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homestead - Re: [Homestead] The GOP on government spending: Borrow 'til the Chin

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  • From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] The GOP on government spending: Borrow 'til the Chin
  • Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 21:44:28 -0700

Histrionics won't save you. Remember, completing intermediate algebra is equivalent to passing the ELM (Entry-Level Math) exam. Finish one and you don't have to do the other. So of course, the class you take in order to become eligible for college admission cannot be used for college credit.

The reason why there are more intermediate algebra courses than any other math course is that this is the bottleneck where people who can't get into college because they can't pass the ELM accumulate. There's big money in handing out grades to people who are desperate to be accepted into a 4-year college, and a human teacher can be so much more "malleable" than a cold, uncaring test. ; )

The vast majority of them are there to finish their first two years of college cheaply, not for vocational training (in fact, some vocations have declined greatly; some colleges have done away with welding, for instance). The reason for the remedial courses is that they did absolutely nothing in high school, typically, and that's what you get when the admission requirement is "being 18".

To appreciate this statistical argument on the part of non-insider, one need only count the number of courses in history or statistics. Which vocational majors involve those? Statistics is significant because once you pass it, you've satisfied the GE math requirement for graduation, and that's why even little, rural C o' the R has so many sections of it (like every JC).

In the old days, if a person had been admitted to college without adequate high school preparation, it was a little like being pregnant out of wedlock. It had to be hidden until you could find tutors on your own that could get you up to speed before one of your regular teachers found out how ignorant you were. Now, by eliminating the admission requirement, they've made ignorance the norm, so even more employees with MA degrees are needed to remedy it.

This is happening mainly because state law allows it. There is no stopping the race to the bottom. Don't you love those 3-digit remedial courses? The numbering system suggests that "there's no limit to how ignorant you might be, only to how far you can go!" What if I told you that Coast College in Fountain Valley thinks it's worthwhile to spend $50 per enrollee just to offer them a course entitled "Possessives and Plurals"? Yes, it's all about s, 's and s', along with a few irregular plurals (the same lesson that you probably spent an hour on in junior high).

The reason why you are doomed is that you're arguing a universally quantified proposition, like Voltaire's Dr. Pangloss from "Candide", to the effect that everything is already as good as it can possibly be in the JC system. I find that amusing. I'm not dogmatically opposed to providing a college to bright, hard-working kids, and yet I'm trying hard to find a reason why it wouldn't be better just to give them the money and tell them to go find a college.

Lynda wrote:

B I L L, I ' L L T Y P E R E A L S L O W. T H E Y D O N ' T C O N T R I B U T E T O A B A D E G R E E B E C A U S E T H E Y A R E N ' T M E A N T T O. D U H!

Lynda







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