Is Romney The Right Person To Fix Our Broken Education System?

While I think we all agree that our education system here in America is indeed broken, is Romney the man to fix it? According to some recent articles, regarding his campaign's apparent inability to spell and/or proof-read their publications, I would say; "Definitely Not!"

Furthermore, it would also appear as if none of his campaign staff even knows how to use the "spell-check" function of their word processor either. It's no wonder he goes around touting education reform in his campaign speeches, the need for it couldn't be any more obvious. Especially among his own hand picked staff.

First, there was the misspelling of America, (Amercia) in their iPhone app, then there was the misspelling of the word "official" on a campaign store link offered on Romney's Facebook page, where "offical" gear could be purchased, then he offers his viewers a "sneak-peak" of his new TV ad, also on his Facebook page. I think that "peek" is the word they're looking for.

news.yahoo.com...

The third embarrassing spelling error was no charm for the Mitt Romney campaign — or for the unfortunate employees managing his online messaging.
Less than a week after the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s “Amercia” iPhone app mistake generated laughs worldwide, two more spelling errors emerged — this time on the campaign’s official Facebook account.

www.huffingtonpost.com...
mashable.com...
www.prdaily.com...

Then, as if that wasn't enough, his hand picked campaign staff goes on to make the cardinal spelling mistake of the right-winged conservative movement when they misspell Reagan's name in a slideshow made for fundraising.

www.winnipegfreepress.com...

WASHINGTON - Ronald Regan, the former president of Amercia?
Mitt Romney's campaign has made yet another embarrassing misspelling, this time flubbing the name of one of the country's most adored conservative icons in a slideshow made by his pollster for fundraisers.
The slide, which displays the approval ratings for various presidents six months before their presidential elections, lists the commanders-in-chief from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Barack Obama. It spells Ronald Reagan, however, "Ronald Regan."

Actually, I'm surprise they didn't spell it; "Ray-Gun"

I know that a lot of people will just say that these are not his mistakes, but those of his staff. I have to point out that he picked those people to staff his campaign and it's his responsibility to proof-read their messages, or to at least make sure that there is a competent person doing so in his place.

Of course, if asked about these errors, Romney would probably just stick with his pat response that he hadn't yet had the opportunity to review the message in question. Then he would go on to quote the entire contents as if he had written it himself. Just like he did during the debates, what a joke!

And I'm supposed to believe that he will make better choices when it's his turn to hand pick the various staff members who will assist in his Presidency?

IMO, there couldn't be a better example of our failing education system than the current mentality of the GOP/TP in general and furthermore, they are the last people I would choose to fix it.

Incompetence breeds incompetence.

In closing, I would like to state that I take full responsibility for and I apologize in advance, for any spelling errors contained within this OP. But then, I'm not running for POTUS.

Spelling mistakes are typos. They happen to everybody.

"57 states" Obama actually put thought into his statement. It wasn't a typo. And it wasn't somebody who worked for him. So if your premise is correct, you would have to prefer Romney over Obama.

reply to post by UltimateSkeptic1


While I agree that 57 states is a big gaffe, it's a much more common mistake to say the wrong thing while speaking off the cuff, than to publish erroneous written material that should have been proof-read prior to publication. Hell, Joe Biden is famous for making gaffes while speaking. Everybody does it from time to time and there's a big difference in speaking off the cuff and allowing something, intended to represent my campaign views, to go into print without proof-reading an/or editing.

Furthermore, IMO these are hardly typo's. Typos occur when someone accidentally hits the key next to, or near, the intended key and that's hardly the case here. This is a clear demonstration of lack of oversight and review, nothing more. The real problem for me is, that if elected, I would have no reason to expect that Romney would make any better choices with his presidential staff.

yes romney will fix everything, like obama, bush, clinton, reagen and the plethroa before did.

Originally posted by Flatfish

Furthermore, IMO these are hardly typo's. Typos occur when someone accidentally hits the key next to, or near, the intended key and that's hardly the case here. This is a clear demonstration of lack of oversight and review, nothing more.

You truly are picking the wrong fight here. Did you ever read Obama's G20 letter?

So, based on your premise, do you agree Obama is also not fit to be President?

Harvard grad Obama typo Letter to G20

Originally posted by Flatfish

Is Romney The Right Person To Fix Our Broken Education System?

Time for complete honesty.

An educated slave is bad for the master.

The POTUS has no intention of fixing anything.

There is no profit to made in fixing, only is sustaining.

Imagine how little money would be made in a world where everyone was self sufficient.

The simple answer is "NO"! The more complex answer is NO GOVERNMENT is the right entity to fix broken education. The right answer is to allow local communities to set education standards. Allow the free-market system to punish or reward teachers or a district based on their ability to deliver the results the community has requested.

You see, every time the government gets involved, more losers are created. You don't have to believe me or take my word for it... just look out the window!

Originally posted by UltimateSkeptic1

You truly are picking the wrong fight here. Did you ever read Obama's G20 letter?

So, based on your premise, do you agree Obama is also not fit to be President?

Harvard grad Obama typo Letter to G20

While I agree that the Obama administration should have re-proof-read the statement prior to publishing, it was duly noted in the article you source linked that the mistakes were actually caused by optical character recognition software and not caused by errors in the original document. In other words, it was copy/edit software that actually screwed up the original document which was correct in it's original form.

Update: I’ve gotten a number of e-mails saying these look like artifacts of optical character recognition (OCR) from a scanner or fax machine output. I’d agree with that, but that hardly lets the White House off the hook, either. Anyone using OCR knows that it requires a lot of fixing on the back end.

While that doesn't excuse the error, it doesn't reek of ignorance either.

reply to post by Flatfish


Yes
[end sarcasm]

geez, his team could not even spell AMERICA ... on the COVER.... save education, I bet this jerk is responsible for over 100,000 homeless people in Amercia... ha ha

Originally posted by Flatfish

While I agree that the Obama administration should have re-proof-read the statement prior to publishing, it was duly noted in the article you source linked that the mistakes were actually caused by optical character recognition software and not caused by errors in the original document. In other words, it was copy/edit software that actually screwed up the original document which was correct in it's original form.

Update: I’ve gotten a number of e-mails saying these look like artifacts of optical character recognition (OCR) from a scanner or fax machine output. I’d agree with that, but that hardly lets the White House off the hook, either. Anyone using OCR knows that it requires a lot of fixing on the back end.

While that doesn't excuse the error, it doesn't reek of ignorance either.

What reeks of ignorance is the explanation that they are OCR errors. Did you look at the errors?

And why would they need OCR to scan a letter to a .png image? Did you ever scan a letter? The OCR only comes into play if you try to scan a document into some editable form, like a Word doc or PDF. This is an image.

Maybe you've stumbled onto something though.

Maybe the same scanner was used to create the 9-layer birth certificate pdf.

In any event, I would say Obama and Romney would be tied as far as incompetent staff is concerned based on these facts. Obama wins 1-0 in the "shouldn't be in charge of education" contest based on the 57 states video.

I don't think anyone can fix the education system as long as government is involved.

Secondly, most kids these days don't care about learning or their future anyway; too worried about living the ways of their rapper heros.

It's pathetic, I was sitting behind a school bus yesterday and these kids 12-13 years old were smoking a joint on the back of the bus flashing gang signs.

It's hard to believe this isn't the worst generation in human history, and probably the last.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: The current (two decade) crop of conservatives/neoliberals view education as a giant pinata filled with tax dollars, from which, if you beat at it long enough, will fall money for private endeavors. Ron Paul wants to abolish the Department of Education, which would horrify Republicans and their business/cultural conservative backers, as from where could for-profit/religious/private schools go for their money?

This pinata money would be given either directly to the new education industry for start-ups or to parents in the form of vouchers to be handed over to for-profit/religious/private schools. And to accomplish this

An earlier post described the four-step polka in North Carolina enroute to destroying public education, demoralizing teachers, and enriching the private vendors.

Here is a suggestion by another reader, who says it actually is a five-step process.

1. Under-fund/STARVE the schools financially
2. Overcrowd the classrooms, reduce programs, supplies
3. Fail the public school using NCLB and/or Race to the Top laws leaving the public school in death-throws
4. Sell the school to private charters
5. Public school, Dead On Arrival
Who are the criminals?
Corporate Education DeFormers, privatizers, Democrats for Education Reform, and the GOP. Neo-Liberals and Neo-Conservatives have joined together to tag-team as partners in the killing of public education. We know the list.
I would change point 4 to read: Give the school away to private charters, to for-profit corporations, to online for-profit vendors, and to any business or religious group that wants to open a school, either in person or online. Diane

source

The worldwide economic experiment has finally hit American shores ...

The main points of neo-liberalism include:

THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating "free" enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. ...Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years of struggle. ...All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say "an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." It's like Reagan's "supply-side" and "trickle-down" economics -- but somehow the wealth didn't trickle down very much. CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing government's role. Of course, they don't oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business.

DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminsh profits, including protecting the environmentand safety on the job.

PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs.

ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF "THE PUBLIC GOOD" or "COMMUNITY" and replacing it with "individual responsibility." Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as "lazy."

source

THIS is what "fixing" American schools is all about for people like Romney (whether Rep or Dem).

As regards world competitiveness....Will China Eat our Lunch? An Interview with Dr. Yong Zhao

Should American education/schools improve? YES! But not the way and not for the reasons neo-liberals/conservatives would have us all believe.

Even if the school of the future was named after its founder, Sam Walton, our results in education could be the same. Unless American students and families are willing to have the same educational work ethic as other cultures, where academics are paramount, study is paramount, and an "A" is not acceptable (go to tutoring for an "A+"!), and unless a nation develops more than lip service to the importance of math and science, we won't make much progress.

With pot smoking students (as one poster mentioned) and parents willing to accept a "D" from their child rather than make the child work harder (or blame the teacher for their child's failure), I don't think we'll make much progress.

You forget Romney's all time high when it comes to teachers "We don't need any more teachers".

Spelling errors are commonplace worldwide, but when you're running a professional campaign, or even a business, they are unforgiveable at executive level, especially when it comes to mass advertising. This advertising and the website should have been proofread from a minimum of two people before going live.

He's not in Grade 10 anymore. When I was in Grade 10, 3 spelling errors would lose you 40% on a paper, giving you a failing grade.

We should do the same for Mitt Romney. He's had his three.

In the United Kingdom, they've just replaced an entire level of exams in high school with much, much harder ones, gone back to an older system we had in place when I was a kid.

Looks like the UK school system is about to stop coddling its kids. About time that Canada and the USA followed their fine example.

Coddled kids do not produce good results, coddling produces adults that have a massive sense of entitlement as they've never really worked hard for anything they've been given their entire lives. Suddenly, they get thrust into the workplace, told by a boss that "sorry, that's not good enough, do it again" or "sorry, we'll be needing you to stay late for overtime tonight", and think this is "brutal treatment".

Tougher exams which kids actually have to work hard at in order to achieve a passing grade will better prepare them for the realities of the world.

reply to post by Flatfish


I don't think we have much to worry very much about anyone fixing the education system.

It has been so systematicly dismantalled over the past several administrations there is little left to be fixed.

I am old enough to remember when student's parents had to but their kids text books and workbooks for each class. And we paid fees for many classes. Then they said gave us free text books and had us start "fund raising activities" to help the schools. From there it has been down hill and the bottom is clearly in sight.

The more politicians you get involved with anything, the worse they will make it.

oops...ran out of characters...it IS a long answer...

I just wanted to add a couple more thoughts, least of which is, when I attended school in the 1950s-60s, teachers (for the most part) were good hearted souls who wanted to help make a difference in the world. Jeezu, I don't know why anyone today would want to be a teacher today, unless they're into masochism, dealing with students with poor work ethic, students who are under the influence before and after (and during?) school, who stay up till 2a.m. playing video games and wake up at 6a.m. tired for school, and then beat upon by parents and nation.

Funny, I can remember sometime in the late 1980s or 1990s, when retired military personnel were being recruited as teachers in order to bring discipline and work ethic into the classroom. That idea fizzled out, as the retired military beat a hasty retreat, saying, "Hell, no, we won't go!". God help those who want to enter that profession, because you won't get help from the Romneys of the world.

Oh, one more thing. Unless Americans answer the question, "For what are we educating our children?", we won't make progress. I know a PhD scientist laid off from her corporate job recently. So don't tell me that we need more scientists, or that education pays ( when college grads are forced to take minimum wage jobs). Unless this nation gets into the 21st century with jobs in 21st century energy and technology, we not only will not make progress, we'll decline.

The 1960s space program provided a vision of the future that made schools and students produce great outcomes. There has not been that same vision for decades now. Without 21st century vision, we'll go blind.

reply to post by Flatfish


You really need to take a close look at the GOP Platforms this year, in short the answer is a resounding no.