education

If you thought the housing bubble was bad, maybe you should check out the education bubble.

From The Atlantic:

How does the housing bubble debt compare? If you add together mortgages and revolving home equity, then from the first quarter of 1999 to when housing-related debt peaked in the third quarter of 2008, the sum increased from $3.28 trillion to $9.98 trillion. Over this period, housing-related debt had increased threefold. Meanwhile, over the entire period shown on the chart, the balance of student loans grew by more than 6x. The growth of student loans has been twice as steep -- and it's showing no signs of slowing.

The parents of an Oklahoma City student are suing OKC Public Schools for "[failure] to appropriately address the bullying of their daughter". Apparently, their daughter was being bullied and harrassed by other students for two years and then was attacked on the school bus.

How exactly is the school the responsible party here? Is it because parents obviously consider a public school to be akin to a "free" daycare? I mean, really... A student or group of students "bullied" another student. That is a normal social dynamic of both kids and adults.

What happened to using bullying as an opportunity to develop a thick skin or to learn to stand up for yourself?

A St. Louis high school science teacher has been placed on administrative leave after a student approached her about her porn work from the 1990's.

I don't see why this is an issue. So she made a few porn movies... what's the big deal here? It wasn't like she tried to seduce a student or anything. In fact, she recalled the choice of spending some time working in the porn industry as a bad decision when she was fired from a Kentucky school district in 2006:

"I'm a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who's made a lot of bad decisions in life," Dye said in May of 2006. "Anybody who's been in my classroom could tell you how much I love teaching and how much I love these students, and that should be what matters more than anything in my past."

The schools sure are getting more and more ridiculous when it comes to rules for play time. From The McCarville Report:

A 7-year old student at the Mid-Del School District's Parkview Elementary School was suspended last week from school for pointing a "finger gun" at a wall.

Yep, a kid got suspended for pointing his finger at a wall. Even if it was in the traditional shape of a "finger gun", I see absolutely no problem with the kid's actions. The school's actions, on the other hand, were ridiculous and over the top.

What's next? A law that says parents can't let their kids play cops and robbers at home?

Jamison Faught over at Muskogee Politico made an interesting post yesterday with graphics showing how low Oklahoma ranks in budget size compared to the regional average. I want to expand on it a little.

On a per capita scale, Oklahoma has a budget of $1925.65 per year. (Populations based of of July 2009 Census Bureau estimates.)

Colorado: $3661.88
New Mexico: $7314.63
Texas: $3389.52
Arkansas: $1488.17
Missouri: $3741.08
Kansas: $4789.36.

That gives us a regional average state budget per capita of $4064.11. That means that Oklahoma's budget per capita is less than half of the average of our surrounding states. So does that mean that our taxes need to double?

On Sunday, August 29, OETA featured State Question 744 on the Oklahoma Forum. Peter J. Rudy represented OFRG and others who are against it, while Joel Robison represented OEA and those who are for it.

Robison starts off explaining that while all of the campaign rhetoric of politicians purports that education is a priority in Oklahoma, the statistics tell a different story. He says that Oklahoma is last in our region (and 49th in the country) in per pupil expenditures and 48th in teacher pay. However, he and other supporters of SQ 744 fail to acknowledge that Oklahoma is one of the lowest ranked states on cost of living. While you might make more money teaching in other states, you'll also be spending more.

From the Duncan Banner:

Askins and Fallin both noted that without additional revenue to offset SQ 744, it would cause hardship on other state services, such as law enforcement, and also the military bases. Lamb, Corn, Baressi and Paddack also indicated that with a projected $1 billion plus revenue shortfall, SQ 744 isn’t something that will work at this time. They did all agree that more funding is needed, but not in the manner proposed.

As many of you who read this probably realize, I am VERY STRONGLY against State Question 744. I'm glad to see that both gubernatorial candidates are coming out against it.

Supporters of Oklahoma's State Question 744 have a so-called fact-checking site. (They don't deserve an ounce of linkjuice from me.)

I have never seen a political website so full of blatant half-lies. I call them half, because technically they are true, but really they are lies.

For example, the website states that "SQ 744 does not mandate cuts in other state services." Technically they're right, it doesn't mandate cuts in state services. The website also says that "SQ 744 DOES NOT impose or raise any taxes." Once again, technically they're right.

From the Tulsa World:

The composite scores have remained fairly static since 2006, improving only .2 points between 2006 and 2007 and remaining steady since then, according to the ACT organization's annual Condition of College and Career Readiness report for 2010. The same is true for the national composite score, which has varied only a few tenths of a point from its current average of 21.0 since 2006.

Now, proponents of State Question 744 will likely tell you that this is exactly why we need to increase education spending (while likely crippling the rest of the budget). However, this graphic from the Andrew J. Coulson of the Cato Institute shows otherwise: