This is such a small part of the problem that it is really not worthy of discussion. Centralized testing has been mandated since the mid to late 80s. The government mandated testing, and the bureaucracy that has to follow it around is the problem. The Feds have school districts handcuffed with this, since funding is all tied to test results. Kids are stuck not learning, because constantly cramming for test problems means you rarely if ever get to learn.

Just like everything else in the Federal sector, the corruption is simply massive in the DoE. It has been for as long as the agency has been active, but today we are seeing the full force of the corruption. They are not even bothering to hide it any more.

Yeah, the "fix" is to get rid of the agency and start jailing all the people abusing offices for personal gain. Nothing likely will happen though, it's easier still to bitch about the problem than band together and take action.

You have the opinion that petty embezzlement (250 bucks is petty) is the same thing as kidnapping ans slavery? I think it more likely that the only way to justify your opinion is to invent irrational analogies, which you just did.

Seriously, you don't believe it better for this guy to repay everyone he took money from illegally and work community service after? Okay, maybe he can't pay back 30-35K, but that's 1-2 years in prison normally. Add in another 2-3 years of community service and the world is going to be a better place. 18 years does not make the world a better place, it creates a tax burden because people like you are more concerned with revenge than justice.

And how many web sites was this guy running? Oh, it was just the one. Shitty as his actions were, it's better to actually rehabilitate criminals. You know, that thing we don't consider important in the US, hence the highest per capita population in prison for non-violent offenses and such.

Give the guy 2 years and make him work community service for several, and if he makes a decent living make him pay back the 250 bucks he took from someone for shitty actions.

Yes, it was exactly 1 case of extortion. It happened to involve multiple people, but it was a single web site and single person doing the work. When a drug dealer is busted, why don't they charge him with 99 counts of selling drugs? Because the crime is selling drugs, and low and behold there are multiple victims. Another fine analogy, why is a bank robber charged once instead of once for every customer of the bank? Because that would be something other than justice.

You sir, or madam, have been duped into believing bullshit that people want you to think without ever evaluating the theory of justice (or perhaps you forgot).

When it comes to physical harm surely we have individual counts filed, but these are not crimes of the same nature. In fact the peanuts this guy stole compared to, oh... I don't know.. pick a bank CEO that embezzled billions of dollars and never even saw a charge means that the charges are frivolous to the point of lunacy.

As the person you responded to pointed out, we have an extreme imbalance in US courts dishing out sentencing. Politicians convicted of pretty much any charge get no jail time, where the laymen receive up to life in prison for identical charges. I am of course referring to retired General Petraeus who provided classified information to his girlfriend, while Bradley Manning is spending LIFE in prison for doing the same thing. The difference was in the people, not the crime..

Face the facts here, the courts wanted to make an "example" of this guy. That is called retribution, it is not called Justice.

Yeah, I agree that the guy did some slimy crap just to make a few bucks. That said, this sentence ensures the he will never be rehabilitated, ever. This is a demonstration of a failed system of justice, nothing more.

Good grief man, _stop_ making up fairy tales and read some actual history. The accreditation process for Universities was done by University bodies, not by Government. Public schools were sometimes paid for with taxes, but there was no board of education approving teachers or schools and no Government mandating that children even went to school until the Public school systems were taken over by Government. Teachers and Parents did this without any help.

Education 100 years ago was not controlled by a Government body. Surely there were exceptions, but schools worked off of a certain philosophy which has been replaced. We could also argue that not everyone could go to school 100 years ago, or some such tangent which ignores the problem I brought up.

Read what I wrote again. I did not state that it was done 40 years ago, I stated that it took about 40 years to remove the classical system completely from our schools. The introduction of the Prussian system was in the 1930s when the US Department of Education was formed. The founders explicitly stated that they wanted workers in industry, not people that could think. History is a marvelous thing, and all of this is well documented.

Are you trying to suggest that Politicians are above the treatment everyone else in society receives? Do you somehow believe that even though every cable and communication you send to grandma gets archived and sifted through, people like Hillary Clinton should be exempt? Evidence provided to law enforcement agencies by the NSA can not include those "special" class of people?

No, you must have something else in mind and simply failed so state your case properly.

One pays well, and has the potential to make you a multimillionaire. The other is a GSA employee making middle class income, and assuming you can stomach the work for 30 years a mediocre retirement check. Both jobs require a high degree of psychopathy, both result in a high suicide/mortality rate, both can result in you being disposed of if you are deemed a liability (I'm not referring to being fired, check the stats on "suicides" by things like 5 gunshot wounds to the head), and both receive tremendous public shame (rightfully so).

As the person above stated, if you are going to sell your soul you will try to get the highest price. Wall Street/Lobby agency, or "Consultant".

30 years ago people worked for the NSA because we were stupid enough as a society to believe what the media told us. Today there are too many sources of media for that to be working any longer.

If the NSA wants to really start recruiting talent here is a novel idea. Start providing enough information to the "good" law enforcement (the NSA knows who they are) agencies to prosecute all the crooks holding government offices (appointed or voted in). If they started cleaning house, and given enough time clean.. people would believe they rehabilitated and were once again looking out for the average citizens best interests. The reputation as the Stasi is too well known for them to attract anything but the scum of the US for a very long time.

That is not at all what the person stated. If the company gives you a car for sales calls and you get busted getting a prostitute (again?) after hours the company has the right to know. Further they can be held liable for all kinds of nice damages since you used their car to get the prostitute. Impound fees you may no longer be able to afford, STD tests because the prostitute accused you of being dirty, pregnancy test for the prostitute, HIV testing if you got saliva on a cop, etc...

Some people have this notion somehow that digital devices are different somehow, but in reality they are not. Your computer and network is yours. A company can't go through your stuff as they wish, and you as an employee can do what ever you want on your computer and network. Using a Company network gives the company the right to snoop the traffic and see what you are doing. Using a Company device gives them the ability to know what you do on that device (PC, Tablet, Phone, etc..). Liability is an essential concept here.

EEE, they simply don't care. Apologies if you have been fooled into thinking there is some new and more altruistic MS Philosophy and I hurt your reality..

What we have today is a severe problem with our education system as a whole. Classical education has been completely dumped, and people are learning how to believe everything they are told by a person in authority. The fix is to revert to the classical system of education, but with the people holding all the power in Government it won't happen. Remember, they want workers.. not thinkers.. STEM requires the latter, not the former.

Where I mostly agree is that the mastery of things like Math is important. I'll argue that so is communication, critical thought, rational discourse and dialogue, and science that has math as the foundation. Read back 100 years and look at "how people learned" and you will see the difference. Also remember, the US Government moved us over about 40 years from a "Classical Education" system to the Prussian designed "Industrial Education" system. The selling point of the Prussian system was that it is good enough to make artillery guys smart enough to target enemies of the State, stupid enough to never question their orders.

The Classical system started with the fundamentals. Reading, Writing, Basic Math, and basic rhetoric (simple fallacy, simple debate). As math improved, physics was introduced. As rhetoric improved, so did the critical thought exercises (Philosophy). Trig was introduced with Music so that you can see how trig works with musical notes. Physics was introduced with Algebra, complex physics with Calculus. It was a continuous system of improvement. Private schools still use this system, go figure..

Compare that system to what we have currently, which is kids learning how to take tests and give predetermined answers. Kids spend almost half of every school year learning to test and taking tests on average. Poor results means more time testing. All of this means that they can't learn, and are under so much pressure that the few lessons they have are useless.

Selling "STEM" is a crock on just about every level. A EE grad that can only use Matlab/Simulink and can't design a circuit by hand really does not understand EE. But they sure did pass a test on Matlab.

You must be a white male! *ducks*

I agree, and come from a similar place. Not quite ghetto poor, but not being able to eat poor and we lived next to the ghetto. My dad was my example of what not to be when I grew up, since he was drunk and unemployed more often than sober and working. Mom did her best with what she had, a GED and two kids.

Not to say I have not made mistakes, but my son is now in college which I'm able to pay cash for. I have a good job which I worked very hard for. I'm not rich, but I am content for now.

That aside, there is a fine line between feeling hopeless and being determined to get out. It's not an easy line to jump over, and I knew plenty of people that went the other way.