Obama wants longer school year, teachers want shorter work week

[Vepres]

Rant Alert

Ok, let me explain something to you all. America's "failing schools" is bipartisan propaganda for the two parties to push their educational agendas. Good intentioned, maybe. Totally false, yes.

One, the vast majority of other countries in the world have high stakes tests before students enter high school to determine if they go the academic route or to a trade school. So, you compare the top 1/3 of Europeans against ALL Americans, the US will indeed rank lower. See, in the US we give everybody the chance, however small, to get into college. Most countries don't give people that option.

Here's the abstract of this non-partisan think tank's study.

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Two, the US has 50 of the world's top 100 colleges. 'Nuff said.

Three, many countries that supposedly "beat" us have comparatively little ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity.

Four, if our educational system is failing, then why do many foreigners come to the US for college studies?

Five, there are ignorant people everywhere in the world.

Phew, rant over

[Vepres]

Our colleges are certainly the best in the world and there is no debate over that. But have you seen who actually gets PHD's in this country? It's not Americans. I think at least half of the people getting advanced degrees should be Americans and we should make this happen by improving the education system at lower levels rather than having some stupid quota system.

Cite please.

Perhaps it's because there are few decent PHD programs outside the US, thus the best and brightest in the world fight to get to US universities.

[Vepres]

I would like to add that many foreigners get financial support for being "minorities" or from "third world countries".

[Vepres]

Our colleges are certainly the best in the world and there is no debate over that. But have you seen who actually gets PHD's in this country? It's not Americans. I think at least half of the people getting advanced degrees should be Americans and we should make this happen by improving the education system at lower levels rather than having some stupid quota system.

Cite please.

Perhaps it's because there are few decent PHD programs outside the US, thus the best and brightest in the world fight to get to US universities.

I read somewhere the figure was 3/4th but I'll try and find a cite for you. And I don't find anything wrong with financing someone's education when they have proved they have what it takes to succeed in the program. Even a middle class Indian or Chinese is not going to be able to fund his studies in America. Also at the end of the education we end up losing a lot of them to other countries because of the difficulties companies face with the H1B system.

http://blogs.bnet.com/bnet1/?p=505

http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/washington/01visa.html&OQ=_rQ3D1&OP=25c9f3feQ2FQ27Q3FZjQ27vT_UFTT-nQ27nll1Q27lQ2AQ27l(Q27Q3FpUy7Q20Q7C-TQ20Q27l(Q517UpQ2By-Q5Do

Ok, I found a number on it here

40% of PHDs awarded by US universities go to foreign-born students.

[Vepres]

Of note, it appears that per capita, Japan ranks below the US for PHDs earned in people in their 20s and 30s, while China and India don't even appear on the list.

The interesting thing is the most intelligent people from other countries often stay in the United States.

Also of note is that who gets accepted into a university is decided by a committee. It's exponential, the more PHDs are granted to foreign born students, the more foreigners are on college admission committees, who I assume favor people from their country subconsciously.