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Thread: Can a free society survive when its information gatekeepers are activists?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Salty Alt-Left Walty View Post
    We are in 65th place, in spending on education as a percent of GDP.
    How much does the USA spend per student?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    How much does the USA spend per student?
    Schools are largely funded by property taxes. Can you figure out who gets more money, wealthy areas with big expensive houses or poor neighborhoods? Take your time and think about it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nerdberg View Post
    Schools are largely funded by property taxes. Can you figure out who gets more money, wealthy areas with big expensive houses or poor neighborhoods? Take your time and think about it.
    How much does the USA spend per student?

    Answer, Nerdberg.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    How much does the USA spend per student?
    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    How much does the USA spend per student?

    Answer, Nerdberg.
    Why don't you tell the class, Legion. After you do, get back to the fact 92% of school funding is local or state. Usually property taxes; the residents pay for their own schools.

    https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/f...cts/index.html
    In the 2004-05 school year, 83 cents out of every dollar spent on education is estimated to come from the state and local levels (45.6 percent from state funds and 37.1 percent from local governments). The federal government's share is 8.3 percent. The remaining 8.9 percent is from private sources, primarily for private schools. [ * * ] This division of support remains consistent with our nation's historic reliance on local control of schools.

    God bless America and those who defend our Constitution.

    "Hatred is a failure of imagination" - Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory"

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dutch Uncle View Post
    Why don't you tell the class, Legion.
    I asked Salty Alt-Left Walty (and Nerdberg).

    Now that you've put your oar in, I'm asking you.

    How much does the USA spend per student?

    I'll understand if you don't want to answer the question, of course.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    I asked Salty Alt-Left Walty (and Nerdberg).

    Now that you've put your oar in, I'm asking you.

    How much does the USA spend per student?

    I'll understand if you don't want to answer the question, of course.
    Your refusal to answer is clear. Have a good day, son.
    God bless America and those who defend our Constitution.

    "Hatred is a failure of imagination" - Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory"

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dutch Uncle View Post
    Your refusal to answer is clear. Have a good day, son.
    I said I'd understand if you don't want to answer the question, and I do.

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    Google, which controls almost 90% of U.S. Internet search traffic, could sway an election by altering the search results it shows users.

    New data indicate that may be happening, as conservative news sites including Breitbart, the Daily Caller, and the Federalist have seen their Google search listings dramatically reduced.

    The data come from the search consultancy Sistrix, which tracks a million different Google search keywords and keeps track of how highly different sites rank across all the search terms.

    The tracker shows that Google search visibility for Breitbart first plunged in 2017, before falling to approximately zero in July.

    • For example, Googling the names of Breitbart's reporters sometimes forces users to click through page after page of less-relevant results before hitting a Breitbart link.
    • In the case of Joel Pollak, the first Breitbart link appears on the bottom of page 7 of Google search results.
    • In comparison, a search on the small Google competitor DuckDuckGo gives multiple links to Pollak’s Breitbart work on the first page.

    Google did not respond to a request for comment about the data.

    A public Google document from 2019 outlines how the company now employs humans to go through webpages and rate them based on "Expertise/Authoritativeness/Trustworthiness."

    "Google has acknowledged they use human search quality raters who help evaluate search results," said Chris Rodgers, CEO and founder of Colorado SEO Pros.

    Google claims they don't directly use such ratings to rank sites, but "based on those ratings Google will then tweak their algorithm and use machine learning to help dial in the desired results," Rodgers explained.

    Google guidelines instruct raters to give the "lowest" ranking to any news-related "content that contradicts well-established expert consensus."

    And how does one determine "expert consensus"?

    Google guidelines repeatedly advise raters to consult Wikipedia, which it mentions 56 times: "See if there is a Wikipedia article or news article from a well-known news site. Wikipedia can be a good source of information about companies, organizations, and content creators."

    The reliance on Wikipedia could partly explain the de-rankings, as the crowdsourced encyclopedia calls Breitbart "far right" and alleges that the Daily Caller "frequently published false stories." But Wikipedia's co-founder, Larry Sanger, recently wrote an essay about how "Wikipedia is badly biased."

    In addition to the human ratings used to test algorithms, Google also has human-maintained blacklists.

    A peer-reviewed study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that a search engine could sway more than 10% of voters in an election simply by altering what results are shown.

    “Such manipulations are difficult to detect, and most people are relatively powerless when trying to resist sources of influence they cannot see," the authors warned.

    "When people are unaware they are being manipulated, they tend to believe they have adopted their new thinking voluntarily.”

    The paper further says that Google's 87% market share is a concern.

    While competitors are growing in popularity, their market share numbers remain low: Microsoft's Bing has 7.2% of the pie, and DuckDuckGo has 1.75%.

    “Because the majority of people in most democracies use a search engine provided by just one company, election-related search rankings could pose a significant threat to the democratic system of government,” the paper concludes.

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Congress in sworn testimony that his company only removes sites if they are deemed to be "interfering in elections" or conveying "violent extremism."


    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/09/20/google_pushes_conservative_news_sites_far_down_sea rch_lists_144246.html

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    Quote Originally Posted by Walt View Post
    We are in 65th place, in spending on education as a percent of GDP.

    Finland has an interesting strategy when it comes to education. Rather than worrying about the details, they just pay their teachers very well. That creates a competitive environment where they get the best teachers. They get only the best teachers.

    On the other side of the spectrum, Republicans are pushing for more firing of teachers who shake the system. There are already extreme teachers shortages, because of such low pay. Some American states actually have high school dropout teacher aids teaching high school courses. In Finland, all teachers have at least a Masters Degree (6 more years of education).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...n_(%25_of_GDP)
    The last time I checked on the level of teachers' pay, it was for a question I was researching regarding the teachers in Wisconsin. Education is funded and administered at the STATE level.

    In Wisconsin, teachers are paid more than the average salary in Wisconsin. Obviously, this means that more than half of the students they teach will earn less than the teachers who taught them.

    Teachers in private schools are paid less than teachers in public schools and render superior outcomes.

    The problem is not the level of pay the teachers get. The problem is the educational system that is no longer aimed at educating.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Old'N'Retired View Post
    The last time I checked on the level of teachers' pay, it was for a question I was researching regarding the teachers in Wisconsin. Education is funded and administered at the STATE level.

    In Wisconsin, teachers are paid more than the average salary in Wisconsin. Obviously, this means that more than half of the students they teach will earn less than the teachers who taught them.

    Teachers in private schools are paid less than teachers in public schools and render superior outcomes.

    The problem is not the level of pay the teachers get. The problem is the educational system that is no longer aimed at educating.



    How much does a public school teacher make in the United States? The average public school teacher salary in the United States is $58,418 as of August 27, 2020, but the range typically falls between $51,003 and $67,444.


    https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/public-school-teacher-salary

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    Quote Originally Posted by Old'N'Retired View Post
    In Wisconsin, teachers are paid more than the average salary in Wisconsin.
    The average teachers salary in Wisconsin is $54,998. The average full time pay is $60,773. If you include part time jobs for teenagers, you could be right. But a teacher has a college education, while a MacDonald's teller does not even need a high school degree.

    Wisconsin has an extreme teacher shortage, which is an indicator of that the market says that teachers are not being treated well enough. I guess we could send the military out, round up random people, and force them to be teachers. Or we could pay to get reasonably good teachers.

    Quote Originally Posted by Old'N'Retired View Post
    Teachers in private schools are paid less than teachers in public schools and render superior outcomes.
    Private schools that render worse outcomes pay less. Private schools that render better outcomes pay more. Teacher pay is extremely correlated with outcomes.

    Quote Originally Posted by Old'N'Retired View Post
    The problem is the educational system that is no longer aimed at educating.
    Public school systems like New York City's are having record high graduation, and test scores.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Salty Alt-Left Walty View Post
    The average teachers salary in Wisconsin is $54,998. The average full time pay is $60,773. If you include part time jobs for teenagers, you could be right. But a teacher has a college education, while a MacDonald's teller does not even need a high school degree. Wisconsin has an extreme teacher shortage, which is an indicator of that the market says that teachers are not being treated well enough. I guess we could send the military out, round up random people, and force them to be teachers. Or we could pay to get reasonably good teachers. Private schools that render worse outcomes pay less. Private schools that render better outcomes pay more. Teacher pay is extremely correlated with outcomes. Public school systems like New York City's are having record high graduation, and test scores.
    I note that you provided zero evidence for your assertions. Got any?

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