As a teacher of over 33 years, I can tell you that the Dept of Education does more harm than good and is a huge waste of taxpayer monies. Education should be strictly local... all we get handed down from the Feds is a social agenda and mandates for this and that which do not work but are 'sold' by the education industry. This is what is wrong with our schools - an unholy alliance between these corporations and the government which you of all people Carol should OBJECT TO HIGHLY. The situation was bad enough in 1990, but now it is dire.

Governor Lynch is involved in this effort to allow NGOs and corporations to dictate what schools are doing, involving people like Bill Gates and Marc Tucker. http://www.cnht.org/news/2010/03/29/where-are-they-now-lyonel-tracy/

And another... http://www.cnht.org/news/2010/02/08/lynch-bypasses-legislature-signs-on-to-nationalize-education/

Your conscience speaking. I know you forgot you had one, well you do. People just do not like you anymore Carol. Sorry, but you did it to yourself.

Thanks Gary.. You would think Democrats and liberals especially would object to the corporations and NGOs and outsider groups and their expensive consultancies interfering and making money off the taxpayers with their fly-by-night edu-scammers. There were times when even the first graders knew what they were doing was just insanity and would ask me why we were doing it that way.

This is the trouble with the education 'industry'. They know that we are good hearted Americans who want to do what is best for our children SO BADLY we are willing to buy into any scheme, even the self-aggrandized IBO nonsense that is going on in Bedford and MVSD currently.

A teacher just needs to know his or her subject area, how to deliver it, with a good scope and sequence. They don't need the UN, NGOs, corporations, or wacky consultants to tell them what is a 'best practice' or other nonsense. There is nothing new under the sun in education when you are teaching 25 kids in a class... there are tried and true ways to get the job done efficiently. Most teacher find that way eventually... they don't need to be told by some slickster in suit with a fancy website and Delphi training.

The emperor has no clothes.

Carol Shea-Porter is irrelevant. Apparently, she hasn't gottent he message that voters sent her.

The point is: who cares what Carol Porter has to say?

P.S. get rid of the Dept of Education and 3/4 of your problems disappear.

If Carol Shea-Porter would read John Taylor Gatto's book entitled 'The Underground History of American Education', she might see the CRITICAL IMPORTANCE of getting rid of the Dept. of Education!!

Our future Congresswoman, Carol Shea Porter is absolutely correct. Eradicating the education department is a ridiculous idea and would result in our country falling even further behind the leading nations of the world in education.

@DavidHolt: Eradicating the education department is a great idea because it would result in our country going back to the BUSINESS of education and getting away from the practice of using our schools for INDOCTRINATION. The Dept of Ed does absolutely NOTHING of value to help educate children.

@Gary G. Krupp: Thanks so much for the compliment. As an education activist, I started a nationwide group that includes parents, teachers, taxpayers, state and local school board members, famous education authors (some who've worked in the DOE under Reagan where we seem to have been sold out) and together we spread the message about the scams in education... one of them being this IB program that the liberals in Bedford and MVSD have swallowed hook line and sinker.

Not only are faulty fuzzy methods being used, but now with this UN influence, kids are being turned into political activists for the purpose of the UN's pet projects as we saw with my last blog post.

Schools could run on half the money they get and still be effective but school administrators keep falling for the education industry's scams. It is going to be up to parents and taxpayers to be like 'peasants with pitchforks', descend upon them all, and toss them out of office if they don't stop this.

One of the reasons I voted for Frank was this, get rid of the DOE. I'm not happy with ALL his votes, but this is one issue I feel strongly about after watching the schools deteriorate under our current system for the last 35 years.

Carol should take heed from a seasoned professional I guess.

If you triple the money you spend per child on education and you keep falling behind the world something is drastically wrong. Major change is needed and spending more and more while getting less and less is a joke.

I expect results on behalf of my children and grandchildren and we are not getting it.

Carol Shea Porter is not the answer but just an obstacle.

many, many years ago, Exeter High got. 3-yr federal grant to teach Japanese. I went to school board meetings and argued against it because I knew that when those 3 years were up, the Administration would want to keep it going. But the Finance Mgr and other Brd members said that it was only a 3 yr experiment and that Japanese was going to be needed to compete globally (that's how long ago it was.). I said if they were that concerned about global competition they should increase the number of Spanish (our neighbors to the south) and French (north and EU) teachers. Low and behold, 3 yrs later, parents were arguing that we needed to keep japanese going because some students had invested 3 yrs into it, just as I had predicted. And how important is knowing japanese today vs a chinese dialect or spanish or french? Just another case of not focusing on the basics and spending taxpayer money or "nice to have" instead of "got to have"..

Nothing wrong with languages. I had taken 2 by grade 5, and 4 by high school. Nothing wrong with studying how things are done abroad either. But there is something wrong with our public schools being used for indoctrination centers as they are today.

CS Porter's answer is as always, spend more $. The decline of American public education runs opposite to the exponential increase in edu spending since the DOE began. Only in government does utter failure beget increased money.

As a volunteer in NH schools, I agree with the teachers that one major problem is all the many non-cirriculum assemblies and special events and special days that continually interrupt the continuity of teaching math, etc. Let the kids get the classroom education that competent teachers can deliver unfettered by distractions and management.

@Joseph DeVore: There is no way to reply to your comment except to start a new one here so it's not going to be right under it.

I have heard the expression 'indigo children' before but have never studied it. Usually when I had a child in class that was unable to function in the classroom it was because of an unfortunate home situation. I don't like the idea of medication either, and I tried to help them in any way I could. You have to understand that in a room full of 25 6-year olds it's not always easy... and teachers should get more respect for the impossible job they do. That said, we should not be attacking our teachers over these wacky decisions our school boards and administrators make, nor the money they spend on scams like IB. These problems start at the top, or as my 'foreign' grandmother would say "The fish stinks from the head down"...

:-)

Remember that Paul Ryan is a Young Gun. Guinta's more extreme than them, probably due to his Tea Party roots. Frank Guinta is running away from his Tea Party roots, but the Internet never forgets. http://notintaguinta.blogspot.com/2012/11/frank-guinta-tea-party-or-not-tea-party.html

Do businessmen make good presidents? Find out at http://notintaguinta.blogspot.com/2012/10/businessmen-presidents-picture-of-day.html.

Investors -- check out the shocking stock market returns under Democrats and Republicans at http://notintaguinta.blogspot.com/2012/10/stock-market-last-24-years-dems-vs-gop.html