Education is no longer a business to benefit the children. That ship sailed about the time the unions discovered the school house.
I say it would be more effective for the district to purchase houses in its own district, and rent them for $1.00 per school year to teachers. The shop classes can be used to perform basic maintenance. More advanced maintenance performed by the district custodians.
Pay a $5.00 per teaching hour rate, with up to another $5.00 per hour bonus based on the teacher’s performance, as measured by standardized tests and parent evaluations of the classroom experience.
By parent evals, I mean ratings given by adequately educated parents who observe several classes in a given year. Put the parent back in charge, but make it the involved parents who have the voice.
By performance, I mean the performance of the class. Make a sliding scale, with allowances for the “normal distribution curve” in student intelligence and ability. For new teachers, assume a moderately-below-average performance, and give a $2.00/hr bonus. That gives a $3.00 up-side, and a $2.00 down-side.
If a teacher improves year-over-year, give a sliding scale increase. If the teacher improves as compared to the rest of the same grade in the state, give a higher increase, even if their performance is the same as their previous year’s performance. Use statistical analysis to determine each year’s change.
Weight the top performing students higher than the lowest. If a teacher inspired 3 top students to outperform the rest of the state by 150%, and they have 3 students that under perform by 150%, the students that excel should carry more weight than those that lag.
But the teacher must be able to discipline in their class. Therefore, children who behave problematically will either be appropriately disciplined, or they will be expelled (to therefore become the parent’s problems.
Teachers aren’t over paid as a profession. They grossly under perform. Fix the schools by offering those who would truly teach a chance to prosper. Shed teachers who do not perform quickly, to spare our youth the trauma of piss poor teachers.
Sorry for the rant, but it was on my mind.
“Education is no longer a business to benefit the children. That ship sailed about the time the unions discovered the school house.”
True, but it’s not just the unions. The colleges of education in our university system share in the problem.
State and Federal legislatures often turn to these ‘experts’
when they want to reform the system.
Then there are the State and Federal legislatures themselves. The ability to raise revenue and appropriate it
in the name of “educating children” has turned our public school system into quite a money making adventure for those
who are able to lobby the right congressmen.
As to your recommendations...they seem like another beauracracy that will require evaluators, managers, supervisors etc. In essence more of the same that we already have.
What’s the solution? It’s the compulsory education laws
that give the states the power to run public education. By
compelling children to be in school, the state also takes the ‘responsibilty’ to create the system. It then allows them to tax the public at large, even people who don’t have
children in the system, to finance the enterprise.
To me this whole scheme sounds a lot like Obamacare!!!
Eliminate or scale back the compulsory education laws, and make individual parents responsible for defining the education their own children receive.
The counter argument will be that there are some parents that don’t care for their own children, are too poor, are too ignorant....or whatever.
Again this is the same argument behind Obamacare!!!
Collectivist, socialist-funded, GODLESS, government owned and run, and voting mob comrade committee managed social programs NEVER work! This is why government schooling is a failure today and can NOT be fixed.
Ok...So?...What about your suggestions for government schooling? It will fail for the same reasons our current system of government schooling is a mess. Your plan is collectivist, socialist-funded, GODLESS, government owned and run, and managed by voting mob comrade committees ( school boards).
Solution: We must begin the process of privatizing all education. If vouchers, tax credits, and charters can help us move us in that direction by building a private infrastructure, then I support them,..but...**ONLY** if it leads to complete separation of school and state.
By the way...Look at the success of homeschoolers.
Perhaps homeschoolers are so successful because the parents have abandoned the Prussian-model and prison-like schools. They, instead, are providing an educational setting that resembles that of our Founding Fathers: teaching by parents, shared teaching by neighbors, very small parent-organized one room schools, dame schools in the homes of neighbors, Sunday schools, private tutoring when needed, apprenticeships, and small home-based academies to prepare children for college by their early teens.