I am very disappointed that Betsy DeVos was confirmed as Secretary of Education. I would have preferred the Department be disbanded, or reorganized as a small ‘Think Tank’ operation with only an advisory (not regulatory) role on education.

The existence of the Department of Education at the Federal Level is just typical political class arrogance. They honestly believe that without the “firm hand of national Government” squeezing them by the throats, that states and cities are incapable of educating their children.

Still, it was amusing that the person Obama picked to head the Education Bureaucracy was the same guy who ran the public school system that wasn’t good enough for Sasha and Malia.

It’s as though after losing an election, the first thing Democrats ask themselves is, “What else can we give the rubes for free?” Hence, Obama’s push for two “free” years of Community College, which was, of course, welcomed by the social parasites that make up the Democrat base. *

The idea is that Democrats propose that the Government should provide for free something people are eminently capable of purchasing on their own. And then, when Republicans say, “it will drive up the deficit and force people who don’t use a service to pay for those who do.” And then the Democrats can accuse Republicans of being heartless, greedy (ironically), and against both the thing being subsidized and the people who use it. With birth control, they accused Republicans of wanting to “deny women access to birth control” and being against women. Now, I guess, the gambit will be to accuse Republicans of wanting to “deny working class people access to education” and being against the working class.

Not to mention that if two years of Community College are “free,” it is suddenly going to become a lot more expensive; like everything else the Government subsidizes. If people have to pay for their own education, there is market pressure to hold down costs. But if Uncle Sugar is paying the tab, who cares what the bill is, aside from ‘Whackobirds’ who are troubled by our Eighteen Trillion Dollars of National Debt and Trillions More in Unfunded Liabilities?

I actually am a huge supporter of the community college system as an alternative to the overpriced and increasingly useless university system, which have become more like Social Justice Amusement Parks than institutions of meaningful learning. But I am not a big fan of community college being “the high school after high school” for teaching basic math, English, and other skills people (somehow) come out of high school lacking. But wouldn’t it be a lot more cost effective to reform high school to offer more meaningful educations; more intense academic training for the college-bound, more support for trade school for the less academic inclined. Of course, such reforms would require either free market alternatives to Government schools, or require unionized teachers to work harder. Neither of these things are going to happen as long as the Democrats and the JV Democrats (Republicans) are running the show.

And the real ironic part about this is that to Obama and his ilk, a community college degree is something they sneer at. But I guess they figure it’s good enough for the peasant class.

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The New York Post published a story on a NYC High School program called ‘Blended Learning’ which allowed students to take courses on-line for credit – nothing inherently wrong with that – exccept this ‘Blended Learning’ program was a joke. The coursework was ridiculously easy, there were no controls to prevent cheating, and students demonstrated no mastery of the material after completing the online course.  Students began blowing off normal classroom work because ‘blended learning’ was so much easier and credits counted the same.

So, after the Post did its expose, students were encouraged by the school’s administrators to write letters defending the program. The results were, to summarize in one word, FAIL.

“What do you get of giving false accusations im one of the students that has blended learning I had a course of English and I passed and and it helped a lot you’re a reported your support to get truth information other than starting rumors . . .”

Blended learing is actaully helping us all who need the credit to graduate on time cause we dont want to be left behind. we need to move on with our lives.

“Us as New York City Students deserve respect and encouragement. We are the future of New York City and for some students, The future of the country.”

All of these students are now eminently qualified to leave comments at Breitbart.com stating how stupid they think Sarah Palin is.

Philadelphia Schools are embroiled in a cheating scandal. Teachers and administrators helped kids cheat to get better scores on assessment tests. The teacher’s union claim it’s the fault of Government officials for demanding that they teach kids things.

“Do you know how many of us sat in meetings with our bosses and were told, ‘You have to bring your scores up’?” Robert McGrogan, a one-time Philadelphia principal told the Inquirer. “There was no how-to book given to us.

Sir, you call yourself an “educator.” Figuring out how to teach kids math, reading, and science is supposed to be your job. Supposedly, you want to college and got a degree in that. And now you’re claiming you’re too stupid and incompetent to do it without a manual?