I hope this will make many of the readers here, too many of whom come from social sciences, really mad.
I love Obama. I think he is a wonderful president. I think he has done everything right until now, except for one thing: His complaining about university tuition being too high during the state of the union was absolutely wrong.
The problem is that stupid students and their parents pay for degrees such as psychology and exercise science in a market with 20% unemployment for graduates instead of computational science related studies where 80% of the jobs are. The problem is a government that subsidizes students in useless fields by giving them too long a period for returning their loans.
Paying for someone to go to a community college where they would teach you the basics you should have learned in our ``wonderful'' No-Child-Left-Behind-Somalia high schools system is throwing bad money after bad. We need advanced skills to compete in the world, not Calc 101 that should have been studied in tenth grade.
Of course Republicans solution is way nuttier: they want to cut all expanses by gov, pray for businesses to create something out of nothing, such as figure out new ways to get MORE healthcare money out of poor and sick people and into the pockets of HMO stock holders, and let those that fall off a cliff live in the streets or die. Oh. Newt wants us to teach kids how to sweep floor. Are we supposed to export the dirt to China?
Our universities are STILL (but not for much longer) the best in the world in computational science, engineering, and natural sciences. If you are studying engineering or science you will be able to pay back. If not: its your own damn fault.
In the current market computational science has negative unemployment, science and engineering has 1-2% unemployment, and all other fields have graduates in ``occupy wall street'' encampments.
I live in a Midwestern state where, due to NCLB unsupported requirement that a teacher have a degree in his field of teaching there were ZERO fully qualified physics teachers added in ten years. (You can't do engineering without physics.) So the law was changed. Now teachers have to pass a test that an average physics student could have passed in tenth grade!
DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT A GRADUATE OF THOSE SCHOOLS THAT WENT TO A COMMUNITY COLLEGE WOULD BE ABLE TO HELP YOUR KIDS COMPETE WITH CHINA IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING?
Obama's strategy is incomplete because he still relies too much on the new American religion: Positive Thinking. Thinking positively wouldn't help here.
Build highways and broad band infrastructure so that we may be able to produce in the future while loan sharks are nibbling at our hills? That's a long term wrong strategy.
His first responsibility is to increase our credit rating, and there is a great way of doing that:
1. Short term: Increase H1B1 visas for foreign workers so that they fill the gap and help us increase export. Hire math and science teachers from other countries.
2. Use the bully pulpit to have students learn more math, physics, and computational science early.
3. Increase taxes (Bush Sr., Clinton and Eisenhower did! Look back at the economy during their tenure!)
4. Increase people self confidence: "If you want your child to succeed, help him learn math! If you don't know math, learn with him or her! Take classes! Its time we take some responsibility for our plummeting in the world. "
I do not believe in American exceptionalism, but I do believe in American enthusiasm and hard work!!!!!
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We have so many jobs available now in computers, engineering, math and science its not even funny. Who's going to produce? All the smart people that went to psychology, literature and history without even one programming class are protesting against the 1%. Why? They had a choice. Those that didn't have money to go to college are voting for the Republican miracle solution. Why? Because no one taught them under NCLB that A-->B and B-->C lead to A-->C.
We all messed up (including me. I owe too much money because I decided to be a teacher of science and math. My kid is smarter than me, but she is
still in college so I owe too much. )
Those that chose wrong SHOULD PAY MORE for education.
4:12 PM PT: Inconvenient truth. So few votes, so many responses. Non of the choices in the poll are fun, right?
8:09 PM PT: Two out of the responses were thoughtful, even though they presented counter arguments. (Very good ones). The rest.... Hey, I am the messenger. The message comes from those to whom we owe 15 trillion dollars.
8:36 PM PT: Does anyone know of a good progressive blog where the most thought provoking, rather than "the favorite" that all agree with, is highlighted?
9:28 PM PT: "There are people in this country that have nothing better to do than to find something to get outraged about" - Bill Maher