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From: mathon@tekbspa.UUCP (John D. Mathon )
Newsgroups: misc.kids,comp.edu,sci.edu,sci.med,misc.headlines
Subject: Re: U.S. Far Behind In Health Care, Education : Panel Finds
Message-ID: <900@tekbspa.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 89 17:07:53 GMT
References: <1843@ccnysci.UUCP>
Organization: Teknekron Software Systems, San Jose, CA.
Lines: 26

In article <1843@ccnysci.UUCP>, patth@ccnysci.UUCP (Patt Haring) writes:
> But the committee singled 
> out education as ``perhaps the most prominent area where our nation's 
> shortcomings threaten to impose enormous long-term costs,'' noting that 
> ``approximately 13% of 17-year-old Americans cannot read, write, or count'' 
> and that many are members of a ``widening underclass'' of the homeless and the
> very poor who live outside of the mainstream. ``The United States spends more 
> per student than other industrialized nations,'' according to the report, 
> ``but it is still falling behind. . . in promoting literacy, job skills, and
> educational achievement. . . ,'' with a dropout rate for blacks of 40% and
> more than 55% for Hispanic students. 

I find it amazing that you point out that we are already spending more money
than anyone else and yet the committee seems to think more money is the
answer.  If anything is clear, MORE MONEY IS NOT THE ANSWER!  The real
answer is to more effectively use the money we already spend.

We already spend more money than everyone else.  More money is not the
answer.  What could be more obvious?  

A good analogy would be: saying that we already spend more money for each
foot of steel, and we make vastly inferior steel.  So we need to spend
MORE money on each foot of steel.  All we will have is very expensive
steel that nobody will buy since we haven't addressed the issue of 
why our steel is low quality in the first place and now it will cost even more.
How stupid.  Let's stop talking about money and start talking solutions.