Does anyone still believe this guy?

Is there a thread title echo in here? Well, yes, but the echo resonation is coming back on the opposite side.

Today Kerry spoke to the NAACP, and this quote blew me out of the water:

Values also mean giving all our children a first-rate education, with smaller classrooms and better paid teachers. Today, we see two school systems in America: one for the well off and one for the left out. For us and for you values mean opening the doors of opportunity to all our children. John Edwards and I have a plan to invest in our future, provide the needed funding and put a good teacher in every classroom - so that finally and truly no child is left behind.

How are better-paid teachers going to help schools at all? Schools cannot afford to provide band and art, but John Kerry wants to pay them better because it would give the students a first-rate education?? Where does that logic come from? I did a little investigation after work, and I found was that there is nothing that shows that teacher salaries equal better student performance. As a matter of fact, I found quite the opposite.
============================

Take my state for example: Iowa. Iowa is 2nd in SAT scores, and 8th on ACT scores in the country, yet we rank 28th in per-student-spending, and 38th in teacher salary pay. Per pupil spending in Iowa has only grown 21.9% in 20 years (1980 - 2000), ranking 42nd in that category.

Washington, Iowa, and Wisconsin achieved among the highest standardized test scores in the nation, yet Iowa and Wisconsin ranked near the bottom on percentage of funds received from the federal government, Washington and Iowa ranked in the lower half of states with respect to per pupil expenditures, and Iowa was ranked in the lower half of states with respect to average teacher salaries.

Iowa ranked near the bottom on percentage of funds received from the federal government.

The District of Columbia ranks 51 (that's last) in academic achievement, yet ranks #7 for highest paid staff. California ranks 38 in academic achievement, yet ranks #6 for highest paid staff.

How again more money going to make better students? Over 70% of my graduating class (40 of 52) graduated with 3.0+ GPA.

2003 Report Card on American Education, Pages 108-110 specifically.

=============================

Can someone please explain to me why the Democratic solution to every problem is to throw money at it? Throwing money to something only makes the beast bigger and hungrier.

Hey, this is a Photoshop forum, not a political forum. Just tell me to shut my mouth.

what he is probably pointing out is that for all the talk of improving schools and the no child left behind act, many schools are actually not seeing as much money as they were led to believe they would get. and while paying teachers more money wont help the students, giving the school more money for educational materials and field trips will.

If a bigger salary makes a teacher teach better, then the teacher is probably a **** teacher to begin with. If you truly love teaching, you do your best at it regardless of the salary. If your salary is crap, then you can leave your job. That's fine. But you don't just (at the students' expense) decide to teach poorly because your salary sucks.

[QUOTE=penguin_rule]what he is probably pointing out is that for all the talk of improving schools and the no child left behind act, many schools are actually not seeing as much money as they were led to believe they would get. and while paying teachers more money wont help the students, giving the school more money for educational materials and field trips will.[/QUOTE]

That is not what he is pointing out. He's pointing out what he believes will win him votes in the teachers unions. Bigger salaries. Where do you get that "bigger salaries" means more field trips. Stop and think for a split-second. "Bigger salaries" means less field trips, not more field trips. Schools have budgets, not open checkbooks. If you pay the teachers more, that means you have less for everything else. Go grab your school's most recent budget. You'll likely find it on their web site, or you can request it via the district office. You'll be surprised at how much the school administrators make. Then think about that they next time your school cancels a program such as band or art.

--------

Not related to this post particularly, but Kerry flashed the 'Black Power' sign at the same rally:

Similar to the following?:http://visualhistory.freewebpages.org/_webimages/Black%20Power%20Pin.jpg

Values also mean giving all our children a first rate education with smaller classrooms and better paid teachers.

Sounds good to me, my high school in the year 2000 had 3100 students and not enough teachers. Our teachers moved to another district that paid better and had smaller classes.

Today, we see two school systems in America: one for the well off and one for the left out.

It’s true, I take the Bart Train into S.F every day right through Oakland and there schools are definitely left out. Mine was poor and over crowded there schools are far worse.

For us and for you values mean opening the doors of opportunity to all our children.

Sounds good to me.

John Edwards and I have a plan to invest in our future, provide the needed funding and put a good teacher in every classroom - so that finally and truly no child is left behind.

We need more teachers for our over populated classrooms and if we want more teachers we have to make it worth while to teach such an audience which means better pay.

no matter who they are, politicians have a dozen different angles on any given issue. they need to balance doing whatever it takes to get elected with what they actually believe in. kerry was saying all of those things at one, and he, like any other politician, is counting on people hearing what they want to hear. i was pointing out an alternate interpretation of his speech because all too often the less obvious points get missed because of the glaring obviousness of the main issues.

John Kerry loves to talk- regardless of how much valid information he has concerning what he's talking about. He was on Larry King saying that American atheletes were warned not to show the flag or act patriotic in Athens in order to avoid any violence. No they weren't. In fact - find a transcript or watch that interview with Kerry and his wife and you'll see how out of touch they really are.

All I got to say is...

Kerry and his wife

you thought Hillary was bad!!!

I liked Hillary. She wasn't the typical first lady housewife.

Kerry is an idiot puppet, and I still don't like Bush anymore. I'm screwed...