Federal Education Policy with Former Assistant Secretary of Education Bill Evers

[beta447]

"Opportunity Scholarship" = complete and utter bullshit. Nothing but another guilty euphemism.

[shotsky94]

a ron paul video brought me here

[exiledconservative]

The federal government has no right being involved in our kids' education (among many other things)..shut them down? I say secession is the only solution. Form smaller, local republics. How can a congressman represent 750,000 individuals with varying views..it doesn't work. Secede now. -Libertarian

[imasciencegeek]

Education is such a complicated monster, and our children are caught in the crossfire. The national standards are an anchor.

[DaddyRTO]

@imasciencegeek Lame. Unless the word "national" is followed by "defense" the word is worthless. "National standards" deny parents the right to have their children learn what they want them to learn.

[Qillz]

Without a national standard, we remain at the mercy of conservative evangelicals in Texas who are now rewriting history textbooks to remove the term "slavery" and glorify the political impact of the religious right. These fundamentalists are also attempting to introduce supernatural explanations into science textbooks along side proven fact as if the 2 explanations are equally viable.

Texas is the largest market, so if they get their way, they set the national standard!

[jpmsagan]

@Qillz There is a fundamental flaw in your argument. What happens when the evangelicals get to the national level and set the standards for the entire nation?

Giving parents a choice on where they want their children educated is the solution not forcing parents to send their children to whatever school is in their district.

[DaddyRTO]

@Qillz Not if it's left up to local governments to decide. Hell, they could even write their own textbooks in some of the more well-off areas of the country. That way, people could decide more closely what their kids are learning and if parents didn't like the majority opinion, they could move. The way it works now, no such luck.

[RodCornholio]

Shutdown the entire government (other than what is necessary to keep ONLY violent prisoners caged up) for 2 years (that way, people have at least 1 year of no taxes). If Americans think it's still necessary, they can always re-open it.

I'd wage my life, fortune and sacred honor that such an experience would fundamentally alter people's perceptions on the necessity of the beast.

[Somespatanwarrior]

@RodCornholio That would be nice if it could close down so I could stop paying attention to politics and get on with my life.

[broncofan92slay]

please america stop trying to become europe

centralized education is a failure and not even private schools are spared under this systems (private schools will be private in name only no autonomy is guaranteed or allowed)

education will become forced indoctrination

greetings from italy

[EconomicLiteracyNow]

Closing down the DOE is long overdue, and there couldn't be a better moment. No more budget talks until all bloated overspending bureaucracies are on the chopping block! Take the Dept. of Commerce, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Labor and Dept. of Agriculture along with them. Abolish NLRB and defund EPA. Then defund all Obamacare implementation.

[CornerTalker]

At 2:18 he complains about the Dept of Ed violating 3 acts - and yet the very foundation of the Dept of Ed violates the Constitution in Artilce 1 Section 8 and the Tenth Amendment!

[elricmlbone]

How about we just close down the department of education.

[ForeignPolicyWonk]

Our education system is just like a communist country's"

[furyofbongos]

Oh, you want to be able to choose where and how you want your kids educated?

No problem, we'll just steal a lot of your money, keep most of it, and give you what's left in the form of a "voucher" so you can use that for private school.

[DOHC2L]

@furyofbongos "Oh, you want to be able to choose where and how you want your kids educated? No problem, we'll just steal a lot of your money, keep most of it, and give you what's left in the form of a "voucher" so you can use that for private school."

You're completely wrong. Vouchers don't provide an incentive to families living near good schools which tend to be more wealthy. Education vouchers are true means of public welfare. It's a specific gov't solution to a specific gov't failure!!!

[fusionsoul]

Anyone else think the interviewer looks like an adult version of Sarah from College Humor?

[radiovan1]

@ fredsoxnation: "France" is purely an example, however Centralized education reeks of socialism & it's not even funny how effective it is at "brainwashing" the youth to think more in lines of the state rather then independent thinking provided by indipendent education system - look at Canada and the horrible schooling system present; statistically might be better then USA but not better system then USA.

[Jyagos1]

@radiovan1 The US system isn't really all that good right now either...

[radiovan1]

@Jyagos1 Can't say I disagree, sadly. But centralization of the education system is not the way.

[fredsoxnation]

@radiovan1 You are accepting Mr. Evers unsupported opinion as fact. Centralized education doesn't reek of socialism. It is socialism, if we had it. But we don't. There is no centralized education beyond the state level. The DoED cajoles with money, but it's scope is limited, as Mr. Evers even says in the interview (statutes FORBID exactly what he describes). Even if you believe Mr. Evers journey into the hearts of DoED administrators, there's nothing to support it.

[radiovan1]

@fredsoxnation i do not disagree with a single thing you wrote (except that I never take anybody's "opinion" or statements as fact unless historically proven already); the problem is that the state tends to find its way either through a democratic process or other means where it can impose its will through technicalities that bypass the constitutional limits - i.e. the Federal Reserve and printing of money.

[fredsoxnation]

The lines "If you look into their heart of hearts" and "like France" are hallmarks of GOP fearmongering. Proof? Who needs it? "HE WANT DEM KEEDS TO BE FROGS."  You are capable of better, Reason.

[NOMCCBAMA]

they want to rule and dominate our lives and use us and our children for pawns for their own power enrichment

[Loathomar]

I love a man who worked for Bush, creator of No child left behind, and is then crying about Obama's "over reaching". It is just funny. If you give a national standardize test which determines federal funding, it is a basic national school course program. All schools must teach the test of face significant funding cuts. And I really love people who can read minds like this guy, it is a great gift to the mind of the president... Or an easy way to make a BS attack on someone.

[JudgeNapolitanoFTW]

google "The Deliberate Dumbing Down" by Charlotte Iserbyt - the head of policy for the Dept. of Ed under Reagan. A fantastic expose of the globalist agenda to make our kids dumber, not smarter. You can download the entire book for free!

[DackIsBack]

Ministry of education? :(

Minitru...

[darkmagus64]

The Bush Administration also pushed national standards. The United States is the only major country that doesn't have it's educational policy decided on the national level.

[RedTory59]

@darkmagus64 You may not consider Canada to be a "major country" but education is not considered a federal responsibility. Here, it's strictly a provincial matter, with no overarching national curriculum or standards.

[darkmagus64]

The Bush Administration also pushed national standards.

[twanablevins]

Obama's administration is friendly towards charter schools because of the islamic gulen and harmony charter schools that are peppered all over this country.

[XCritonX]

"If you could look into their hearts and souls you will find nothing, because they have no heart or soul."

[oilhammer04]

US Dept. of Education is useless or worse. Hopefully the Tea Party can gain power and get them shut down.

[JustBecauseTheySaySo]

@oilhammer04 I just read an article about the 2012 elections, and how political circles aren't discussing taking over more of the democrat seats in the house and senate, but how many of them will be taken. The media can make the TEA party out to be a small fringe group, but Americans nationwide know that it's what all their neighbors, friends & families have been longing for. If obama doesn't destroy America between now & then, everything changes next election. Spending will have to stop.

[andyissemicool]

@JustBecauseTheySaySo: Yeah, that's why the tea party has been overturning all these bad laws, massively cutting spending and changing the debate in Washington. Or, they're frauds that aren't doing anything but business as usual.

[JustBecauseTheySaySo]

@andyissemicool Allen West found 800 million dollars in govt. waste and passed a bill to remove it inside of his first 90 days in office. Yes, the tea party congressmen have been doing what the people who write to them have been asking them to do. I have personally had 3 congressmen bring about bills that I have written them about. They are there to represent us, because we haven't been represented for many decades, and are doing just that. There never was a threat of an actual default.

[andyissemicool]

@JustBecauseTheySaySo: So the Tea Party wing helped broker a massive spending cut? They reigned in entitlement spending? No, but they did save nearly 1 billion dollars in waste and brought a few bills into committee? VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

[s0beit]

It is inevitable, this guy thinks he can stop it? This is the nature of the state. This is the nature of public education. It is it's natural course of action to centralize power and standardize everything involved.

[DarthKap]

This is exactly why they passed the No Child Left Behind Act. Show the "need" for a national curriculum and then write it. The sad fact is we already have the national curriculum to "teaching to the test". By 2014 you will see a national standardized test that every teacher (public and private) will need to teach to. Then the federal goverment will have it's national curriculum.

[jeffthecoder]

soo...they take money away from the current education system to the point where the quality dropped way down..and now they want to propose this? this some orchestrated stuff, man

[ace625]

Hmm I've gone to school in France...let's try to avoid that!

[lordcrull]

@ace625 What's French schooling like?

[Loathomar]

@lordcrull Via test scores France is 18th to the US's 14th, but they do spend 15% less per student then the US. But I wouldn't expect a huge difference in schools on average. Really, one persons views from going to school in another country is about as useful as one student in the US. It turns out there is a huge range of school in the US and in France, some great and some crap. I when to a public US school and 60% of my class when to a 4 year university other schools don't gad at that many.