Teen’s Science Project May Be Huge Breakthrough on Plastics

I hope you all know that Ontario is in Canada...

@ Hay,

I'm willing to put money on the fact that this kid A) goes to WCI (Waterloo Collegiate Institute), which is one of the best schools in Canada and B) has parents who are professors or other high ranking "intelligentsia".

Money can do a lot for education, but it's usually very indirect. Dropping money onto schools doesn't necessarily give you smarter kids, just the same kids with better resources. It may take a while for the whole "culture of education" to develop.

You probably aren't one of those "bright bulbs" are you?

Likewise strife. And in college, we're sold a degree.

education != schooling

Because too many politicians have been hiding behind their testosterone and the civilians of foreign countries. After the military budget, education gets just enough to keep it functional. The schools that are already doing well get the most money.

Same thing is happening to my school, major budget cuts are causing everyone to go around screaming.... some for good reasons like because their advanced math class is cut .... others for not so good reasons like they won't be able to do cheerleading

your city has to pay for that spy helicopter '23' so it can monitor everything you do.

I know you're not going to want to hear this, but public education was a joke in the US LONG before NCLB. If you bother to examine what goes on in those Intel(?) Science Fair Competittions, you'll realize the quality of the 2nd round experiments MATCH what you would see in a college graduate level designed experiment. You just don't get this kind of scientific background to even "compete" in those fairs with public school education. Most of the "competitive" projects come from kids who's parents are either scientists, engineers, professors, or REALLY lucked out with a good teacher. In other words, those kids get access to resources you don't get in public school.

Throwing money at the public schools will not get you kids that will be more productive to society. It will merely raise the mediocrity bar.

As for NYC, it is a tragedy. Basically, society is a lie. It makes commitments it cannot keep. Besides the majority of kids in NYC public schools are poor, there is a significant percentage of them who are illegal immigrant. When a percentage can't even speak the language, and (while I don't completely agree with this) you go cater to every hispanic, chinese, korean, thai, haitian, (etc. etc.) minority group, that costs money to provide duplicate educational services. Here is the filthy crime. Instead of augmenting the amount of money NYC gets for education, Pataki, Guiliani, and the rich(er) suburbs conspired to TAKE education money away from NYC. It was so bad (and we have a flawed state constitution), it took a court case OVER ten years to decide, "yes, the state IS taking away education money away from NYC kids to give it to the 'burbs". And now, when times get economically tough, the politicians go and steal money from NYC public schools again.

Education problems won't go away by throwing money at it. Education won't improve merely by increasing average teacher salaries. Public education will only improve when society stops lying to itself, makes realistic, and not political, goals in terms of educational targets and policies, makes realistic budgets, and then works to dig itself out of its hole. Its just not going to happen.