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Head of FCC Proposes Increasing Internet School Fund
Rambo Tribble writes: The commissioners at the FCC are expected to vote, on December 11, on a proposal by Chairman Tom Wheeler to increase the funding for the nation's largest educational technology subsidy program, E-Rate, by 62 percent. The proposal is intended to be paid for by higher fees on phone service. The increased cost is pegged at $1.92 a year, per telephone line. Support for the proposal, or lack thereof, appears to be falling along partisan lines. To quote Wheeler, however, "Almost two-thirds of American schools cannot appropriately connect their students to the 21st century."
I don't know if it's my inner luddite awakening with old age or what, but I can't help but feel that without a specific focus, the notion of "internet schooling" does little for anyone.
Not a long time ago, I was just a normal internet user that surfed various news sites like Sladshdot, reddit, or wsj.com. I read a story, perhaps clicked onto some links it contained, and I was mostly happy with my life.
Then, one day, I surfed Slashdot. It was one of those days you will remember for the rest of your life. So, as I surfed Sladshdot, the title of a story got my attention. I read the summary. The topic seemed interesting, so I decided to read further. I read:
Read on below for the rest what Bennett has to say.
Usually I don't read first line of a story which contains the user who has submitted it. On that day, I didn't neither. As I've only read that bottom line, I asked myself: who is this misterious Bennett? I decided to click onto the "Read the comments" link to read more of the story that was, as it seems, written by some Bennett. During reading, I was already impressed by the clear and detailed but still concise structure of the text. As I finished reading, I was convinced it was the best story I've ever read on Sladshdot, or any comparable news site. I asked myself: perhaps this misterious Bennett has contributed more frequently than just once?
To find that out, I went to Sladshdot's search bar and searched for "Bennett". I clicked the second entry, and it began with:
Frequent contributor Bennett Haselton writes
I searched for the "Read on" line, and I was happy when I found it. As it seemed, he was a frequent contributor. However the story was on a topic completely unrelated to the topic of my article. Would the other article still be as insightful as the first? And the other stories in the search result? Would they be also by Bennett? Or someone else? I decided first to be happy to have found such an insightful article, and decided to make a photograph of me, before I read the second story.
I still have that photograph of me and I can see the hope and the satisfaction in my eyes, the hope that the other stories are also written by this brilliant author called Bennett, and the satisfaction of having read such an insightful article. As I've read the first couple of stories by Bennett, I couldn't believe what my eyes saw: all the stories were as insightful or even more insightful than the original story I read. I asked myself whether the spectators in the Globe theatre would have felt the same way when they watched a piece by shakespeare: Witnessing history of writing. I realized Bennett is one of histories great writers.
As I've finished reading all contributions by Bennett Haselton on Sladshdot, I went back to the first Bennett story, and read them a second time. I sat three days straight, missing all social events during that span, only reading Bennett's stories, and reading them again and again. During that time my eyes opened to the fact that my whole life, I've known nothing. Bennett's stories explained every aspect of very complicated things in such detail, that I formed something in my mind. First, I couldn't describe it what it was, but years later I know that, for the first time of my life, I formed something called "opinion" on a topic. Previously, I've only adopted opinions from others, but Bennett's stories enable people to make their opinions for themselfes, to form them. With his stories, Bennett gives you the material to form your own opinion on your own. I know you will say that you can form your opinion on your own, and that you don't need Bennett for that. I
disagree with you. What you call opinion, is in reality just ideology you imitate from others. You don't form your opinions, you don't have them.
Every time Bennett writes a new story on Sladshdot, I take a free day and spend it reading the story
See, there is already a fund which is supposed to pay for everybody getting broadband.
The companies collecting that aren't actually investing in expanding broadband except where it makes them more profit, not where it's needed.
So, a telecom tax proposed by someone who is a well known shill for the telecom industry ... I'm not buying it.
Anything which Wheeler proposes at this point, I'm going to assume is designed to line the pockets of industry, and will do nothing at all for the people they claim this will.
Won't someone think of the children, my ass. This is just a cash grab, plain and simple.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Spending more money is always the solution to every problem.
You don't even have to say "fuck the children." How about "fuck the athletics program?" I wonder what kind of connectivity that new AstroTurf field could have paid for? Or the new stadium that surrounds it, complete with lighting system that would have been the envy of a minor league sports team just a few years ago. I remember playing in the mud with spectators that had to sit on portable bleachers and games being called because we ran out of daylight.
In reality there's more important things than uber high speed broadband, like student to teacher ratio, but I think most would agree both are more important than a bloody football field that primarily benefits a small percentage of the student population. PE is important -- look at the American obesity rate -- but one can teach healthy exercise habits without needing an eight digit venue for the occasion.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I already pay a small fortune in school tax. Let them find the money for it from there.
Last I checked, my local government school has a 3 meg connection because that's what Comcast gives them for free. They have a three million dollar budget but can't find $3000 a year to upgrade that to a hundred meg.
It could be that after all the teachers' salaries and benefits are paid for they don't have any money left (and considering the reams of copy paper we get home...) or it could be that high-speed internet allows remote teaching which is seen as a threat to union jobs.
I do work for one private school (area towns tuition their kids there) and they paid a lot of money to get fiber brought to their facility.
The incentives are aligned differently.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
We, the taxpayers, have already paid hundreds of billions to private companies to give us the astoundingly fast broadband speed of 10 Mbps (on average) in this country, two DECADES after these same companies assured us they would get us 45 Mbps by 2010.
There are already enough fees levied on users, for numerous such issues, that money can be moved from area to another if necessary.
Instead of adding more costs to consumers, how about having the companies do this work for free since they failed so miserably the last time we gave them taxpayer money? Considering the sorry state of affairs of broadband in this country, this is the absolute least these folks could do to justify their existence.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
All funds from government and for government should go through the standard tax system, nothing should bypass in the form of fees.
The problem with bypassing in the form of fees is that a certain portion of every dollar you make is related to government supported infrastructure (including education). It takes a lot more public infrastructure to enable the generation of million dollars worth of wealth than it does to generate $30,000. Thus a person making $30,000 has a much smaller debt to society to pay back. Anytime a fee like this is introduced that person with the smaller debt is subsidizing and paying debt owed by the person with the larger income.
You are quite right to curse. The per-pupil spending has quadrupled since 1960ies (inflation-adjusted). And that's just national average. The locales with high population density — where you'd expect economies of scale to provide for lower per-pupil costs — actually pay even more. But the quality of education has remained level at best — 70% of 8th-graders can't be said to read proficiently!
No one in their right mind would willingly pay 4 times more for the same bad (and worsening) service, if they had a choice. Thus, it is not surprising, the teachers' unions have made ensuring, you have no other choice, one of their top priorities.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I’ve never understood why taxes for things have to come from oddly tenuously associated sources for the things they fund. Here in DC the Dulles metro extension is mostly funded by tolls on cars on the Dulles tollway, why do the residents in that area get the privilege of subsidizing travel for DC to Dulles whether they would use the metro or not? Why should phones be taxed to fund internet for schools? Shouldn't school infrastructure funding come from some from a mix of property taxes, state funding, and federal funding?
Sometimes taxes need to go up. If not, then don’t hide the fact that they went up with all the damn smoke and mirrors. Storm sewers here in Maryland need funding, so now we are going to get a rain tax proportional to acreage. Of course it won’t mater if your property is next to a stream and has no impact on the storm sewer system. If infrastructure needs fixing then just raise the damn property taxes -- larger estates will end up paying more anyway.
Letter To Iran
Teacher's salaries pale in comparison to the administrators salaries. Administrative costs for schools have gone up by thousands of percent over the last 30 years. Where there used to be 1 administrator per every 100 students, there are now sometimes 1 for every 15 in some school districts, more than there are teachers, and the administrators are more highly paid. It is this cost which must be curbed and would free up 2/3 of a school's budget for more appropriate spending. Write your congresscritter.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Ever seen 19th century levels of adequacy? Most schools pass that by the time their students hit middle school.
Yeah, but administrators, being seen as 'business' people, are seen as more deserving of above average pay. Teachers on the other hand are seen as 'less capable' and thus people get pissy if they are not paid less than the regional average.
fuck the children.
Pedophile.
I believe most people have the misunderstanding that the educational system is designed to do anything beyond breeding conformity. As you know, cui bono... Tablets and Xanax, and fear of this battle station will keep them in line.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
two-thirds of American schools cannot appropriately connect their students to the 21st century.
I am unaware of any school system in the United States without internet access. This is probably dependent highly open their own reports definition of "appropriate". I live in a relatively poor school district, and all of the schools have internet including wifi, even in the external buildings like the band room and the gym. there is even expensive switching equipment in every single classroom for some reason.
If schools are struggling with internet costs it is probably because the contractors are raping them on equipment and installation, making them buy unnecessary equipment.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
In reality there's more important things than uber high speed broadband, like student to teacher ratio
There likely are more important things than "uber high speed broadband" but "student to teacher" ratio may not be one of them. There is very little evidence that smaller class sizes improve education in any measurable way, other than for disadvantaged kids in very early grades (K & 1). There is even less evidence that "student to teacher ratio" matters. The main advantage of smaller classes seems to come from the fact that they are quieter, rather than smaller. Maybe we should be investing in sound suppressing insulation rather than more teachers. Brighter kids have been found to sometimes do worse in smaller classes, because they are compelled to follow along with the class, rather than reading ahead or studying on their own.
The PE group doesn't even get to use the football field. they are either in the Gym (basketball team gets the shit end of the stick usually, and the Theatre group has to make do since the gym is also used as the auditorium and the stage), or they are outside on what is considered the practice field/soccer field (which you are lucky if it has grass at all).
baseball team doesn't even practice at the school anymore, as there are usually dedicated ball fields in the Park (which are also used for little league, Tball, softball, church leagues of various ages, various office teams, and beer league)
Maybe football should go the same way, so the private schools can use the same complex. Also, church leagues and adult Intramural leagues can actually become a thing. This way schools can save money and everybody can play some football in much nicer facilities then they otherwise would be able to use. Also, districts can then sell some of the land around them and make the community better.
I do. For starters this kind of thing increases access to resources like Khan academy, wikipedia, open text books, and the internet as a whole which provides an information resource that makes a typical school library look like a giant waste of space.
The old guard following along with standardized texts and curriculum needs to be tossed out. Our schools are woefully inadequate. Our teachers are spread too thin. The internet allows for building interactive learning labs that adapt to individual students and their strengths and weaknesses in the kind of ways a good teacher would if they had the time to dedicate one on one with each student.
Our teachers instead of being babysitters each trying to re-invent the wheel should be doing three things, counting attendance and collaborating and contributing to open and free resources of this type, and last but not least they should be spending their efforts with students teaching things computers can't do like physical and spatial learning and tasks.
Why would we want to waste all the education that is required of our teachers on tutoring a student effectively or ineffectually tutoring 30 when that teacher can instead focus on an adaptive tutoring auto-pilot? As teachers recognize a failing (in the form of having to expend personal efforts) they collaborate, build an improvement for the auto-pilot, and the auto-pilot carries that ability to adapt to every single student thereafter. Eventually it becomes in effect a teacher with hundreds of years of collective experience providing one-on-one tutoring of our children. It slows down or speeds up as appropriate for the student in question so "no child is left behind" but also "no child is kept behind."
In general our students should be programming and studying physics and sciences in grade school. We should be moving on to more abstract maths as soon as possible because the younger we are the BETTER we are at understanding fluid and creative abstract concepts like these. And STEM is the key to the future success of our society.
"I already pay a small fortune in school tax."
no, you don't. You pay hardly anything and reap a huge return, moron.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
More than 15 years ago South Dakota trained prisoners and installed fiber internet to every school and hospital in the state. Now all of them have high speed internet access available. Too bad other states did not see this coming and make that investment.
At least the FCC is thinking far enough ahead to realize the schools will need more money to pay for the increasingly expensive, non-net neutral internet access they will be receiving shortly.
Silence is a state of mime.
Switching equipment was probably donated.
Since they don't have the money to pay for highly experienced and trained people, you end up with crappy set ups.
Also, how much internet speed?
The future is being built on high bandwidth, and to not have that in schools hinders Americans future generations.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You pay hardly anything
You obviously haven't looked at a property tax bill lately. Public education is a social good so I'm not saying we should get rid of it, but to suggest that it's somehow "cheap" at current rates is misleading at best.
I would advocate for no more Federal taxes of any sort. Money that goes to Washington never comes back whole. In other words, nobody is as good at bureaucracy spending as the Feds. We are lucky to see 10% of any dollar we send them.
This doesn't jive with my experience. K-12 schools can get federal funding for IP connectivity and in my experience they generally end up with way more than they need. I've seen bus garages with Gigabit connections and elementary schools with 10Gigabit. That's enough bandwidth to aggregate thousands of broadband customers. Maybe qualifying for that funding is a pain or has limitations that some schools don't qualify for, but there's definitely a LOT of money spent every year subsidizing new fiber for schools.
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Why is this is even needed. Has K-12 education changed that much in the last twenty years? Thinking back on my education, I can't think of anything that would have been improved with high speed internet. The only uses that I'm coming up for at this age group are entertainment uses (i.e. things students shouldn't be doing during school hours) or things like Khan Academy. Are any schools wanting this for online learning? Wouldn't the savings in personnel offset the costs needed for installation? Of course, even if we assume it is needed, isn't this just the FCC admitting that high speed internet is a basic service, which means that it should be regulated as such (i.e. Title II)?
I call Bullshit. There is a preponderance of data on class size and how it effects learning. Nearly all of that data supports the theory that smaller classes increase learning. Some of the data supports that it doesn't make a difference, and there is no data at all that supports a theory that larger classes increase learning. The only thing even being contested in this arena is that the results can be interpreted in different ways, and not all studies were able to factor in all variables. Most of the arguments are being pushed by people or entities that don't like the costs associated with CSR (Class Size Reduction) mandates.
In essence, you're pretty bass ackwards on your understanding of this topic. I won't disagree that there might be things that could provide larger gains in education than CSR, but that doesn't mean that the concept is invalid, or that there isn't any data supporting it.
Your last sentence is complete conjecture with no supporting evidence and should be taken as such.
Microsoft: Recommends (and gets) it's own punishment for anti-competitive practices. Punishment is to donate their own software to schools, helping create another generation of locked in customers for themselves.
FCC: Refuses to regulate the internet as a utility, allows corporate interests to subvert the open internet. Recommends spending more money on getting that internet to school children.
It sounds like your in an urban area, rural areas have plenty of connectivity issues.
Cheap storage VM.
E-Rate (and other government education tech funding) is a very convoluted, murky system that seems to only benefit large corporations that want those high-bid contracts to sell a bunch of their technology that never gets maintained or repaired. Good ideas, bad follow-through. I've seen it too many times where hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent on the next whiz-bang whatever that will save the school from "falling behind the curve", only to see most of it broken or lying dormant 3 years later due to no funding going to the continuance of that technology. It's the biggest waste of money because those who win the contracts don't generally give a sh*t about the students that will supposedly benefit from it all. In the specific case of E-Rate, its nice because it funds the back-end network/server infrastructure mostly - but then you just see horribly configured Windows AD servers that get touched by a million different "sysadmins" and end up less than useless, clogging up the network and workstations with malware.
You want to make a difference? Volunteer at your local school. Install Linux on some old PCs along with edu packages (skolelinux comes to mind) that you don't use any more and give it to their Kindergarten class. They'll love you to pieces. Especially if you come in once in a while and actually teach them some stuff.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
There is a preponderance of data on class size
Yet you cite none. There is actually very, very, little data, especially considering the billions spent reducing classroom size. This follows a long pattern in educational spending, where money is poured into the latest fad, and only is hindsight does anyone bother the check if the money is being wasted.
I am aware of only three studies conducted on class size:
1. "Project Prime Time", conducted in Indiana during the 1980s. Results were mixed, but there was no control, so this was not a proper controlled study.
2. "Project Star" conducted in Tennessee in the 1980s. This study found small, but statistically significant, benefits for low income children in early grades. It found far less benefit for other students. It found NO benefit to teacher's aides, which lowered student-teacher-ratio without reducing the class size. It found that noisy open floor plans often adopted when reducing class sizes, were actually detrimental to learning. Big quiet classes are better than small noisy classes.
3. "Project Sage" Wisconsin, starting in 2002. Found that class size reduction alone was insufficient to improve student performance. Again, this found that the improved outcomes were mostly among disadvantaged students.
So do smaller classes work? YES they do! They work well for disadvantaged students in early grades. But this is the opposite of what we do. Smaller classes are mostly adopted in more affluent areas where they make little difference, and may actually be detrimental.
Yes, and administrators, once career bureaucrats, are now actual "business people" seeking community props only to find that there's profit in rent-seeking Federal funds for children. These "business people" naturally demand a higher salary because they've closed some big deals. Unlike the deals they've closed for other employers, however -- these deals benefit other ... "business people," not the school district and certainly not the children. Except for the children whose parents benefit from the deals made by the "business people" who "serve" on the school board.
... Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. When did it become a good idea to put "business people" in charge of delicate things like educating children? Was it during one of the MBA gluts?
And that's leaving ALEC out of the equation.
We know that Eternal September began in 1993. When did Eternal Balance Sheet begin, i.e., when did We The People start believing that anything not turning a profit must be shut down? Some things simply cost money, e.g., public schools, the Post Office,
"Press to test."
(click)
"Release to detonate."
Keep drinking the Silicon Valley/Wall St. cool-aid.
There's a difference between learning resources and teaching. Learning resources are only as useful as how well-prepared learners are to make sense of them and learn from them. It takes skilled, dedicated, experienced teachers to cultivate the atmosphere and conditions where learning can occur effectively. No amount of Internet access and learning resources, no matter how well designed, can make up for that.
Khan Academy itself is predicated on a now discredited model of learning (lecturing and testing), so don't expect too much from that. I understand, however, that some teachers are making creative use of the videos, so perhaps that could account for some of the successes.
The last thing i heard was that Silicon Valley are laying off a lot of its STEM-qualified workers. Do you think they need to make room for more sales and PR people?
... to pay for extra internet connection fees after Net Neutrality is just a memory from pre-Corporate Sovereignty times.
John Carlyle: What is going on? Why has production stopped?
Foreman: He's been exposed.
John Carlyle: Don't. Don't breathe on me. Cover your mouth.
Foreman: I'm sorry, sir.
John Carlyle: Does his skin fall off or something? I don't want to replace the bedding. Just get him out.
Foreman: Yes, sir.
John Carlyle: Great. Thank you.
"Press to test."
(click)
"Release to detonate."
Our schools are in a part of the country with decent access to broadband. Both schools where I work have roughly 100 Mbps access via Cable Modem or FIOS for less than $200 per month.
If you don't have decent broadband choices near your schools, E-rate won't make that problem any better. All it will ensure is that your local school district spends thousands of dollars per month on private connections that are mostly unnecessary.
The FCC should focus on getting multiple broadband providers into every market across the country. Once that problem is solved, the E-rate program will not be necessary.
Do the Teachers work year round as the Administrators do? The ones I know of don't.
No, and neither do the administrators. They start a little bit before school starts, to prepare for the upcoming year (as do the teachers). They work a little past the end of the year (as do the teachers). During the summer, some of the administrators work, but most do not. Also, the administration building at my school district is open until 5, but the doors are often locked long before that, and you can see people in there, but they won't come open the door for you.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
The current e-rate system is not needs-based, they lavish funds on every applicant that can navigate the application process - the answer isn't MORE money, it is in targeting the money to districts with real needs.
Additionally, there needs to be comprehensive auditing of current expenditures... wasn't it e-rate that paid for carrier-class routers for a rural school district a couple years ago?
They are treating education like it is a cow you are trying to medicate - to medicate a cow you need to pour a crazy amount of medicine into the cows mouth, because it is not the first, second, or third stomach that absorbs the medicine, it is the fourth or fifth - the massive dose is needed so that adequate medicine makes it to the proper stomach.
I'd rather see wealthy districts be cut off from erate, expenses get a closer review, and then, if needed, increase funding. I'm not aware of the government refusing requests because of a lack of funding, the real question is why aren't 2/3rds of schools requesting the funds in the first place?
Ken
The problem is NOT funding, The problem is that we have people in charge of the schools that are complete MORONS in regard to technology.
Want to really do some good? design a plan. for the technology backbone in every school and force the schools to adhere to it. Part of the plan is REQUIRED spending on maintenance and replacements. Schools try to use crap forever, I know of TWO schools that still has 10 base T switches in place and Freaking HP routers.
Schools need to be forced to upgrade the gear. All networking gear replaced every 5 years no matter what. Until we get competent people in charge at public schools the technology will continue to be a joke.
Even rich school are running with 10+ year old crap. Honestly VGA for the classroom video to a freaking projector that needed a bulb 2 years ago is shameful.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I do. For starters this kind of thing increases access to resources like Khan academy, wikipedia, open text books, and the internet as a whole which provides an information resource that makes a typical school library look like a giant waste of space.
Those are resources not teaching instruments.
We did not have an encyclopedia in every classroom yet we got along just fine. I agree, though, that those tools should be available in the school library.
I question your sources for these numbers. Here are figures from my state (a comparison to some national averages can be found on page 7): http://www.schools.utah.gov/da... . This indicates that there are far more teachers than administrators, and that most of the money going to public education is ending up as teacher compensation. Have you found something indicating otherwise?
here is one example.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
You can't indite Khan's methodology without dismissing the value of most public schools in general.
Not that you're wrong, just that singling out Khan is like noting that 4th grade isn't very good and ignoring the other 11 years of "education" we subject young people to.
...but I think most would agree both are more important than a bloody football field that primarily benefits a small percentage of the student population.
You most obviously have NOT lived in the deep south or the midwest. Can't afford new books, but we can build a $2M football stadium for the high school and hire 5 football coaches. Because "Johnny gonna be a football star".
Why do you bother voting, even if nobody voted, the results would be the same. Tom Wheeler was an executive for the same companies he is now supposed to police...
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
In our state they stopped teaching cursive handwriting, right at the time I was doing research into genealogy using cursive handwritten census and military records. Are they totally trying to detach children from any ties to traditional skills, ability and history?
That 10 gig (more like a 1 gig from what I've seen) connection goes to a central office where the state Dept of Education may provide a gigabit Internet connection that is limited to 300 megs. 300 megs to share to maybe 70 something schools in a school district.... Add to that any administrative locations...
"If it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet"
For millennia young people congregated in schools and were taught important life lessons and beyond, often without blackboards, books, or anything. Out of a sudden we cannot do this anymore unless every child has an overpriced iPad, fast Internet pipes, smartboards, and other school tech that is outdated before the bonds mature? Where is the fund that properly trains teachers on how to use the equipment? Where is the fund for core academic improvements? I gladly pay for any programs that actually teach the children something. I won't pay for buying a bunch of cool stuff that nobody knows how to use and that is yesterday's tech by the time it gets installed. Instead of going on a tech buying binge, how about fixing the horrible inaccurate science and history books and replacing educational crimes like "Everyday Math"!? Courses like "Everyday Math" are the reason why high school grads by now are inept to even keep hockey scores. No tech in the world fixes these academic flaws.
Actually I work for a company that specializes in rural areas. Not Alaska or Wyoming rural, but we've built fiber into schools in towns too small for a gas station.
Like I said, if you fill out the right forms there is a ton of funding available.
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I've never seen that. WAN links typically all aggregate back to the BOE/DOE headquarters in the county, or a large high school, and then there is an IP service that is also leased. The WAN links are generally 1GE or 10GE and the IP service then is provided to that location as a separate product and circuit and usually is 'right sized' to be anywhere from 250 mbps to 2-3gbps depending on the size of the county. Usually that IP service is still overkill. I'm not saying that based on "Oh that looks like way too much for a school" but "Wow these guys are peaking at 4% max utilization on that link" ellipsis ellipsis ellipsis
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You can't indite Khan's methodology without dismissing the value of most public schools in general.
Not that you're wrong, just that singling out Khan is like noting that 4th grade isn't very good and ignoring the other 11 years of "education" we subject young people to.
You're absolutely right about current practices in public education and it's getting worse with policies like the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top acts. It's increasingly suffering under the influence of the publishing and testing corporations like Pearson Education, McGraw Hill, ETS, et al. There's currently a lobbying and govt. driven feeding frenzy to get as much money from and exert as much control over public education by big corporations as possible. Now teachers across the country are rebelling, protesting, and campaigning for real education reform. The thing is, most experienced teachers know how to teach well but they're being forced to teach to meaningless tests so that corporations can make more money in the short-term regardless of the longer-term effects of having a poorly educated population.