I'm now back to posting more important stuff here on these forum topics.
You all know how I'm concerned (actually worried, deeply distressed, and really pissed-off!) over the declining quality of education here in the USA.
Time for Fat Man to show everybody here, where the proverbial bear shits in the proverbial buckwheat.
And believe you and me, a real shit-storm is coming down!
Here is a web site link to the following article.
http://247wallst.com/2011/02/07/the-ten ... rt-people/
I was aware of this a long time ago. Back when I was only in the 4th and 5th grade, I knew that in the future that the quality of education in our schools would be on the decline.The Ten States Running Out Of Smart People
Posted: February 7, 2011 at 12:54 am
There are several states in the U.S. that are losing the eduction race to most of the others. In the past decade, these states have declining math and reading scores, lower numbers of people with bachelorâ??s degrees, and comparatively fewer residents who hold white collar jobs. Colorado, Michigan, and eight others are losing this competition to states who have residents that are better educated and who have done a better job obtaining higher quality jobs. These failing states have lost ground compared to the national average.
The recent State of the Union address, and almost any sweeping political speech or document that writes or speaks about unemployment and future competition for jobs, impresses the point that a well educated workforce â?? a smart workforce â?? has comparative advantages. Regions with better-educated people tend to find it easier to draw and retain businesses. These regions are also likely to be more competitive in contrast to nations around the world like China, which has posted sharp increases in the level of educational attainment among its citizens.
Well-educated people find it easier to obtain and keep jobs. American unemployment figures consistently show that the part of the population with high levels of eduction have lower unemployment. This makes sense: skill equals aptitude in most cases. An employer who has to pick between two potential employees is likely to choose the one who reads best, writes best, and has the highest level of educational attainment. There are exceptions to this when jobs require very specific backgrounds, but across the American workforce, which has tens of millions of workers, any employer would want to have an employee who can show his educational background is stronger than that of fellow applicants.
An educated employee will not just have an advantage now, but may have more of one in the future. This is one of the reasons 24/7 Wall St. looked at trends over an entire decade. Funds of educational facilities and educators have already been eroded in many states and municipalities by budget cuts. The slow economic recovery and the move toward austerity in Washington is likely to make this trend more alarming. The portion of people who are adults with good educations may actually drop as the capital necessary to maintain a strong educational â??infrastructureâ? is depleted. The portion of the population which is well-educated now may have reached a high-water market, at least for the foreseeable future.
The problem that America has begun to lose its education edge is not national, it is local. Americans are not educated nationally. They are educated locally. The problems of a well-educated workforce end up being fought at the state and municipal level, as the 24/7 Wall St. data shows.
Just as the problem with education is local, the solutions have to be. The states on the 24/7 Wall St. States Running Out Of Smart People report will almost certainly need resources that are greater than, or at least as great as, states which have better statistics. These are the resources that will allow them to be competitive nationally and internationally.
24/7 Wall St. looked at National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores for math and reading in 2003 and 2009. We also looked at the percentage of people in each state with bachelorâ??s degrees, and their increases compared to the increases in the total populations in their states. We analyzed the Bureau of Labor Statistics data on the portion of each stateâ??s population which has white collar jobs. To supplement the figures which we used in the final analysis, 24/7 also reviewed numbers for high school and graduate school education.
This is the 24/7 Wall Street review of the ten states with the lowest education achievement and job levels compared to the other fortyâ??The States Running Out Of Smart People.
10. Utah
> Population Change (2000-2009): 418,647 (18.8%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 28.5% (19th)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 12.9% (28th)
> NAEP Math: 28th
> NAEP Reading: 23rd
Utah has the fifth worst increase in the nation for adults with bachelorâ??s degrees from 2000 to 2009. While adults across the country are increasingly receiving college degrees, Utah has experienced a relatively small amount of growth in this area, with an increase of only 9%. In Kentucky, the highest rated state, the number of adults with bachelorâ??s degrees increased by 22%. Utah also has the eighth worst change in advanced degrees, with only a 10.7% increase between 2000 and 2009.
9. Texas
> Population Change (2000-2009): 2,967,222 (14.2%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 25.5% (30th)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 12.5% (32nd)
> NAEP Math: 18th
> NAEP Reading: 34th
Despite significant improvements in test scores both for math and reading, the portion of Texasâ?? adult population with at least a high school education has gotten even worse relative to other states than it was ten years ago. In 2000, the state had the seventh-worst rank in this category, it is now only better than Mississippi. The percentage of Texasâ?? population with a white collar job has decreased more than 3% between 2000 and 2009, the fourth worst performance by any state. Texas also experienced one of the smallest increases in higher education, ranking 45th in bachelorâ??s degrees and 42nd in advanced degrees.
8. Iowa
> Population Change (2000-2009): 30,167 (6.1%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 23.8% (40th)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 13.6% (18th)
> NAEP Math: 20th
> NAEP Reading: 12th
In 2000, Wyoming had the third highest percentage of adults with a high school diploma. Since then, the state has had one of the worst improvements in the country in graduation rates. In the same time frame, the percentage of adults with bachelors degrees has decreased from 33rd in the nation to 40th. All but four states had better improvements in math scores between 2003 and 2009.
7. Wyoming
> Population Change (2000-2009): 30,167 (6.1%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 23.8% (40th)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 13.6% (18th)
> NAEP Math: 20th
> NAEP Reading: 12th
In 2000, Wyoming had the third highest percentage of adults with a high school diploma. Since then, the state has had one of the worst improvements in the country in graduation rates. In the same time frame, the percentage of adults with bachelors degrees has decreased from 33rd in the nation to 40th. All but four states had better improvements in math scores between 2003 and 2009.
6. Arizona
> Population Change (2000-2009): 1,194,233 (23.3%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 25.6% (29th)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 11.3% (40th)
> NAEP Math: 39th
> NAEP Reading: 41st
Arizona ranks in the bottom ten for the majority of metrics considered for this list. Between 2000 and 2009 the amount of adults in the state with a high school diploma decreased by 0.85%, the eighth worst decrease in the country. The state also has the fourth lowest increase in adults with bachelorâ??s degrees and the the eighth lowest increase in adults with advanced degrees. Arizona has lost over 3% of its population with careers that require some sort of post-secondary degree between 2000 and 2009, the sixth worst drop in the nation.
5. Alaska
> Population Change (2000-2009): 56,210 (9%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 26.6% (24th)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 10.5% (46th)
> NAEP Math: 30th
> NAEP Reading: 39th
While average reading scores in Alaska improved significantly between 2003 and 2009, math scores fell flat. On top of this, the state performed terribly in educational achievement. The state fell from first to fourteenth in the nation in adults with a high school diploma, and had the smallest increase in the portion of its population with bachelorâ??s degrees in the country.
4. Idaho
> Population Change (2000-2009): 198,620 (15.4%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 23.9% (39th)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 12.5% (31st)
> NAEP Math: 16th
> NAEP Reading: 28th
In 2000, 84.7% of adults in Idaho had completed high school. By 2009, the number had dropped to 83.3%. This decrease of 1.71% is the third worst rate in the country. Idaho had the eighth worst percent difference in residents with bachelorâ??s degrees from 2000 to 2009, and the sixth worst percent difference in residents with advanced degrees.
3. Oklahoma
> Population Change (2000-2009): 159,419 (4.6%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 22.7% (42nd)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 11.8% (37th)
> NAEP Math: 41st
> NAEP Reading: 38th
The best Oklahoma performed in any of our metrics was 33rd, for a slight increase in the population with jobs requiring college educations. In every other category, the state experienced significant relative and actual decreases. Oklahoma had the sixth-worst decline in reading scores. Between 2000 and 2009, 39 states had better increases in adults with bachelors degrees, and 45 had better increases in advanced degrees.
2. Michigan
> Population Change (2000-2009): 100,764 (1%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 24.6% (36th)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 11.7% (38th)
> NAEP Math: 36th
> NAEP Reading: 32nd
Michiganâ??s eighth graders scored significantly worse on reading tests in 2009 than in 2003. The change was the fourth greatest decrease in the country. The state also had the third worst change in math scores for eighth graders between those two years. Michigan lost 6.17% of its population with college degrees between 2000 and 2009, the largest drop among all the states. This is due in large part to the hard times the American automobile industry has had to face.
1. Colorado
> Population Change (2000-2009): 541,950 (12.6%)
> Bachelorâ??s Degree or Higher: 35.9% (2nd)
> Population With White Collar Careers: 15.1% (8th)
> NAEP Math: 15th
> NAEP Reading: 24th
Coloradoâ??s education outcomes , even now, are quite good. The state has the second highest number of bachelorâ??s degrees per adult, and the 8th-highest portion of its population with a white-collar job. The state went from 11th in average reading scores to 23rd in seven years. Colorado dropped from 8th to 15th in in the portion of the population with a high school degree. The state also had one of the largest decreases in white collar workers per capita.
Michael Sauter, Charles Stockdale and Douglas McIntyre
No, I'm not a prophet, or a psychic with ESP or anything like that. And it was more than just a gut feeling. I just simply knew that education in America would be going down the crapper.
You see, getting suspended from school back in the 4th grade, just because I failed to climb a rope in the gymnasium due to my crippled up left knee from a car accident, even though I was passing all my other academic subjects. And getting my head bashed against a brick wall by my 5th grade teacher who wouldn't allow me to check out astronomy books from the school library, well . . . for me . . . that was the big tip off!
Then, in high school, having a science teacher who was also the school's football coach, and who was too fucking busy coaching his team of pre-frontally lobotomized baboons to teach science in the classroom, and setting up a movie projector so we could watch stupid cartoons while he left the class room to coach his football team, that was another big tip off!
And now, we wonder why we're running out of smart people???
OK, I subscribe to Move On at: http://www.moveon.org/
It's a political action group, and I get their Newsletters in my E-mails. When ever I get an E-mail, there is always a link to a petition, and I never miss an opportunity to sign a petition.
Here is the latest . . . . .
The Republicans want to cut funds for NPR and PBS for radio and TV educational programming!
HEY! I have a much better idea!
Why not cut the budget for sports programming instead? I'm sick and tired of all these slope-headed, stooped-shouldered, knuckle-dragging, slack-jawed, mouth-breathing, drooling moronic baboons with shit-for-brains getting paid millions of dollars every year just for kicking a football while a physics professor in a university gets paid less than $100,000 per year. The USA cares far more for athletics than academics. We seem to care more for sports programming than educational programming. This is absolutely pathetic! I say, cut budget for sports programming to ZERO and divert that money toward educational programming instead.
Sports is like a plate of Fail Fries slathered in Double Mild Weak Sauce with a side order of SUCK!
I'm fat and sassy! I love to sing & dance & stomp my feet & really rock your world!
