OT: does obama bring change?

[Lokhopkuen]

Our system isn't "broken" it's corrupted by a small percentage of really greedy people who feel having everything is just not enough.

The AIG thing is mind blowing. The company goes belly up, the government steps in to save the day and they use the government's money to pay outrageous bonuses to the executive officers & nobody goes to jail?

Can you spell KICKBACKS?

[David Jamieson]

Our system isn't "broken" it's corrupted by a small percentage of really greedy people who feel having everything is just not enough.

The AIG thing is mind blowing. The company goes belly up, the government steps in to save the day and they use the government's money to pay outrageous bonuses to the executive officers & nobody goes to jail?

Can you spell KICKBACKS?

corrupted = broken.

semantics yes, but you get my drift.

[Xiao3 Meng4]

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/s...economics.html

Near the end, he makes an interesting comparison with Executive Officers.

NSFW (language)

[1bad65]

Whoa!!! Looks like someone got slapped down hard!

If you think that, you're a bigger moron than I thought.

I pointed out ~40% pay no income taxes. And those people get to vote on increasing taxes they do not pay. They do not pay INCOME taxes. I never said they don't pay ANY taxes AT ALL.

Just because you guys can't understand written English does not mean I got 'slapped down'.

[1bad65]

The USA, to stop it's slide in the index (currently rated 20th and still falling, far after the much-maligned Cuba which is ranked 13th and rising) and to improve the quality of it's education has to create a funding model that provides adequate funding for comprehensive general education for all public schools.

Yet you say underfunding of US schools is a big problem. I'm looking now, but I'm willing to bet Cuba spends alot LESS in total and less per student than we do. If they indeed do spend less, doesn't that disprove the liberal's theory that more money equals higher test scores and a better education?

[1bad65]

All you guys crying about the AIG bonuses, keep in mind Obama and the Democrats wrote the legislation behind closed doors and rammed it through Congress and onto Comrade Obama's desk at record pace.

Yet I'm sure it's all the AIG executive's and the Republican's fault, right?

[BoulderDawg]

If they indeed do spend less, doesn't that disprove the liberal's theory that more money equals higher test scores and a better education?

Sources?

They are liberals who say we need to put more funds into education but I know of no studies that corelated money and test scores to prove a theory.

Maybe you could point me to that study.

Also, I don't know of any theory put its fairly obvious that Neos feel more money equals more military strenght...Well we're spending 12 billion a month in Iraq and we're like a car struck in the sand. the more we spin our wheels trying to get out the deeper we get.

Who's knows. Mayhap if we could take some of that 12 billion and invest it in something like 2 teachers for every classroom then it might help. I'd be willing to try.

[BoulderDawg]

By the way did anyone notice the moral outrage expressed by Sarah Palin over Obama's special olympics comment?

I found her concern a little disengenoius especially after her announcement that she was going to turn down federal funds for Alaska that would have been used to educated "special needs" children.

Doesn't she have a mentally retarded child? I guess since she and her family is rich they can afford the best care for their child but if you're poor in Alaska and you need help with a special child then it's F you.

Anyway, speaking of children, haven't there been questions about her children? Seems I heard somewhere she's raising one of her daughter's children.....other than the one her daughter just had....and she's calling it her own. I think all her children should undergo DNA testing...That would probably be very interesting.

[Reverend Tap]

Yet you say underfunding of US schools is a big problem. I'm looking now, but I'm willing to bet Cuba spends alot LESS in total and less per student than we do. If they indeed do spend less, doesn't that disprove the liberal's theory that more money equals higher test scores and a better education?

In total, there's no question Cuba spends less on education than the US. It's just a much smaller country. Per student, I found this, a bar graph detailing public spending per primary school student by country (expressed as a percentage of per capita GDP), most recent statistics available.
According to it:
Cuba: 34.7% (#6)
U.S.: 17.9% (#36)

At the secondary level, the gap widens.
Cuba: 41.9% (#8)
U.S.: 22.4% (#51)

And here's the stats for the tertiary level, where it gets even more pronounced.
Cuba: 101.7% (#30)
U.S.: 23.9% (#97)


I don't know anything about NationMaster, but all the charts were sourced to UNESCO.

[1bad65]

Sources?

The source is all the liberals saying we need to spend more! Obama is going to triple education spending. Do you think he is saying this won't improve test scores?

[1bad65]

Doesn't she have a mentally retarded child? I guess since she and her family is rich they can afford the best care for their child but if you're poor in Alaska and you need help with a special child then it's F you.

Funny you put it this way. Let's see how this sounds:

Doesn't Obama have 2 children? I guess since he and his family are rich and can afford to send them to Sidwell Friends, but if you are poor in DC and you want a better education then it's F you.

[1bad65]

Speaking of Sidwell Friends:

The school accepts vouchers under the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, allowing the entry of children whose parents could not otherwise afford to pay for their attendance. However, Congress has passed a bill, which President Obama has now signed, to cancel the program and so to force the removal of those less privileged children at the end of the 09/10 school year.

Obama sure is helping out the poor by taking away quality education programs from them.

[1bad65]

In total, there's no question Cuba spends less on education than the US. It's just a much smaller country. Per student, I found this, a bar graph detailing public spending per primary school student by country (expressed as a percentage of per capita GDP), most recent statistics available.
According to it:
Cuba: 34.7% (#6)
U.S.: 17.9% (#36)

I'd be willing to bet that 17.9% of our GDP is exponentially bigger than 34.7% of Cuba's.

I don't know anything about NationMaster, but all the charts were sourced to UNESCO.

You posted a legit source. Thanks for doing that.

I agree that education is a bigger deal to Castro than the US. IMO, he does it for prestige reasons. But why can't Cuba make their own cars? When was the last time a Cuban won a Nobel Prize in anything? How many industrial technological breakthroughs happen in Cuba? How many of the world's best doctor's come from Cuba? What cutting-edge medicines have came out of Cuba?

Remember, the last time Castro was in the hospital needing stomach surgery they flew in a surgeon from Spain.

[Reverend Tap]

I'd be willing to bet that 17.9% of our GDP is exponentially bigger than 34.7% of Cuba's.

Yeah, I tried to find a source citing the figures in real currency amounts, but didn't come up with anything. And you are right about per capitaGDP:
Cuba: $2,863.68 (#114)
U.S.: $44,155.00 (#8)
(data as of 2003, sourced to World Development Incidators Database and CIA World Factbook)

I agree that education is a bigger deal to Castro than the US. IMO, he does it for prestige reasons. But why can't Cuba make their own cars? When was the last time a Cuban won a Nobel Prize in anything? How many industrial technological breakthroughs happen in Cuba? How many of the world's best doctor's come from Cuba? What cutting-edge medicines have came out of Cuba?

Remember, the last time Castro was in the hospital needing stomach surgery they flew in a surgeon from Spain.

I'm not really defending Cuba. To my knowledge, they do a few things quite well and many things rather poorly. Just wanted to throw the statistics out there, since the question was on the table.

[BoulderDawg]

Speaking of Sidwell Friends:

The school accepts vouchers under the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, allowing the entry of children whose parents could not otherwise afford to pay for their attendance. However, Congress has passed a bill, which President Obama has now signed, to cancel the program and so to force the removal of those less privileged children at the end of the 09/10 school year.

Obama sure is helping out the poor by taking away quality education programs from them.

I had a good laugh over that one.

If you're poor and you're expecting to go to Sidwell on your "D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program" Voucher then you had best scrap up a lot on money from somewhere.

Tuition at that school is around 30K a year. The maximum amount you can get from your "Voucher" is $7,500. Most of the poor people I know don't have $22,500 just lying around.

Also I pulled this off of the Sidwell website:

How many students are accepted to each grade?

Although we will accept applications to each grade, we only increase the class size at certain grades. We have 22 openings for PK, 26 openings for K, 16 openings for 3rd, 16 openings for 6th, 16 openings for 7th, 22 openings for 9th. Grades other than those mentioned above will have openings only through attrition.

They are taking less than a 120 students. On their website they said 22% of students receive financial aid. That would be less than 30 students.....

According to Bad we should focus on providing an education for only 30 students while thousands are left out in the cold.