School's out for...america

Apparently, about 95 million americans are, according to a comprehensive federal study, operating at or below Level 2 literacy(almost 50% are level 1). The can " locate information in a text, locate a particular intersection on a map, or determine the difference in price of two items. However, they have “considerable difficulty” carrying out tasks requiring them to use long texts or do 2-step calculations." 40-44 million can only "perform tasks involving “brief, uncomplicated text,” such as totaling the entry on a bank deposit slip or locating information in a short news article, but many do so with difficulty." For being the greatest nation in the world, those are some pretty pathetic numbers. I don't mean that as an offense to those people, it isn't entirely their fault. Our high-school educational system is pathetic. My old high-school, Clatskanie High, is a good example. Our science lab had a leaky roof, we had books up to 15 years old, and several classes with 30+ people. Some teachers were great, and really cared about educating students; others were just trying to push them through and collect their retirement. And we were constantly having teachers replaced; continuity between different levels of the same subject would sometimes be non-existant due to this.

Those were just some random observations from my personal experience; I'm a solutions-oriented guy, so I've got an idea to help solve this problem.

Try giving the schools some fucking money!!!!!!!!

We are building up an insane national debt...so why is it that so many vital areas of society lacking funding? Poor management of funds, that's why, and that problem comes straight from the top. But this isn't another "the Bush administration sucks at everything" rant. This is what I propose:

Get rid of all these corporate tax breaks. The reason these were supposedly given was to generate more jobs in the wake of post 9/11 unemployment numbers. Problem is that 9 out of the last 12 months they haven't been meeting their projections. To me, that means that the cuts aren’t doing their jobs. Increase the taxes on large corporations, and use that money to educate the workforce.
Also, the "War" in Iraq and on Terror; they are taking up a huge chunk of the national budget. And what have we accomplished? Saddam is ducking trial, with his attorney asking for a 3-month extension and questioning the validity of a US-established Iraqi judicial system. We haven't caught Osama yet, and as Bill Maher said, "You can only kill the #2 man in Al-Qaida once; according to our government, we've killed him about 8 times". And our death toll in Iraq alone is almost 2000, with over 14000 injured. What do we have to show for it? I realize that we liberated(invaded a sovereign nation without justification. Where are those WMDs again?) Iraq, and 3 years later they are finally voting on a constitution. Which was in danger of not passing because it doesn't represent the minority(sunnis) as well as it should. Al-Qaida has been doing a lot of recruiting off our occupation of a Muslim country as well. Bush claims we have 8 battalions of Iraqi security forces trained, so how about we pull out of that disaster, cut the military budget to pre-"war" level, and give the excess amount to our schools. You can argue that we helped fix the Iraqi's problems, but we have problems over here too! And last time I checked, that's what we elected politicians to do; not invade sovereign nations and double oil prices.

As for how to spend the money, the most effective way is to make sure teachers are as good at their jobs as possible. Performance-based salaries, for starters, would encourage teachers to step up and do their best with every student; after all, since we're a bunch of greedy, capitalist bastards, giving financial incentives based on student performance seems the best way to make teachers work their hardest to educate the youth of the nation. One of the major problems as I’ve seen is that some teachers just don’s care; it’s just a 9-5 for them. I'm not sure why, exactly, but they just push students through the system. I could list of a half-dozen such teachers I've encountered if I wanted. Now, if their bottom-line were directly related to how well their students did on NATIONAL, STANDARDIZED TESTS, do you think they'd be content to "just" do their jobs? They'd work their butts off, guaranteed.

Also, standardized national requirements of each school. I'm not just talking about the basic requirements outlined in Bush's "No child left behind" plan, which isn't being funded. Set higher standards and make teachers and schools meet them. Literacy shouldn't be the minimum requirement for graduation; You should be able to read and write in grade school! The reason so many people are illiterate or barely literate is because that is where the bar has been set for so long. Set the bar higher, give the teachers incentives to meet those standards, and we would see a drastic increase in the quality of education for k-12 students. And better educated high-school students means higher paying jobs, which means more money in taxes for the government, which can then be used to fund all sorts of new, helpful programs. Not to mention increasing the quality of life for lower/middle class america and closing those gaps in society. So in conclusion, Here's a Thought...Increasing school budgets, then using that money for performance-based teachers salaries, plus national, high-standard educational goals would increase the quality of life for 98% of americans. Responsible spending by the government could make this happen, which is why I'm not holding my breath.