My Simple Plan

I threw this together last night. It is a modest, commonsense response to the generally failed state of American public education. I am sure that with a little tweaking it will earn near unanimous support among a-zers.

1. Abolish the federal Department of Education.

2. Abolish all state Departments of Education.

3. Disestablish and revoke the supervisory power and the budgetary or taxing authority of all local and regional school boards and districts and of their successors if any.

3. Eliminate teacher certification regimes at every level of government. Hiring schools may value any teacher training or educational coursework/degrees as they wish.

4. Rewrite SPED law so that IEPs are solely for informational purposes for schools and parents and do not place educational institutions under obligation to provide any particular services.

5. Eliminate all educational entitlements under Section 504.

6. Establish that students who do not achieve a particular score on SAT test(s) (or other) shall not be granted a high school diploma. Target scores shall be determined or alternatives to SAT devised or chosen by a committee of classroom teachers, one per state, chosen by each state’s DOE, as its last official act before disbanding. Once its work is done, the committee too shall dissolve itself. The state shall be required to issue a diploma to home-schooled students who do achieve the requisite score. Standardized tests prior to this graduation test are entirely at the school or parents’ discretion. Schools must publish data as to their students’ performance on the test(s).

7. Establish that schools may expel any student at any time entirely at its own discretion and that the school shall have no obligation whatsover to that student thereafter, other than repayment pro rata of any tuition or fees already paid.

8. The federal government shall raise through the income or other progressive tax sufficient funds to provide parents monies equal to the national average per student educational expenditure. These funds shall be the only public source of funding for education in America. The funds are to be distributed without any strictures as to how they must be spent other than that they must spent for educational purposes, to be broadly defined by statute and refined by case law over time. The benefit of the doubt in defining “educational purposes” is to be granted to parents. Unspent funds are to be refunded to the government. Parents who home school must keep a record of expenditures and likewise return unspent funds. Government involvement is to be limited as much as possible to managing the collection and disbursal of funds and to the retrieval of unspent or inappropriately spent funds.

9. Any organization, group, or individual may establish a school, churches included. The continued existence of the school is to be determined entirely by its success in attracting and retaining enough students to remain viable, though donations to schools are permitted and are to be treated as charitable donations for purposes of taxation. Schools shall have entire discretion as to whom they admit as students.

10. Schools may enter into whatever voluntary association they wish with other schools, but may not enter into any association with any government entity.

 

Sounds ambitious. Great idea for a thread!

My simple plan for today? Take out the garbage. Do some laundry, head uptown for Canada Day celebrations, head to a friend's trailer for a bit, and just generally enjoy the day

Looking forward to hearing everyone else's simple plans for the day too!

 

Go for a run
Facial
Shopping
Lunch
Tutoring



ETA:Facial plans were abandoned...roads were flooded this morning due to fast moving rain storms...there was actually a wave rolling down part of the street....everything else going according to plan.

 

Sounds like fun cza! Enjoy your "Canada Day" eh!

 

You betcha! Right back at you!

 

In NJ we spend a lot more per pupil than most places in the country. Teachers are also paid a lot more as a result.

I think that will be a tough sell for teachers here but I'd be thrilled to have my property taxes go down because property taxes pay for education here. We also heavily subsidize the poorer districts so they receive around the same per pupil cost as the highest districts in the state.

 

Well, OK. In keeping with the whimsical turn the thread has taken, I will be adopting a beagle who has been kept in a little shed - never let out - since he was born a little over a year ago. I will walk all (5) of the dogs, and I will clean poop off the fannies of several of our week-old chicks. It's Creature Week for me.

 

Just an update: got the garbage taken out JUST in time! Love that feeling. Now I'm ready for breakfast! My simple plan is going well so far!

 

Great, Monsieur! Finished my run before the rainstorms roll in...enjoyed a protein shake...leaving for spa treatment soon.

Enjoy the rest of your day! KISS... Keep it simple, sweetie!

 

TeachOn's plan sounds like a libertarian dream with the exception of requiring a standardized exit test of students across the country. It's an interesting set of ideas, albeit one with many points where we differ strongly in opinion.

I don't know if I have a simple plan, as I mostly go where life takes me and enjoy the ride.

 

The thought of not having a plan sends me into a tailspin!!!

 

What is with all the political posts on here lately?

 

What's political about our simple plans for the day?

 

I would venture to say that education and politics (at least to some degree) are tied together, since it's government that has a lot to do with how education functions.

 

Ah well my simple plan for the day includes going out for a lunch date with my husband. Then I'll make him a strawberry rhubarb pie. Not much else!

 

My simple plan is just nannying and then making stuffed peppers. YUM!

 

I think I might pop over to see dg for some stuffed peppers, and then over to see PM for pie!

 

Then I guess my simple plan is to go and pick up Monsieur Teacher on my way to Pencil Monkey's and dgpiaffeteach's homes.

 

Can I catch a ride with you? That should be a simple enough plan...

 

Swan, you're in Florida, right? So then Ted can go there from California, then drive to pick me up in New Brunswick, then we can head to Ohio, then Georgia... sounds like quite a road trip! It's a good thing we have the summer off! Make sure you save some bell peppers and pie for us!

 

Sure, Swan...not a problem. I think Florida's on my way to New Brunswick anyway!

I'll bake some brownies (with walnuts) the night before that should sustain the three of us.

 

I worry they'll be gone by the time you get here...

 

My simple plan for the day is to get my debit card unblocked (check...I just got off the phone with the bank doing just that), and later head to the grocery store to stock up for the day.

 

My simple plan for the day:

1. Go for a walk
2. Head over to a friend's place for Canada Day fun (I already have a bottle of wine chilling...)
3. Watch fireworks later

 

Hey, everyone, pick me up on the way from New Brunswick to Ohio--it`s on the way.

 

My simple plan for the day is to go buy twelve bales of hay and go out to dinner for my anniversary.

If y'all want to stop by on your way up north, I haven't made anything scrumptious to share but you can watch the deer out of the window with me. I saw a gray fox yesterday so maybe he'll be back too.

 

I think we're going to need a BIG car...

 

25th anniversary is silver, 50th is gold....which number anniversary is hay bales?:lol:

Congrats on your anniversary! Have a great dinner!

 

I vote for a well-equipped stretch limo. I could see how to make this the PD activity to beat all PD activities, too...

 

Thanks. We are going to the Japanese grill restaurant we went to on our first date.

The hay bales aren't my anniversary present. They're a "just because" present. :lol:

My hubby is sweet like that.

 

A Hummer limo is pretty cool...and we can make a pact to have 0 political discussions on the whole trip!

 

I don't want no PD, I just wanted food!

 

Sounds like a keeper!

Love that you're going to your first date restaurant!:wub:

 

Well, as long as y'all are coming to FL for swansong... just head south and towards the Atlantic and pick me up, too!

My simple plan involves not chewing on my numb lip from the dentist. And maybe some cookies.

 

I make a mean snickerdoodle.
Simple recipe, really.

 

Maybe you can stop by NJ and pick me up too? Maybe after you leave FL and on the way to New Brunswick?

All I know is the OP's simple plan doesn't seem quite so "simple" to me.

My simple plan has mostly been completed- My Gym class for my son, get car inspected, clean kitchen, and do laundry...still working on the laundry part...

 

Leigh...the snickerdoodles are packed here in Nrth Jersey....if they want cookies, NJ has to be on the route. Simple rerouting...

 

I was thinking about funding this adventure - a nice fat grant from a suitable foundation, perhaps, to keep us all in the style to which we'd like to become accustomed.

 

I just bought one of those lunch boxes that you stick in the freezer...I'll pack up some yogurt for the trip...just so we have something a little bit healthy!

 

Healthy, schmealthy! Unless its yo crunch...that has yogurt plus the little crunchy things (m&ms, reeses pieces, cookie crumbs, nestle crunch bits...)