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Ghost Leviathan posted:I'd be shocked if anything less than a vast majority of pandemic funding was flat out stolen. The system doesn't even know how to help people anymore even if it wanted to. According to the initial audit, it looks like about 12% to 20% of it was stolen (primarily via unemployment and PPP loan fraud in the early days of the pandemic) mostly because there was no verification, means-testing, or auditing required to take PPP loans or get the expanded unemployment for the first two years. The $400 billion that went to state and local governments was mostly used to just keep people on the payroll. They were also supposed to use some of it to improve remote learning and retrofit school buildings, but as they gave up on remote learning and moved people back into school many schools used it for other things because they thought investing it in remote learning stuff would be a waste. Not sure if that technically counts as "stolen," but some of it was definitely treated as a "bonus" for schools that they used for things they wanted, but didn't have the budget for previously. Depending on whether you count the schools deciding not to use the remote learning/building retrofit money on those things, somewhere between 70% and 80% of the money made it where it was supposed to go. https://apnews.com/article/pandemic-fraud-waste-billions-small-business-labor-fb1d9a9eb24857efbe4611344311ae78
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Jun 21, 2023 17:02
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Fork of Unknown Origins posted:This is great. At the end of the day a kid having a reason they want to learn something makes it stick 100x better than just powering through it. I learned to read on Sonic comics. This is true all the way through life. You can pick up a programming book and learn a programming language, but you'll get it a lot more (and retain it more) if you're actually doing it because you want to make something yourself. You can take language classes, but you'll do a lot better if you actually have an interest in speaking the language. Active engagement always makes learning easier; it's just difficult to get a whole classroom actively engaged because they're all going to be coming from different places. Also, a lot of people conflate "engaging" with "fun". Sure, it's "fun" to be engaged, but it's also easy to accidentally eliminate all the actual learning when trying to be entertaining.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:06
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Didn’t a lot of Covid relief money to states/cities/municipalities end up getting given to cops
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Jun 21, 2023 17:07
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FlamingLiberal posted:Didn’t a lot of Covid relief money to states/cities/municipalities end up getting given to cops A chunk of the CARES Act and the 2021 stimulus bill went to keeping local/city/municipal employees employed during the pandemic to prevent job cuts from lower revenue for those governments who couldn't deficit spend. For a lot of counties/local governments, the police are some of the largest groups of and highest paid county/local employees. So, a chunk of it would have gone to paying their salaries.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:12
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Willa Rogers posted:Yeah; a lot of schools (as well as state governments & municipalities) pared back operations & never restored them, nor do they intend to. Entire government offices & services are never coming back, and many government workers are still WFH. Yeah it’s not a no money problem. It’s a no people problem. It takes six figures and a very big nest egg to live here now. So they pay a lot for the positions, but it doesn’t matter because housing /cost of living is so high.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:14
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SpeedFreek posted:The better way to do that is read 5 books, they must be at least x pages long. Then you get free movie tickets or something like that. Yeah, when I was growing up (and probably a fair chunk of you as well already know), Pizza Hut had that BookIt program where you'd get a free personal pan for so much reading. And Hills, a defunct local department store, had at least one contest I can remember that involved reading X number of pages for a chance to win a prize.
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Jun 21, 2023 18:09
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the_steve posted:Yeah, when I was growing up (and probably a fair chunk of you as well already know), Pizza Hut had that BookIt program where you'd get a free personal pan for so much reading. Pizza Hut still does this! Ours does anyway. Over the summer anyone can register; during the school year the school itself has to.
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Jun 21, 2023 18:16
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the_steve posted:Yeah, when I was growing up (and probably a fair chunk of you as well already know), Pizza Hut had that BookIt program where you'd get a free personal pan for so much reading. Same. I read like mad as a kid so I wasn't lacking for motivation in the first place, but getting free pizza for it was nice. On the broader subject, I teach history at the university level and since beginning of the pandemic I've noticed a significant decline in formal writing abilities. I used to be able to assume a level of competency and knowledge about how to write in Chicago or MLA, and just provide a writing and style guide for those in need of additional assistance. These days I have to spend a non-trivial amount of time in class pointing out how and where to cite your sources, what sources are acceptable versus not, etc.
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Jun 21, 2023 18:17
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Fork of Unknown Origins posted:Pizza Hut still does this! Ours does anyway. Over the summer anyone can register; during the school year the school itself has to. tbh Dominos could prolly get more kids to read if this were the payoff:  I ate Dominos once, 40 years ago, and got food poisoning but I'd try it again if a rocket man delivered it.
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Jun 21, 2023 18:24
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Judgy Fucker posted:One aspect of how new pedagogical theories percolate into school systems across the U.S. is it takes time. By the time schools are implementing some new way to do things, that research literature is already 10-20 years old. I think it's worth pointing out that schools almost never implement the actual methods that academics turned advocates actually argued in favour. Like, I have experienced two of those waves now and each time it has been the person developing the new way explaining how things work and how each of several different bits are important, and then the schools admins decide none of that sounds remotely cost effective and it's all too hard anyway so we'll just jettison all the important bits in place of something that superficially resembles the cool new thing that will definitely help, it that doesn't have any of the bits actually supported by research. It's very frustrating to watch, and although similar things happen in most industries, I have never seen it happen to be extent it does in education where stuff is just thrown out willy nilly without any understanding of why it was there in the first place
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Jun 21, 2023 18:28
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Willa Rogers posted:tbh Dominos could prolly get more kids to read if this were the payoff: I would comment that no domino deliveries poisoned me, but I remember like 8yr old me avoiding Applebees for years after I spent a night of a vacation throwing up from a bad chicken sandwich. So yeah I can understand the impulse.
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Jun 21, 2023 18:32
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Willa Rogers posted:tbh Dominos could prolly get more kids to read if this were the payoff: Mitt Romney fixed it in the late 2000's by making the ingredients slightly higher quality and then drenching the dough in garlic butter. It remains his greatest success in life outside of the 2002 Olympics.
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Jun 21, 2023 18:34
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People say that Dominoes is better now but I have tried it twice since then and I think it's still garbage. Luckily I live in place with lots of local options because I think the major chains have only gotten worse over the years.
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Jun 21, 2023 18:40
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When Dominos came to town I stole $2 off my brother to chip in with my friends for "30 minutes or it's free" delivery. The pizza was small and cardboardy, unlike any pizza we'd ever had in a bustling city full of family-run pizzerias. What a rip. Also, those two bucks were silver certificates and I've never heard the end of it.
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Jun 21, 2023 18:57
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Professor Beetus posted:People say that Dominoes is better now but I have tried it twice since then and I think it's still garbage. Luckily I live in place with lots of local options because I think the major chains have only gotten worse over the years. Dominos is better now, but better than it used to be isn't a huge achievement. The only chain pizza I actually enjoy is Jets.
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Jun 21, 2023 18:58
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Professor Beetus posted:People say that Dominoes is better now but I have tried it twice since then and I think it's still garbage. Luckily I live in place with lots of local options because I think the major chains have only gotten worse over the years. Dominos had a CEO or some poo poo who came in and was like hey I know VC is usually used to dissolve and eat brands for money but what if we made this not suck? Really wanted to throw down on quality standards and reputation In a lot of parts of the US the idea worked and its by far your best budget chain option
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Jun 21, 2023 19:02
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GlyphGryph posted:I think it's worth pointing out that schools almost never implement the actual methods that academics turned advocates actually argued in favour. Here's a report on the matter: https://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Teacher_Prep_Review_Strengthening_Elementary_Reading_Instruction quote:The status quo is far from inevitable. In fact, we know the solution to this reading crisis, quote:Unfortunately, too many teachers are not trained in scientifically based reading instruction quote:Research is clear on how skilled reading develops and on the practices most likely to  This is a very frustrating situation - many people in education departments are apparently shockingly bad at their jobs. You'd think that classes taught by education researchers would already be doing that, but lol. On the plus side, Indiana will be mandating education departments teach science of reading to maintain accreditation, and there's similar moves in other states with bipartisan support. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/why-more-u-s-schools-are-embracing-a-new-science-of-reading https://www.kcur.org/education/2023-06-15/missouri-wants-teachers-trained-in-the-science-of-reading-but-many-programs-dont-teach-it https://in.chalkbeat.org/2023/6/21/23768637/science-reading-curriculum-teachers-colleges-preparation-programs-lilly-grant-nctq-report
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Jun 21, 2023 19:04
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Suburban dipshit chud parents screaming and farting about "OPEN THE SCHOOLS" so they could stay home and work in peace definitely considered schools a "free babysitting" service, duh. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jun 21, 2023 19:04
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Dominos thin crust is actually pretty good. Anything else there is not.
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Jun 21, 2023 19:08
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I’m going to use my own math skills, which I would estimate as a 500 out of 500 on that middle school test, to point out that the post pandemic drops in scores that started the conversation are about 1.5% for reading and about 3% for math. So maybe not really things we need to be drawing the biggest conclusions from. Compared to what was feared as a potential result of remote learning, it seems… not bad? Of course the baseline scores are still bad, and their gradual improvement halting is a problem. And it’s a really big fuckin’ problem that losing 2% represents the undoing of 35 years of “progress.” If only we could apply literally any solution to education besides “have economically comfortable and educated parents.” “Throw money at it” can solve way more problems than Americans think but schooling doesn’t seem to be one of them. (Maybe they should try throwing money at the parents.) Velocity Raptor posted:Thanks for this. I find analyses like this fascinating. Willa Rogers posted:I grew up when most women stayed home to take care of their kids but that's no longer economically nor socially feasible for most families. As it was, the pandemic led a lot of women with children to drop out of the workforce; do you think that was a net positive? Mellow Seas fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Jun 21, 2023 |
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Jun 21, 2023 19:09
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Keyser_Soze posted:Suburban dipshit chud parents screaming and farting about "OPEN THE SCHOOLS" so they could stay home and work in peace definitely considered schools a "free babysitting" service, duh. Could you elaborate, please? Do you think it was only "dipshit chud parents" who needed childcare during the pandemic? What should lower-income parents of color have done for childcare when they needed to work?
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Jun 21, 2023 19:10
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Willa Rogers posted:Could you elaborate, please? Could you elaborate please on why you think I am referring to "lower-income parents of color" when referring to the plethora of incidents involving screaming and farting suburban dipshit chud parents?
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Jun 21, 2023 19:15
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Dominos making slightly better pizza also led to a review of major retirement tax law in the U.S. Mitt Romney was able to get an IRA with a balance of around $500 million (despite annual contribution limits of $5,000) because of Dominos pizza. Bain Capital and other VC groups basically do two things: 1) Buy a failing company for pennies on the dollar because nobody wants it, turn it around, then sell it to someone else once you have a successful business. or 2) Buy a failing company and put a metaphorical bullet in its head by selling off all of its assets while they are still worth something (because they will soon be worth $0 if the business totally fails). Dominos was strategy #1 and was basically worthless in 1998 when they bought it. Romney put a bunch of this worthless stock into his IRA (which had a contribution limit of a few thousand dollars per year, but the stock was worth so little that he could put a huge amount of shares into it) for several years and then turned around and sold the company. The stock was previously trading for a few cents per share in 1998 eventually ended up trading for around $15 per share. Since the stock was worthless he was able to put a huge amount of shares into his IRA and they exploded in value.
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Jun 21, 2023 19:16
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My experience has never been ordering Dominos for quality. It's because you're half drunk and want wings and cheesy bread so you order with a coupon that gets you enough stuff that it lets you have cold pizza for hangover breakfast. Though the cheesy bread kinda sucks now. Garlic Parm bites rule though.
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Jun 21, 2023 19:21
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Keyser_Soze posted:Could you elaborate please on why you think I am referring to "lower-income parents of color" when referring to the plethora of incidents involving screaming and farting suburban dipshit chud parents? I don't think that you're referring to them; I think you're inaccurately framing parents who needed schools to be open as a chud stereotype without any supporting evidence. Do you have evidence that this was the case? Beyond appending the literary "DUH"?
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Jun 21, 2023 19:21
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Keyser_Soze posted:Could you elaborate please on why you think I am referring to "lower-income parents of color" when referring to the plethora of incidents involving screaming and farting suburban dipshit chud parents? I think you're referring to "parents, in general", but tacking on a bunch of extra adjectives you don't like so you can brand them as representative of the larger group and justify being dismissive of their concerns. I think it's fair to say that most families where all the adults work needs childcare of some kind for younger children, regardless of whether they live in the suburbs, how flatulent they are, or which president they voted for.
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Jun 21, 2023 19:51
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I mean schools providing free childcare is one of the positive social benefits of a school system. We should, in fact, as a society, be providing free childcare to all.
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Jun 21, 2023 20:05
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The Labor Department just successfully prosecuted a Taqueria owner for bringing in a fake priest to hear confessions from his employees. The priest attempted to pressure employees into admitting they stole from the owner or came to work late and instructed them to lie to investigators by saying they only worked 40 hours per week. https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1671095547543822336 quote:Restaurant used fake priest to hear workers’ confessions, feds say
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Jun 21, 2023 20:13
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I mean schools providing free childcare is one of the positive social benefits of a school system. We should, in fact, as a society, be providing free childcare to all. Agreed. But "schools are a form of free childcare" is a qualitatively different statement than "schools should be nothing more than free childcare," and for some reason those two sentiments are getting twisted in this thread.
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Jun 21, 2023 20:13
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Judgy Fucker posted:Agreed. But "schools are a form of free childcare" is a qualitatively different statement than "schools should be nothing more than free childcare," and for some reason those two sentiments are getting twisted in this thread. I don't think "schools should be nothing more than free childcare" is a remotely popular or impactful idea in American politics. Parents of every political movement and cultural identity, as a rule, want their kids to go to a school where they learn a lot. The difference is what they want their kids to learn and how they want the kids to learn it. Civilized Fishbot fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Jun 21, 2023 |
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Jun 21, 2023 20:22
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Civilized Fishbot posted:I don't think that more than 1000 Americans have ever said or believed "schools should be nothing more than free childcare." My lived experience tells me it's a much, much, much, much higher number than that, including teaching in public schools for several years. Functional belief, anyway. Not that that is something they have consciously said to themselves or anyone else, but the sum total of their thoughts and actions toward schools amounts to "the place that keeps my kids for free while I work and they better not bother me with any bullshit, I don't care." But of course I don't have statistical data to back that up so I can't present a more compelling case than "nuh uh." Civilized Fishbot posted:Parents of every political movement and cultural identity, as a rule, want their kids to go to a school where they learn a lot. The difference is what they want their kids to learn and how they want the kids to learn it. My ninja edit covers this, but like with a lot of political opinions and beliefs, there's a massive gulf between what these people think and how they behave. Judgy Fucker fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Jun 21, 2023 |
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Jun 21, 2023 20:23
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Judgy Fucker posted:My lived experience tells me it's a much, much, much, much higher number than that, including teaching in public schools for several years. I believe there are plenty of parents who prioritize the childcare over basically everything else, or who would rather their kids learn nothing at all than learn evolution/critical thinking/history of white supremacy, but did you ever encounter a parent who actually said "the kids shouldn't be learning anything at all, schools should be nothing more than free childcare"
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Jun 21, 2023 20:26
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Civilized Fishbot posted:I believe there are plenty of parents who prioritize the childcare over basically everything else, or who would rather their kids learn nothing at all than learn evolution/critical thinking/history of white supremacy, but did you ever encounter a parent who actually said "the kids shouldn't be learning anything at all, schools should be nothing more than free childcare" No, I encountered many parents who when I called them for any reason, positive or negative, made it clear in explicit terms I was bothering them and wasting their time. Not ninja: and this isn't about partisan politics or teaching evolution or anything. I'm not dogwhistling for "chud parents" or whatever. (lol guess that was a ninja)
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Jun 21, 2023 20:27
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Keyser_Soze posted:Suburban dipshit chud parents screaming and farting about "OPEN THE SCHOOLS" so they could stay home and work in peace definitely considered schools a "free babysitting" service, duh. What does it do to children to lose basically the entirety of their community for nearly a year and a half? Socialization is a need not a want, particularly to elementary aged kids. When needs are not met that causes massive problems. My sister is a teacher in Florida. They basically did nothing. That was intensely stupid too. Prior to omicron masking was extremely effective. I tracked in school spread in our district and posted about in the CSPAM covid thread for almost a year when they went back masked. It worked and was exceptionally effective (until omicron, and they gave up after that).
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Jun 21, 2023 20:28
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Fork of Unknown Origins posted:There are a ton of “edutainment” games now, especially on tablets and phones. The "golden age" for educational games was the 1980's/1990's. A good read on what happened to the educational game business: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/where-in-the-world-did-blockbuster-educational-games-go-
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Jun 21, 2023 20:28
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Judgy Fucker posted:No, I encountered many parents who when I called them for any reason, positive or negative, made it clear in explicit terms I was bothering them and wasting their time. So did I, but I wouldn't call that an objection to learning, just apathy to whether learning happens or not. Judgy Fucker posted:Functional belief, anyway. Not that that is something they have consciously said to themselves or anyone else, but the sum total of their thoughts and actions toward schools amounts to "the place that keeps my kids for free while I work and they better not bother me with any bullshit, I don't care." This I absolutely agree with, when I read "schools should be nothing more than free childcare" I was imagining someone who consciously believes that and that's pretty rare. But agreed many parents are totally apathetic to schooling beyond the childcare dimension
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Jun 21, 2023 20:30
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:The Labor Department just successfully prosecuted a Taqueria owner for bringing in a fake priest to hear confessions from his employees. The priest attempted to pressure employees into admitting they stole from the owner or came to work late and instructed them to lie to investigators by saying they only worked 40 hours per week. This is honestly so ridiculous it's slightly humorous.
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Jun 21, 2023 20:32
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I wonder if the Diocese has any grounds to sue the fake priest over infringement of trademark.
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Jun 21, 2023 20:35
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I gave up an executive level job at one of the larger game companies to work on curriculum based games in the 1990's. Worked with a good number of educators and researchers. My conclusion is that US School Philosophy is basically "the beatings will continue until morale improves." My current wife was a teacher in the California system and saw the effects of Prop. 13 and seriously over crowded classrooms. Switched careers because of it. My favorite video on education comes from Michael Moore's documentary on Europe "Who to invade next." https://youtu.be/XQ_agxK6fLs Finland schools. Top rated, little or no homework.
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Jun 21, 2023 20:36
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Civilized Fishbot posted:So did I, but I wouldn't call that an objection to learning, just apathy to whether learning happens or not. Yeah cool, sounds like we're on the same page. I suppose my original wording was a bit flippant.
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Jun 21, 2023 20:37
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