deckard.. I should say that I think well ran charter schools are good. A good charter school is helpful. If the charter school is not better than the public school, people shouldn't sent their kids to it. A school like Yes Prep for instance. Yesprep.org , do you think that school is bad?
Rocket Fan, you don't really expect me to examine some particular charter school over the internet, and tell you whether I think it's good or bad, do you? It wouldn't be fair to the school, or me. Of course there are some good charter schools. The evidence is overwhelming, however, that they take money from our public schools, which I pay several thousand dollars in property taxes for, and my two children attend, that charter schools are beset with problems, as the info I posted pointed out shows, and are being pushed primarily by those, like Leininger, who have a far-right fundamentalist agenda, and who would destroy the public school system, if given the chance. If people want their children to go to non-traditional public schools, they can go to magnet schools, as my children do, for those who are exceptional students. They can pay for private school education, if they wish. The idea that money should be taken from underfunded public schools primarily to please those with a religious, right-wing agenda doesn't fly with me, and doesn't fly with any public school teacher I know, and I know several. Heck, I'm related to some. Did you do a google on Leininger? I suspect you already know who he is, and support his agenda, but I could be wrong. If you really don't know who he is, I suggest you find out. It might open your eyes to reality. Keep D&D Civil.
Bell choked when Sarah Lucero questioned him on why Tony Sanchez is not supporting him. Sanchez supports Strayhorn, which to me says more about Strayhorn being affiliated with that (expletive) Sanchez. I thought Bell won the debate.
One thing Kinky said, and I have no idea if it is true so hopefully someone can help me out: Georgia pays for a 4 year college scholarship for anyone with a B average. He said they use the money generated from their state lottery to accomplish this. "Georgia doesn't have to put up billboards saying 8 billion in 8 years -- the people know the money goes to education." If this is true, and Kinky is serious about it, I think this could be a huge factor. Combined with legalizing gambling and using that revenue for education, how can you not like this guy. .
Deckard, I used Yes Prep as an example because it has gotten some attention for being a good school and also because I am familiar with its founder. I use it as an example of the good that charter schools can do. Here is an example of its success Only one Houston School makes Newsweek's Top 100 List: YES College Prep . Although I wasn't an education major or anything, the school I did go to had a top 5 education program and I had classes that did discuss these type issues. I am aware that charters schools and pay for performance are controversial, but personally from looking at them I think they are good ideas. Of course, I'm willing to look into them further and see if my mind my change so I appreciate the things you posted. I am not at all familiar with Leininger, but I will look into that.
I support the idea of pay for performance because I think the best teachers should be paid more. I think there are many ways that it could be done. As far as the TAKS test, it does help show which schools have kids that are at least achieving minimum standards. For deciding which individual teachers should be paid more, I think there are a number of ways you could do that. One possiblity would be to let the individual schools determine who they think are the top 10% or so of their teachers and give them a bonus for being one of the best. I think most schools know who their best teachers are and you could use a combination of things to decide that. This could range from scores, to the kind of scores the teachers get when evaluated by school administrators, student evaluations, etc. A school could use a number of things to reward who they see as their top teacher. A common idea is to use test scores and some argue that it isn't fair since the teacher could just get bad students. In order to help solve this, you could look at how the student improved from the previous year. If the teacher had a large number of students improving from 70% to 79% for instance, the overall score might be low but you could tell that the student improved greatly in their class. The TAKS test certainly isn't perfect, but it has contexts which I think it is useful in. For one, it helps measure students using the same standard. For example, if 90% of the kids pass the TAKS at the school, but one teacher has 70% pass year after year.... it could help point out a problem. Why is one teacher having kids perform well below the school average year after year? I know know the solution for exactly how to pay by performance, but I think that the best teachers should be paid accordingly. I had far too many poor teachers over the years that shouldn't have had a job, but teachers are rarely fired. I think there should be some way of measuring their performance. Any ideas of how?
deckard, I'm not saying that Perry is perfect or anything. Just pointing out some things that I think have been good. Tell me what you think your candidate will do for education? What do the Bell, Kinky, supporters etc think they will do for education? For the person that asked about the universities, I am not familiar with that. I am by no means an expert on education and will admit I don't know anything about that issue. I'm going to go watch the rest of this game, have a good evening
As of this moment, I don't have a candidate. Whoever will have the best chance of beating Perry will get my vote. The man is corrupt, and as for education, has been absolutely terrible for Texas. I think I said that already! Who's playing? The Texans? Keep D&D Civil.
My friend Frank from Atlanta... Are you really going to throw your vote for Kinky? Everyone should unite with Bell. Still won't be enough. Unfortunately Perry will win.
deckard.. Charges and Steelers . I love this site so I'll probably end up posting more here. I'm 23 and far from an expert on everything political, so you will have to forgive me on some of the issues I'm not familiar with. A lot of my educational thoughts are based on going to public schools in Texas up through 2002 and seeing so many teachers doing horrible jobs while the good teachers aren't rewarded. That new CFISD facility drives me crazy because I think it was excessive. The state can always improve, but I think quite a bit of the blame should also go to the districts. I spent time in TN from 2002-2006 for college and that scholarship program that someone mentioned sounds similiar to the Hope Scholarship in Tennessee.
I agree about Kinky. That question and the one about the cigar seemed to dismantle the poor guy. It was painful to watch.
Glad you decided to join the gang in D&D, Rocket Fan. Trust me... we need all the intelligent conservatives we can get. Moderates wouldn't hurt, either. We have some great examples of both here, but they tend to be outnumbered by liberals, and those to the left of liberals. Keep D&D Civil.
deckard, I think a lot of people on this board are probably not as far to the left or right as it seems. I think with the democratic and republican issues, many are guilty (including me at times probably) of defending "our" party and not wanting to admit to agreeing with the other sides on some issues. Repubilcans aren't perfect, but I think human nature is that everyone wants to defend their candidate as much as possible. I don't think this board is a good indication of how people feel about things because I think in reality the population is a lot more split between conservative and liberal than on this board.
It still cracks me up. Asking you to name an African American on your campaign staff isn't a tough question unless you aren't taking your candidacy seriously. Paraphrase: Question: Are there any African Americans on your staff? Kinky: Sure there are a few. Question: Name one. Kinky: Umm...well there's Frank from Atlanta. Question: Frank from Atlanta? Kinky: Yeah he will be coming down in a few weeks. I think it's important not to be involved in politics. LMAO LMAO LMAO Can he name one person on his staff?
you're dilusional if you think bell has a shot. as i said in a previous post: texas is a right wing state, and its going to take a righty to win the election. that eliminates the democrat. you then basically have 3 choices: perry kinky strayhorn perry is going to get the sheep votes, meaning atleast 30-35% bell will get his dilusional votes = 20-25% max that leave 40% for strayhorn and kinky to divide up... that last piece is big enough to equal more than the 30-35% perry is going to pull in. which means one of those 2 need to drop out. sadly it's not going to happen, and perry will win with probably a 1/3 of the state supporting him. **edit: i'm closing in on the idea of, like deckard, voting for whoever leads the poll... but i think i'll probably still vote for kinky, especially since i vote early, and the polls won't be out at that point** anyone know if we have a recall option like the one in california?
I disagree. Based on your premise, everyone should just vote for Perry since he'll likely win anyway. Can't speak for anyone else, but I'm voting for who I think is the right candidate for the job not the one I think will win.
no i think everyone should vote for kinky, but that isn't going to happen. what i also think is that perry is going to receive the most votes (i'm guessing 33-35%) by vurtue of straight party voters. i also think that the people voting for bell are throwing their votes away because he isn't going to win, even if one or both kinky and strayhorn dropped out. people seem to think that if the 2 independents were to drop out that everyone planning to vote for those 2 would suddenly vote for bell, this isn't the case at all.
I share your frustration. I would like to see Perry lose as well. Personally I like Kinky because he is not a politican. Heck, he may even have a decent shot at beating Perry because of his celebrity. However, if how he handled himself in the debate is any indication of how he would handle himself once the heat is turned up to maximum as governor he won't get anything done. I'm going with Bell because I liked him most in the debate. If he loses, okay, at least I voted my conscience. I wouldn't be angry if Kinky pulls off the upset though.
a friday night, and the night before texas-ou... and nobody is going to watch? http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4248631.html
