Comments on: So Much for “School Choice”

by: Even More Shit You Should Read (in Alphabetical Order) at PunkAssBlog.com

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 03:13:14 +0000

[…] Feministe: Undeserving Granny Gets a Vibrator: Craft Project Du Jour Hugo Schwyzer: Biology and bladders, excuses and explanations: why I’m tired of hearing about testosterone Ilyka Damen: So It’s Come To This, Has It? MahaBlog: So Much for “School Choice” Majikthise: […]

by: pgl

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 14:56:26 +0000

Mark Thoma links to a Wall Street Journal article on this study. As far as the Red State fellow who claimed Kevin Drum found flaws in this study, Kevin made no such statement. I guess the Red State fellow flunked 8th grade reading.

by: Joe

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 13:44:35 +0000

Kevin Drum’s piece is rather slim and ignores various themes addressed here and elsewhere.

by: Uncle Mike

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 05:37:40 +0000

Teacher here.

In California, at least, there’s another reason why public school teachers might be better-equipped thatn private school teachers: every 5 years, we have to submit proof to the state that we have completed at least 150 hours of additional training, conferences, workshops, etc., in order to renew our teaching certificate.

Private school teachers have no such requirement for continuing education. They do not even need to be certified in the first place.

by: mamameow

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 03:53:54 +0000

i went to a private catholic school, grosse pointe, mich and fort lauderdale, fla. i would not send my cats to them for education. those nuns, many of them, were abusive physically amd verbally. a few of them were mentally ill. typing and shorthand class involved dictation and transcribing the pope’s encyclicals. imagine our thrill when the nun fell down icey steps, broke her jaw and had to have it wired shut. for a short time we were back to being a business class. social studies involved the pastor coming in to “discuss” the new testament. i asked so many unanswerable questions, he finally refused to acknowledge me. i finally stopped participating in any thing religious. religion was more important than reading, writing and arithmatic. just think no more daily masses, no more station of the crosses etc. i told them to consider me non catholic. told my parents do not try and stop me. they could beat me until i was black and blue, no more religion. graduation day last day in a catholic church. whew!! that felt good to unburden myself from their mumbo-jumbo

by: c u n d gulag

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 22:59:33 +0000

joanr 16,
Thank you for your bloviation…I can explain that word in 4 language’s, if you’d like.
u gife da “Preznit” 2 moch kredit.
hee kouldn’t spall C-A-T ‘f u spottd hymn da “C’ n da “A.” Mebbe u kant eether…
Here’s how your line would appear:
“Pee. Ass. Hearz uh piktur ov uh kat”
Bloviation… As Shrub would say, “Kows! Heh, heh, heh…”
Here you go, joanr 16: http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2001/06/22.html
Get it?
Got it?
GOOD!!!
And no, joanr 16, you ‘don’t ‘need no steenkin reality…’ Dass 4 entilectualls… knot 4 u…
But, you should THINK!!!
Before you bloviate….
That’s reality…
Have a nice weekend!

by: Swami

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 21:51:05 +0000

joanr16… I hope I’m reading you right. If I am, here’s a link to a very useful tool if you operate from a dos platform with Windows. It has the definition of bloviate, and it is also very comprehensive dictionary.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/quick_Dictionary_Download.aspx

by: luba

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 21:48:17 +0000

Joe–my thoughts exactly. The title makes is sound as though the public schools are “almost” as good, when they are generally equal to the better private schools, and head and shoulders above the conservative christian schools.

Imagine if they had tested the children on science knowledge, such as heliocentrism and evolution (both of which a significant proportion of the conservatives christians don’t really believe, according to some studies…..)

Thank god (so to speak) that the citizens of the state of Michigan had the wisdom to ban state funding of private education, and to write it into the constitution. (Actually, it was an anti-catholic measure from the 70s, the banning of “parochi-aid,” but the result was the banning of all public funding of private education. A good result from possibly bad intentions.)

My father, who never got much past grade school (Stalin’s USSR), always told me that it was not the school, but the efforts of the student, that were paramount. Most recent studies seem to bear him out.

P.S. Preview is useless in Mac. Half of the comment is obscured by the right column.

by: TheBizofKnowledge

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 21:25:22 +0000

Interesting study; thanks for posting it here for those of us who don’t read the New York Times. I can’t say that I’m surprised by the findings, as I have been a defender of the public school system for many years. But at least now I have a specific study that I can point to!

by: joanr16

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 20:01:10 +0000

I half expected c u n d gulag’s sendup communique from the G.W. Bush School of Literacy to close with, “P.S. Hear is a pictur of a cat.”

But I’m having literacy problems of my own, apparently. To borrow a phrase from a Francophone Quebecoise I once worked with, “maha, what means ‘bloviate’?” I couldn’t find it in the dictionary, although I can make a pretty good guess from the context. Don’t need no steenkin reality, I should think.