Failing Schools! Time to Demand CHANGE!
“Number of students who dropped out of high school last year: 1.1 million.”
“Difference between the lifetime earnings of a high school dropout and a college graduate: $1.5 million.”
“Of 300 questions asked in presidential candidate debates this year, number that addressed this issue: eight.”
The above statistics come from an article written by Melinda French Gates and published in washingtonpost.com. The article is titled, “A High School Test Candidates Are Failing”.
You may remember in an earlier post , I spoke about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and how they joined forces with the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Foundation to form “Strong American Schools, a nonpartisan issue campaign, devoted to forcing education topics into the forefront of the 2008 presidential campaigns. SAS then developed EDin08.com, which is spearheaded by former-Governor Roy Romer, as the action arm of SAS. They have been developing videos and a Tshirt & photo campaign, to try to get the word out about the importance of education in the USA.
There are three lines in the article that sums up the catastrophic conditions in our public schools nationwide.
“That a million students dropout each year is terrible. But even worse, many of those who do graduate aren’t learning what they need to be successful. Students are sitting in classrooms, bored and unchallenged, and are being left unprepared for the future.”
Does any of this sound familiar? If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, or if you’ve seen our video, then you know that I’ve been trying to get this very message out.
Melinda Gates certainly has the resources to gather accurate statistics. Her point in this article is, not only that schools are deteriorating, but a second important message is:
“. . .yet few of our political leaders are talking about it.”
As you know, we’ve been sharing information about “Set Our Teachers FREE! A Plan to Save Public Education” by Don Kingsland for almost five months. The book contains The Kingsland Plan, a COMPLETE solution for revamping public schools nationally and restoring excellence to public education.
USA schools are the laughingstock of the globe and that must be stopped!
The only way to effect nationwide change is to have a president with a workable and effective PLAN! We are excited to announce that we are contacting select candidates to suggest that they adopt The Kingsland Plan as part of their platform.
No candidate has yet come out with a workable solution to our education issues, but we hope to change that very soon.
In the article, Melinda Gates re-emphasizes the goal of Strong American Schools to compel presidential candidates
“. . .to offer visions and plans that will help ensure that every child in America attends a great high school.”
We have a BONUS for those politicians in “The Kingsland Plan”. Not only does “The Kingsland Plan” offer solutions for ensuring great high schools, but it also includes a comprehensive solution for excellent schools all the way from K-12. Isn’t that exciting?
As Melinda Gates reminds us, there are 15 more presidential debates scheduled before the primaries. She encourages us to make the most of those 15 opportunities.
“. . .ask those who would be our political leaders to prioritize the preparation of every child in America for college, career and life.”
Yes, Melinda, this truly is “. . .a conversation our nation must have.”
Onwards and upwards!
Brennan
Filed under: Education Reform
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