What is the future of the Republican Party?

[Ratt Mhule]

6 hours ago, Archy1221 said:

Thanks for the input.  
 

Im reading this as you are mainly for higher education reform, along with the trade school push in HS.   Any thoughts on K-12 education reform, beyond Trade school?  

Districts need to invest more in school counselors and school psycholgists. My wife is a school counselor and is in a district that every school has a counselor but some of the districts she applied to had one counselor for like 5-6 schools. Invest in low income schools. Get rid of common core BS and standardized testing. Thats a few, but there is a lot to fix. 

[Archy1221]

2 hours ago, RedDenver said:

 

He seems triggered 

[Archy1221]

46 minutes ago, Frott Scost said:

Districts need to invest more in school counselors and school psycholgists. My wife is a school counselor and is in a district that every school has a counselor but some of the districts she applied to had one counselor for like 5-6 schools. Invest in low income schools. Get rid of common core BS and standardized testing. Thats a few, but there is a lot to fix. 

Good stuff.  Thanks for the input. 

[funhusker]

14 hours ago, Frott Scost said:

Districts need to invest more in school counselors and school psycholgists. My wife is a school counselor and is in a district that every school has a counselor but some of the districts she applied to had one counselor for like 5-6 schools. Invest in low income schools. Get rid of common core BS and standardized testing. Thats a few, but there is a lot to fix. 

It will never happen, but I think kids need to "graduate" after 10th grade.  At that point, they should have 3 options.

 

1. Be done.  Go out into the world and hope for the best.  Basically taking on the world with nothing but a diploma.  Really, what do kids that have no ambition, work ethic, or plans for life after HS actually learn in 11th and 12th grade?

 

2. Spend the next two years in some type of trade school.

 

3.  Spend two years in a true college prep program that would allow 4-year universities to drastically raise their standards and be truly worth the money again.   

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

22 minutes ago, funhusker said:

It will never happen, but I think kids need to "graduate" after 10th grade.  At that point, they should have 3 options.

 

1. Be done.  Go out into the world and hope for the best.  Basically taking on the world with nothing but a diploma.  Really, what do kids that have no ambition, work ethic, or plans for life after HS actually learn in 11th and 12th grade?

 

2. Spend the next two years in some type of trade school.

 

3.  Spend two years in a true college prep program that would allow 4-year universities to drastically raise their standards and be truly worth the money again.   

 

 

I wouldn't be opposed to this.

 

What this would also allow is for those trade school or college prep classes to actually be able to concentrate on kids that want to be there and it would flush out many of the problem kids that take up way too much of the school's time and resources.

 

I've always felt that way too much of the resources are wasted on kids at that age that have no desire to be there or learn and they are there to do nothing but cause problems.

 

The kids that go to trade schools could still go on to a 4 year college if they want to and have the ability.

[DevoHusker]

28 minutes ago, funhusker said:

It will never happen, but I think kids need to "graduate" after 10th grade.  At that point, they should have 3 options.

 

1. Be done.  Go out into the world and hope for the best.  Basically taking on the world with nothing but a diploma.  Really, what do kids that have no ambition, work ethic, or plans for life after HS actually learn in 11th and 12th grade?

 

2. Spend the next two years in some type of trade school.

 

3.  Spend two years in a true college prep program that would allow 4-year universities to drastically raise their standards and be truly worth the money again.   

 

 

 

Pretty darn sensible. 

 

(Which means no one will go for it )

[Cdog923]

2

33 minutes ago, funhusker said:

It will never happen, but I think kids need to "graduate" after 10th grade.  At that point, they should have 3 options.

 

1. Be done.  Go out into the world and hope for the best.  Basically taking on the world with nothing but a diploma.  Really, what do kids that have no ambition, work ethic, or plans for life after HS actually learn in 11th and 12th grade?

 

2. Spend the next two years in some type of trade school.

 

3.  Spend two years in a true college prep program that would allow 4-year universities to drastically raise their standards and be truly worth the money again.   

 

 

 

This would work better from a social and emotional standpoint after the traditional 12th grade, but I wouldn't be opposed to it. 

[Born N Bled Red]

36 minutes ago, funhusker said:

It will never happen, but I think kids need to "graduate" after 10th grade.  At that point, they should have 3 options.

 

1. Be done.  Go out into the world and hope for the best.  Basically taking on the world with nothing but a diploma.  Really, what do kids that have no ambition, work ethic, or plans for life after HS actually learn in 11th and 12th grade?

 

2. Spend the next two years in some type of trade school.

 

3.  Spend two years in a true college prep program that would allow 4-year universities to drastically raise their standards and be truly worth the money again.   

 

 

 

So, you want more welfare and an uneducated populace. - 

[funhusker]

6 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

So, you want more welfare and an uneducated populace. - 

Yes.  That's what I was really hoping for.

[BigRedBuster]

10 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

So, you want more welfare and an uneducated populace. - 

Ummmm....how did you get that out of what he posted?

[Born N Bled Red]

Just now, funhusker said:

Yes.  That's what I was really hoping for.

OK well, let's break down what you said- in rural areas, like most of the Midwest, there is already a lack of education and an incredible amount of poverty. - Correlation is not causation, right. At the same time, someone with only a high school diploma, can expect to earn somewhere between Minimum wage and $15 an hour in rural areas. Ok, so there is the tie to education and poverty. Further, the continued lack of education leads to fewer high paying jobs moving to or building in rural areas, as there is an incredible lack of qualified workforce = less opportunity. This cycle continues and reinforces itself, leading to more people on welfare and the need for stronger safety net provisions, not less. 

 

I do agree to the utmost that for most people college is not necessary for their careers. That work and life experience should be valued just as much, if not more so. I know personally of people who dedicated their lives to a profession climbed to the highest level in their profession and in the last 20 years could not attain or maintain that level due to HR personnel looking for a degree before vetting any work history or further qualifications- This is wrong. 

 

That said a better educated populace, especially in this day and age where even success in farming is based on the ability to utilize technology and interpret data, is generally better for society, local economies, and individuals as a whole. - Your suggestion is the opposite of that- would lead to greater disparity between the haves and have nots and further reduce our society to a feudal system. 

[DevoHusker]

2 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

OK well, let's break down what you said- in rural areas, like most of the Midwest, there is already a lack of education and an incredible amount of poverty. - Correlation is not causation, right. At the same time, someone with only a high school diploma, can expect to earn somewhere between Minimum wage and $15 an hour in rural areas. Ok, so there is the tie to education and poverty. Further, the continued lack of education leads to fewer high paying jobs moving to or building in rural areas, as there is an incredible lack of qualified workforce = less opportunity. This cycle continues and reinforces itself, leading to more people on welfare and the need for stronger safety net provisions, not less. 

 

I do agree to the utmost that for most people college is not necessary for their careers. That work and life experience should be valued just as much, if not more so. I know personally of people who dedicated their lives to a profession climbed to the highest level in their profession and in the last 20 years could not attain or maintain that level due to HR personnel looking for a degree before vetting any work history or further qualifications- This is wrong. 

 

That said a better educated populace, especially in this day and age where even success in farming is based on the ability to utilize technology and interpret data, is generally better for society, local economies, and individuals as a whole. - Your suggestion is the opposite of that- would lead to greater disparity between the haves and have nots and further reduce our society to a feudal system. 

 

However, as @funhusker pointed out, the ones that leave after 10th grade are already doing little or nothing for the two additional years. How is his suggestion any different? They aren't getting "more educated" in those two years, they are just "f*cking around". They have no interest in trade school or a 4 year college. They are what they are. 

[Born N Bled Red]

Just now, DevoHusker said:

 

However, as @funhusker pointed out, the ones that leave after 10th grade are already doing little or nothing for the two additional years. How is his suggestion any different? They aren't getting "more educated" in those two years, they are just "f*cking around". They have no interest in trade school or a 4 year college. They are what they are. 

 

How many people do you actually know like that? If you are washing your hands of those people, especially at 15- 16 years old, you better not complain when they have 10 kids, live below the poverty line and the whole family is utilizing your tax dollars to survive.  

[knapplc]

3 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

How many people do you actually know like that? If you are washing your hands of those people, especially at 15- 16 years old, you better not complain when they have 10 kids, live below the poverty line and the whole family is utilizing your tax dollars to survive.  

 

How many people do you think this is going to affect? I'd guess less than 20% of the current High School population fall into this category. 

 

Let's take kids whose last two years in High School are taking required courses and Shop. I'd argue that those kids would be better served - and better educated - going to a trade school at that point. High School Shop teachers do as well as they can in their limited ways, but they can't give the same hands-on training those students would get in a trade school. Just different universes of resources. 

 

And these kids do NOT need to be taking 11th & 12th grade English, or pre-Calc, or any of that stuff. Most kids in High School don't need these courses (especially the English garbage) and instead should be focusing on more practical things like budgets and bookkeeping and things like that.

 

A kid who's going into HVAC or agriculture would be far better served with that kind of education rather than a one-size-fits all generic High School curriculum. 

 

[Born N Bled Red]

2 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

How many people do you think this is going to affect? I'd guess less than 20% of the current High School population fall into this category. 

 

Let's take kids whose last two years in High School are taking required courses and Shop. I'd argue that those kids would be better served - and better educated - going to a trade school at that point. High School Shop teachers do as well as they can in their limited ways, but they can't give the same hands-on training those students would get in a trade school. Just different universes of resources. 

 

And these kids do NOT need to be taking 11th & 12th grade English, or pre-Calc, or any of that stuff. Most kids in High School don't need these courses (especially the English garbage) and instead should be focusing on more practical things like budgets and bookkeeping and things like that.

 

A kid who's going into HVAC or agriculture would be far better served with that kind of education rather than a one-size-fits all generic High School curriculum. 

 

 

1) English - right, so reading comprehension, the ability to develop sound quotes and proposals, write a resume, are not useful. 

2) There is already no such thing as a 1 size fits all high school education

3) 90% of student who think they are going to return to the farm end up in ag sales, working for local coops etc, not farming and again if you think farming only consists of putting seeds in the ground these days, you are incredibly wrong

4) I'm cool with this as long as everyone who is working a 40 hour week is guaranteed a real living wage, tied to inflation. This can be paid by the employer or through taxes. 

 

Here is MIT's analysis of a living wage in Nebraska

 

Living Wage Calculation for Nebraska

The living wage shown is the hourly rate that an individual in a household must earn to support his or herself and their family. The assumption is the sole provider is working full-time (2080 hours per year). The tool provides information for individuals, and households with one or two working adults and zero to three children. In the case of households with two working adults, all values are per working adult, single or in a family unless otherwise noted.

The state minimum wage is the same for all individuals, regardless of how many dependents they may have. Data are updated annually, in the first quarter of the new year. State minimum wages are determined based on the posted value of the minimum wage as of January one of the coming year (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2019). The poverty rate reflects a person's gross annual income. We have converted it to an hourly wage for the sake of comparison.

For further detail, please reference the technical documentation here.

	1 ADULT				2 ADULTS (1 WORKING)				2 ADULTS (BOTH WORKING)
	0 Children	1 Child	2 Children	3 Children	0 Children	1 Child	2 Children	3 Children	0 Children	1 Child	2 Children	3 Children
Living Wage	$10.96	$24.11	$28.85	$35.71	$18.36	$22.71	$25.27	$28.71	$9.18	$13.40	$15.76	$18.56
Poverty Wage	$6.00	$8.13	$10.25	$12.38	$8.13	$10.25	$12.38	$14.50	$4.06	$5.13	$6.19	$7.25
Minimum Wage	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00	$9.00

Typical Expenses