Why are you a Conservative, Liberal, Socialist, Communist, Centrist etc..

[hkem1]

their parents can vote with their feet....you don't enhance public education by defunding it. the glenn beck reference is pandering. my wife is a teacher of nearly thirty years in a school with wildly varying demographics. we are both registered republicans. she has never been a member of a union. i am very aware of the challenges educators face trying to educate students from wildly varying socioeconomic backgrounds. try teaching physically or emotionally abused kids. challenge a child who has no parents to pay attention. get a child to excel whose single meal is the one provided at school. now consider how could we ever fairly connect student achievement to teacher pay? you may want to turn off the tv and volunteer.

I don't know what you were suggesting at the end of that posting; but I will say I would never support merit pay based on any type of test score for all the reasons you listed.

I do think though, that there need to be programs that would get the best teachers working in the situations you described. Those children are the most at risk for being left behind and need top teachers who can try their hardest to keep the students afloat.

Although I don't support merit pay based on test scores; I do think that, if there was a way to incentivize top teachers, who are probably teaching in suburban areas, to go to urban and rural areas and work there for extra incentives, I would support that.

Overall I think it is pretty obvious why merit pay based on test scores is a bad idea: Some teachers have much tougher jobs than others so they cant possibly all be thought to have kids perform on the same level.

What I don't understand though, is how you jumped from me being for school vouchers in D.C. to me being for merit pay based on test scores.

 

[idlewind]

I'm not a conservative because I consider conservatism to be Fascism lite. If I had to choose, I would choose anarchy or death over Fascism. I think the ideal conservative society would be a place like North Korea with greater military might. Conservatives have this attitude of "bow to tradition" or "worship my god" or "get in line and be like us" and I say screw you!

Fascism is another form of totalitarian style government much like communism and socialism, The Nazi party was the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Anarchy would in fact be "far right."
A true conservative believes in limited government and personal freedom. What is often confusing is the statement that America was founded on judeo-christian principles. While this is true it is also true that one of those principles is the defense of every person's right to think and worship as they choose within the law.
North Korea is the exact opposite of the type of society any conservative would want.

 

[idlewind]

their parents can vote with their feet....you don't enhance public education by defunding it. the glenn beck reference is pandering. my wife is a teacher of nearly thirty years in a school with wildly varying demographics. we are both registered republicans. she has never been a member of a union. i am very aware of the challenges educators face trying to educate students from wildly varying socioeconomic backgrounds. try teaching physically or emotionally abused kids. challenge a child who has no parents to pay attention. get a child to excel whose single meal is the one provided at school. now consider how could we ever fairly connect student achievement to teacher pay? you may want to turn off the tv and volunteer.

Bob, ever hear of throwing good money after bad? When parents who are financially able "vote with their feet" you wind up with low performing schools eating up huge amounts of money and students who want a real education having no hope.
Merit pay tied to a test is not the answer and tests such as FCAT have a negative impact on education IMHO. But vouchers are a good way to allow low income parents to "vote with their feet" too.

 

[GoodWitch58]

hkem1, when you get a chance watch the movie Enemy of the State with Will Smith...

 

[hkem1]

their parents can vote with their feet....

Well bob, alot of their parents cant vote with their feet. And I don't think it is equal opportunity, when a child has to go to a failing school because his/her parents can't afford it.

The fact is there are many children born to all socio-economic backgrounds who are not very ambitious and don't really care about school. For them, they don't need this voucher program.

The children who are very ambitious and were lucky enough to be born to well off parents often (but not always) either have access to better public schools or Private schools.

The kids I think need to be helped are the ambitious ones without the resources they need to improve. It is not there fault who they were born to. And quite often they have extremely hard working parents just trying to keep a roof over their heads. Those are the children who are missing out on this voucher program while some democratic members of congress need teacher union money to get elected.

And when those kids miss out, we as an entire society miss out on all the great things they could have accomplished, if they had greater access to resources.

 

[hkem1]

I recieved this quote today from a friend and thought it fit perfectly.

Conservative, n. - A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
-- Ambrose Bierce

 

[LuciferSam]

Fascism is another form of totalitarian style government much like communism and socialism, The Nazi party was the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Anarchy would in fact be "far right."
A true conservative believes in limited government and personal freedom. What is often confusing is the statement that America was founded on judeo-christian principles. While this is true it is also true that one of those principles is the defense of every person's right to think and worship as they choose within the law.
North Korea is the exact opposite of the type of society any conservative would want.

Anarchy is anti-authoritarian. Conservatives and Nazis (you brought them up not me) are very authoritarian. They are all part of the right (wrong I should say) and believe in a strong centralized government in order to support a platform of belligerent nationalism. Polar opposite of anarchists who rightly or wrongly prefer a state of disorder and chaos. I say it's wrong, but far preferable to the extreme conservative ideal, which is alive and well in North Korea. Substitute god and Jesus for Kim Yung Ill and his dead father and you've got right wingnut paradise.

 

[30ashopper]

Anarchy is anti-authoritarian. Conservatives and Nazis (you brought them up not me) are very authoritarian. They are all part of the right (wrong I should say) and believe in a strong centralized government in order to support a platform of belligerent nationalism. Polar opposite of anarchists who rightly or wrongly prefer a state of disorder and chaos. I say it's wrong, but far preferable to the extreme conservative ideal, which is alive and well in North Korea. Substitute god and Jesus for Kim Yung Ill and his dead father and you've got right wingnut paradise.

Where do you place the progressives on your scale?

 

[LuciferSam]

Where do you place the progressives on your scale?

I really don't know what that word means. I would think that everybody would want to be progressive at least by the dictionary definition. Progress is good, you know, so is change. I think maybe it's a Fox News buzzword for anybody who doesn't agree with their agenda. Seriously, I never understood what that was supposed to mean. They [progressives] don't rely on tradition to make important decisions maybe???? They believe in gay rights??? They're pro-choice??? They're secular maybe?? I think government should be secular. I certainly have no use for religion. If that makes me progressive then I'm guilty as charged. Help me out. I'd have trouble identifying a progressive country. Maybe the good old USA?? I dunno. I think maybe at least half of our country has progressive leanings but I'm not sure. I would say somebody like Rand Paul is regressive. Sarah Palin is manic depressive. Bobby Jindal is unimpressive.

 

[Geo]

Your use of words ending in "ive" is borderline excessive.