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Originally Posted by Richard J
I was doing a bit of research into alternate energy technologies due to today's flap about domestic drilling. I found a story that dropped my jaw. Arizona has contracted a construction company in Spain to build and operate a solar energy plant in Gila Bend. The company will build the plant and Arizona Public Services will pay them $4 billion over the next 20 years for the power it produces.
Huge solar power plant planned in Gila Bend by Spanish company | www.azstarnet.com ®
The reason this story shocked me is, it is an example of America buying foreign technology to solve its energy problems. Can't we solve our own problems anymore? High tech solutions were something we used to develop and sell to everyone else.
In a way, it is not surprising. We have been falling behind the rest of the world in science and math performance for years. A large portion of our youth doesn't even graduate high school. Our economy has been gradually shifting away from manufacturing to information management and personal services. And, let's face it, we enjoy the good life.
So, to me it is not surprising we can't solve our energy dependence problem. Even if we could get past the politics, we don't seem to have the engineering and technical depth to build cutting edge energy infrastructure anymore.
RJ |
It is high time to look to other countries with higher standards of living, and higher levels of graduates. It is all too often the case where nationalistic pride tells us we can do it better, or why should we do things differently? This is America why should we have bilingual education, etc., etc. We have dumbed down America to bubbles on a test card. I'm sure many of us remember those in our classes that took standardized testing as a joke, and make pictures out of filled in bubbles. Education has been reduced to statistical test results, that can not show what children learn. Standardized testing should not be a standard, nor should it be a rule for gaging educational progress.
Education is not new, but for some reason our educational system has been consistently modified at the detriment of education.
Our approach to education doesn't work, and handing our money over to private schools isn't going to change that. Why can't the education in privates schools be made public?
I pay HIGH property taxes for education, which was once in the top tenth percentile in the United States; but now thanks to "No Child Left Behind" standardized "education," our schools are no better than the rest. I'm not paying higher property taxes to have my children be taught how to ace a bubble test, I pay hight property taxes to have my children educated.
Ronald Reagan led the charge to dismantle our once great system of education. It's time to push back the tide, and refocus our efforts ten fold on reviving our once exemplary system of education. Education must be based on proven principals and philosophies, and never be pinned to reactionary policies which conflict with real education.