I absolutely agree with something our new president has said.
“Let there be no doubt,” Mr. Obama said, “the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens – and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation.”
This is why Obama is putting 97 billion dollars into the education system from his stimulus package. However, there is some controversy over the "equation" used to disperse these billions of dollars. While no school district is complaining about the extra funds, they do wonder why some districts are receiving $2000 per student while others are barely receivin,g $1200. We have schools where students share books and never get to take them home, while other schools are providing lap-top computers for their students. How does this happen?
Eighty billion of the ninety-seven billion dollars will be distributed over the next two years, starting in the next few weeks, directly to the state governments which will then distribute allocations to each of its school districts. There's no direct mention of how this money is to be spent. We can guess that there will be less teacher lay-offs, less school closings, and more books in the less fortunate districts, but what will the schools do with the money when their students already have lap-top computers? Will these kids get the choice of steak at lunch?
It's reported that the reason for this discrepancy is the "Equation." The equation used to decide who gets how much is old and outdated, but the government wants to get the funds out to the schools NOW. Doesn't this seem like the "band-aide" effect. Let's just slap something on the boo-boo and make people happy? What happened to taking some time, analyzing the situation, and making a well-thought-out decision? Are schools going to close their doors if they don't get this extra money right now? I mean let's be reasonable; can't the schools wait just a couple of months?
This sounds like another great idea gone bad.
There is no doubt that education needs more funding. There is no doubt that President Obama is doing something good for education. And there is no doubt that educating our kids today leads us to a stronger nation tomorrow...
But shouldn't the educated people in government today come up with a better "Equation" to distribute the stimulus money to school districts with less discrepancies?
“Let there be no doubt,” Mr. Obama said, “the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens – and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation.”
This is why Obama is putting 97 billion dollars into the education system from his stimulus package. However, there is some controversy over the "equation" used to disperse these billions of dollars. While no school district is complaining about the extra funds, they do wonder why some districts are receiving $2000 per student while others are barely receivin,g $1200. We have schools where students share books and never get to take them home, while other schools are providing lap-top computers for their students. How does this happen?
Eighty billion of the ninety-seven billion dollars will be distributed over the next two years, starting in the next few weeks, directly to the state governments which will then distribute allocations to each of its school districts. There's no direct mention of how this money is to be spent. We can guess that there will be less teacher lay-offs, less school closings, and more books in the less fortunate districts, but what will the schools do with the money when their students already have lap-top computers? Will these kids get the choice of steak at lunch?
It's reported that the reason for this discrepancy is the "Equation." The equation used to decide who gets how much is old and outdated, but the government wants to get the funds out to the schools NOW. Doesn't this seem like the "band-aide" effect. Let's just slap something on the boo-boo and make people happy? What happened to taking some time, analyzing the situation, and making a well-thought-out decision? Are schools going to close their doors if they don't get this extra money right now? I mean let's be reasonable; can't the schools wait just a couple of months?
This sounds like another great idea gone bad.
There is no doubt that education needs more funding. There is no doubt that President Obama is doing something good for education. And there is no doubt that educating our kids today leads us to a stronger nation tomorrow...
But shouldn't the educated people in government today come up with a better "Equation" to distribute the stimulus money to school districts with less discrepancies?
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