High School Shooting in Red Lake, Minnesota

[YASNY]

You as a student have the right to express your personal and political beliefs in school .....

 

.... as long as you don't use the word "God".

[Texsox]

.... as long as you don't use the word "God".

 

In some parts of the country

[southsider2k5]

So in your opinion can anything be done to help prevent this?

What about mandatory guidance counseling?

 

I know you didn't ask me, but one big thing they could do is to change the way their make teachers. I have first hand knowledge of two "teachers" colleges and many teachers end up that way because they failed at another major, and to keep them in school they have them become a teacher. (You can't make it in premed, teach bio in elementary school) We need to have our brightest educating our children.

 

Another thing we HAVE to do is end the socio-economic discrimination that is local property tax funding of schools. Since the federal government seems to want to educate our kids now, they need to sit down, and figure out a way to make the intercity schools as well funded as the white suburban schools.

[Texsox]

I know you didn't ask me, but one big thing they could do is to change the way their make teachers.  I have first hand knowledge of two "teachers" colleges and many teachers end up that way because they failed at another major, and to keep them in school they have them become a teacher.  (You can't make it in premed, teach bio in elementary school)  We need to have our brightest educating our children.

 

Another thing we HAVE to do is end the socio-economic discrimination that is local property tax funding of schools.  Since the federal government seems to want to educate our kids now, they need to sit down, and figure out a way to make the intercity schools as well funded as the white suburban schools.

 

Part one I think is a bit of an exaggeration based on teachers I have known. Part two is dead on and welcome to Democratic thinking 101.

 

Taking money away from public schools is not the answer. I also think those private school families should think twice about vouchers. I hear how many of them are happy their kids aren't hanging with the "public school kids" with vouchers, they would be as those kids are seated next to their kids.

 

One thing that bugs me is it is very easy for public officials to score points by attacking the school systems and the teachers that are involved. Like every profession, there are some bad, but by and large, teachers are some of the most altruistic, caring, dedicated people I know. Why else work for teachers wages? We need to support those teachers and not allow our elected officials to beat the drum just to score points with voters.

[YASNY]

We need to have our brightest educating our children.

 

When we start paying teachers enough, we'll get the brightest. Until then, we'll settle for what we get.

[WilliamTell]

Terrible, terrible, I hate hearing about school shootings. I normally dread people that do this and I'm not trying to defend the kid, but he's obviously had some problems in his life, which makes me feel sorry about what's happened to him in the past, but there's no excuse to shoot people.

[JUGGERNAUT]

The idea of school funding moving from the local level to the national level is intriguing but likely to face greater opposition than the idea of doing away with income taxes & creating a value-added national sales tax.

 

Those school boards are pretty powerful & most state budgets for education are pretty big (billions). I don't see the people holding those purse strings giving them up easily.

 

I think Pres Bush's plan was more closely aligned with moderate thinking.

Offer the federal funds in exchange for federal guidelines & standards. That gives the local boards the power to change or remain as is. A No Child Left Behind II could open the door to addressing the concerns you've raised.

 

Federal funds in exchange for hiring teachers passing a national standard. This would help in the Jessica Lunsford case were Couhey was able to teach in her district. Couhey was arrested 26 times before that contract hiring. A Federal standard would undoubtedly include an extensive background check. So from a child safety & education perspective this could really help. The unions are likely to sqwauk but the more they resist change the more they are becoming marginalized by contract teachers.

 

Likewise federal funds could be offered to encourage peer & group guidance counseling which I agree would probably offer the best help to address these disturbed kids.

 

Where the money would come from for these funds? Let's just get it done.

Pass the national value-added sales tax. I'm not one to usually argue for increased taxes but for America to remain competitive in the 21st century it's obvious it needs to evole from an income tax system to a sales/transaction system. Processing costs alone for the income tax system are estimated at $126 billion dollars a year! That includes the govt, corporate, & individual costs. A sales/transation based system would drop that cost dramatically. That's another $100 billion dollars flowing into the economy.

 

Education is usually an easy sale. This would also represent somewhat of a compromise to the income tax cuts under Bush. Initially we are not talking a lot of money. A few billion would help the schools greatly. Linking that $ to NCLB II would prevent abuse of the $ at the local level.

I'd be willing to bet that simply introducing this tax on just SEC transactions would reap the few billion needed.

 

If the boards are reluctant to accept the money I see no reason with this account running a surplus. As long as Congress keeps it's hands off the surplus it's generally a good idea for NCLB to always be in the black.

[southsider2k5]

Another arrest has been made in connection with this case.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/28/school.shooting/index.html