Who Needs Math Anyway?

I ran across what I found to be a interesting article not just on math curriculum, but on the problem of nationalized standards. With the recent passage of the Keystone Exams, this might be a glimpse into our future.

Please see the article titled "Who Needs Mathematicians for Math Anyway" from the City Journal published by the Manhattan Institute.

Here is a quick excerpt that should catch your attention:

As part of his education-reform plan, President Obama wants to “make math and science education a top priority” and ensure that children have access to strong math and science curricula “at all grade levels.” But the president’s worthy aims won’t be reached so long as assessment experts, technology salesmen, and math educators—the professors, usually with education degrees, who teach prospective teachers of math from K–12—dominate the development of the content of school curricula and determine the pedagogy used, into which they’ve brought theories lacking any evidence of success and that emphasize political and social ends, not mastery of mathematics.

Understand that this is not a hit-piece on Obama, the author is simply critical of a process that was started before the current administration was in place. The article takes a general look at some of the current curriculum out there and how it came to pass. She suggests that a study done by the National Council of Teacher's of Mathematics in 1989 was influential in "dumbing down" math curriculum across the country by putting social goals above academic ones.

I am not claiming the article is right, but it is most definitely worth a read. I am still digesting some of the ideas and wondering if what the author suggests is actually happening and whether it did happen in Pennsylvania. For me, the article begs the question of whether or not our educational system has been taken over by bureaucrats and, if so, whether or not that has led to the overall decline of the US student achievement when compared to the rest of the world (another topic the article addresses briefly).

Regardless, the articles at the Manhattan Institute have earned a bookmark from me.

Thanks for reading.

James

State Budgets Facing Financial Peril

I took this headline right from a CNN article. Many of these states are different than what I posted about just last month here. As I have stated on many occasions, state budgets lag the overall economy by at least year, usually two. This was a lesson learned in California where I worked for a County government and layoffs typically followed recession by 18-24 months. Governments can typically fill one or sometimes even two-year budget gaps using stopgap measures like borrowing money or pushing out expenses to a future date. Spread budget problems out to three years or more and things really start to pile up.

Why is this a big deal? Well, projected cuts to state budgets to make ends meet could lead to a loss of almost 900,000 jobs. These layoffs would begin next fiscal year which starts in July in most states.

It is absolutely amazing to me that there is a recognized economist in this article that is saying that there needs to be MORE federal stimulus to fill budget gaps in state budgets for 2011. Stimulus simply is a way to borrow against future production. It's really that simple. The solution to a spending problem isn't borrowing money to continue spending too much. The solution to a spending problem is to spend less.

I do agree with the economist that "budget cuts and tax increases will be a serious drag on the economy at just the wrong time".

My belief is that creative destruction needs to take place. This will mean a painful adjustment for some, however, it is the right path and it needs to take place in order for us to go through this. One of my favorite investment/economics writes often, "In order to get through this, we need to go through this." We are in for years of high unemployment. It will be the new normal. Central Bank economists are predicting that unemployment will continue to remain high for "years to come".

The last Pennsylvania budget gap was filled by federal fiscal stimulus funds. We are already $3 billion behind heading into the 2010-2011 budget. How that gets filled is anyone's guess. This kind of fiscal problem is going to trickle down to our District budget at some point. While Mt. Lebanon gets a huge majority of its funding from local tax dollars, even a reduction of 5% of state funding would be significant.

There is no easy way out of this for states or, eventually, for local governments. Belt tightening will have to take place at some point. The hope I have is that we make decisions that make the most long-term sense. If we can focus our decisions on future government entities and the impact our decisions today will have on these entities five and even ten (or longer) years down the road, then we can start to lay in stone a path for financial stability.

Thanks for reading.

James

Educational Videos

Every once in awhile I come across some videos that I think are worth sharing.

I was sent an interesting video the other day by another Mt Lebanon resident. Its a video that puts out some information that most people will find fascinating.



Here is another video regarding the education of leaders in our world and why it matters:



Enjoy!

James