JonRoss, I'm not sure why you can't figure out how to stay on topic or why so many conservative posters lately seem to need to drag Obama into everything, but let me clue you into a few differences: Obamacare can be repealed. When a mountaintop is removed, it's gone forever. And the process of removing the mountaintop will cost us dearly in terms of our environment, health, and natural beauty. If you want to support something as detrimental to our state as mountaintop removal for coal extraction just to enjoy a little anti-Obama/Obamacare tantrum, then quite honestly, you deserve to feel the effects of both. Grow up.

This is an excellent article that once again shows why Taft is such a great institution and a vital service for Tennessee. Not only should Taft not close, we should be opening more places like it across the country.

That being said, why is anyone surprise? Haslam is a businessman first. He's always been quite proud of that fact. That's what we get when we elect people who see nothing but an opportunity for private investment. It's sad that he's unwilling to see that Taft more than pays for itself in turning potential life-long criminals into productive members of society.

Thus far, privatization of schools via for-profit charters has shown very little improvement over the public schools they replaced. There are a number of studies that have shown how ineffective they are at improving outcomes. If you consider that these schools get to pick students, are removed from state and local mandates, demand parental involvement, and have the power to remove disruptive or failing students, it should be obvious that they tend to actually achieve far less. The profit comes from the excessive tax-payer funding and private grants from well-meaning, but ultimately clueless, donors to "education reform" groups that are frequently already in bed with the politicians and business people that created the for-profit, publicly-funded charters in the first place.

It doesn't surprise me one bit that these "school leaders" closed the door on the media. They demand more and more responsibility from teachers, in part because they don't want to take any themselves.

Were you all this upset over Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign or Laura Bush's early family reading initiative? Every first lady in recent history has had an issue or cause that they support. Michelle Obama's is improving childhood health through exercise and healthy school lunches. What on earth is the problem (beyond you just not liking the current President and First Lady)?

If, heaven forbid, Callista Gingrich or Ann Romney become first lady, are you going to throw an equally ignorant tantrum over their chosen issue(s)? Or will you make an exception because you happen to like their husband's politics?

There's no "so-called" about it, pattik. Like it or not, Barack Obama is the President of the United States - and more likely than not, he will be again.

Oh, Rolando..

The "rote memorization of facts" theory of teaching held our country in good stead for over 200 years.

Rote memorization of basic facts made this country an economic superpower? Considering for most of that 200 years, the vast majority of people received little more than what would now be an elementary school education with only basic reading and writing skills, your argument doesn't exactly hold water. A number of factors contributed to America's success - chief among them the cheap purchase (and theft) of large amounts of usable land with some very valuable resources, a few hundred years of slave labor, and the Industrial Revolution.

So the equivalent to today's teaching of basket-weaving to our students has given them skills they need to survive?

Would you give an example of this "basket-weaving" equivalent? What skills do you think are so useless? Which ones are so beneficial?

Rote memory is good for some things, such as multiplication tables, but it is a very basic learning and thinking process. It's a great start, but rote memory alone is not enough if we are going to properly prepare our students for the jobs that are available now and in the future. After all, it's great to memorize when a specific event in history happened, but it's a far more important life-long skill to be able to understand its significance, debate the roles and response of the people involved, and develop logical and fact-based opinions. Those are the skills that make one a life-long learner, a more productive worker, and a better citizen.

Forced "diversity' training and/or mandatory homo/lezbo/transy

Please, please tell me where this is happening. You and several others have posted quite a few times about this so-called training that is supposedly occurring all over the place. What school is doing this?

Just pointing out that the amount of money spent has no relationship whatsoever with quality of education.

That is simply untrue. When spent properly, more money buys smaller classes, more interventions for struggling students, more technology and practical resources, and a lot of other things that better prepare students for the future. If you don't believe me, just ask the folks at Baylor, McCallie, and GPS.

Here is an interesting two-part article by Dr Mike Williams

That's an opinion piece, nothing more. He provides no research or evidence to support his claims or conclusions.

Don't let the title put you off..

Why would it?

The teachers/professors are not "forced" to teach anything...but they do need to be muzzled by the courts on occasion.

As long as a large percentage of our job performance is tied to how well my students can spit back low-level facts on a multiple choice test taken on one day of the 180 we teach them, we most certainly are required to focus the vast majority of our limited time and resources on those low-level skills.

Oops, that should read: "The real answer" Stop forcing...."

Rolando, honey, have you ever actually researched the claims you make in regards to education?

Here's a pretty interesting article on the supposed superiority of private schools. It does point out that students in private schools do perform better on the SAT, but it's because public school teachers are forced (largely by Republican and conservative lawmakers, but with some Democrat support as well) to focus on testing data than developing our students' critical thinking skills. The real bottom line: those in charge of setting education policy (lawmakers) are basing success on a low-level measure of thinking (rote memorization of facts), demanding that schools produce good scores based on those skills, while the long-term success of our students depends on the higher-level skills which are largely ignored because they are much harder to measure on a cheap and simple test.

As for the money, you are looking at a simplistic measure and drawing broad conclusions. All the dollars per student figure tells you is the total revenue divided by the total student population. What matters is how that money is spent. Is the money spent to reduce class sizes? Is it being spent providing additional academic and counseling services for students with such needs? Is it being spent providing work-based learning for students who have special needs? Is it being used to provide vocational training for students who have neither the desire nor the academic ability for a college education? Is it being spent properly maintaining a safe and secure school building? Is it being spent providing meaningful professional development for teachers and support staff? Is it being spent providing useful technology? Or is the money being spent on overpriced administrators? Is it being spent on test after test after test "to measure student gains and predict future growth" while allowing little time for actual teaching? Is it being spent providing bonuses, incentives, retreats, travel allowances, cell phones, and all sorts of goodies for central office personnel? How much money per student doesn't mean a thing unless you look to see how much is being spent on the students themselves.

The real bottom line: Stop forcing Tennessee teachers to focus on rote memorization of facts (which produce good TCAP scores) and allow us to teach the skills our kids need. And while you're at it, make sure the resources we have are used to benefit our kids rather than administrators. Only then will we get the results we want.

Better luck next time, rolando.

Actually, I responded with several statements (he didn't actually ask any questions) as well as a link that addressed one of Mr. Stewart's claims. I guess your reading skills are as lazy as your logic choice in news sources.