Education Stimulus Needs to Stimulate Students

February 16, 2009 · Filed Under Barack Obama, Failure · 2 Comments 

The Stimulus Package provides $5 billion for Education Secretary Arne Duncan to back new approaches to modernize our educational infrastructure.  But while schools, especially in urban areas, are in dire need of modernization (wouldn’t hurt to start with clean and safe bathrooms), spending billions upgrading the physical environment without also fixing the broken kids who end up dropping out (a report by America’s Promise Alliance concluded that nationwide over 50% of our students drop out of school every year) just applies an expensive, albeit cosmetic-only face on a half empty future for both the students and society as a whole. 

To be sure the Stimulus Package is a spending bill, but we must spend smartly in education.  Keeping kids engaged and in school is a cost-cutting measure that positively impacts a child’s emotional and physical health as well as their effect on the not-so-far-in-the-future worlds of business, art and culture. The savings to institutional and governmental support systems, based on those who will stay in Read more

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