests would reduce the school workload significantly if removed.  

Take an average school day starting at 8:15 and ending at 3:00 in a state such as California. 

Under standardized tests, this is a 6 hr and 45 minute school day. Not even including after school activities or HW. 

However, if we removed standardized tests students would only have a 4 hr and 15 minute school day on average with significantly less HW overall. 

Thereby reducing stress and opening up more free time for students to pursue their interests or to sleep properly. 

However, regardless it's even scarier when you realize the standardized test companies such as Pearson essentially have a monopoly on standardized testing. 

Meaning that essentially, a few corporations are deciding a decent chunk of the Americas education system. 

Not to mention this also means they can jack up the prices if they so choose to which they've already done. 

Overall if America is to have any hope of fixing our broken education system, the first order of business ought to be to abolish standardized tests.