How many scientists are in labs advancing the science of teaching at all levels?

Why are we still using books and chalk boards like we did 100 years ago?

Teaching seems relatively untouched by the computer, information and internet revolutions.

Teacher productivity needs to be increased dramatically.

Kill the unions and tenure and let each educator be paid on his or her own merits.

Get the top educators to develop national courses that can be implemented locally via video feeds and computers.

Develop learing pathways for students who are destined for “hands on” jobs that can’t be replaced by global workers.

There are many good ideas out there, but funding hasn’t gotten to the right places in the right quantity.

-Effective, empowered teachers and school leaders;
-Student assessments that stress 21st century skills;
-Universal access to high-quality early education;
-A safe, healthy learning environment; and
-Affordable college for all students,

Then let President Obama know! Visit EDVOTERS.ORG and sign the petition today!

What better way than on education? Rather than just using borrowed dollars (of which even one trillion would be too much for the economy to stand) to pay a little tuition, or teacher salaries for a few more weeks of school, why not treat getting educated as a government job, paid for by a salary that can be used for self-support (housing, food, car, etc.). This could be true for both adults and children. This in addition to using the freshly printed money to support the institutions that supply that education.

Granted the administrative problems would be enormous, but right now, with the exponentially increasing productivity of labor, solving the problems of “traditional” capitalism ([sarcasm] a long tradition: since the end of WWII [/sarcasm]) will almost certainly (IMO) require as much administrative adjustment.

Even today, steps are being taken to prevent the sort of massive growth of the money supply that took place between 1999 and 2006/2007. If these steps work, then printing and distributing all those trillions of dollars will simply help reconstitute the semi-healthy pre-2007 economy, while failing to do so will force our economy into massive deflation and dislocation (including unemployment).

As for libertarians/free-marketers, they’ll adjust, just as they did to the Fed’s fiat money.

I have a better idea : How about kids go to grade school for 4 extra weeks a year, like they do in most other industrialized countries?

That’s a great idea! In fact, it’s such a good idea that it’s been law for several years. Extra funds for schools with extended school years have been available for quite some time.

No takers, though …

In any case, the two are not directly related. Getting kids ready for higher education is a Very Good Idea, but isn’t going to do much for the country any time soon. Enabling more people to actually take advantage of higher education is something we can do right now.

4 weeks x 12 grades = 48 extra weeks of school > 1 year (30 weeks?) of college.

My idea is better than Mr Presidents because the kids will be in school while their brains are still fresh enough to actually learn something.

Downside is it would probably mean the dumbing down of a lot of first year courses. Which are often already pretty dumbed. I may be out of line on that assertion.