IMO, The American school system started breaking down when the ‘school board’ members were drawn from the ranks of the teachers-—instead of the PARENTS.
When I was a kid—the annual school board meeting was a meeting no one missed. The PARENTS chose the books—the teacher—her salary—and everyone had a stake in how well us kids were taught.
Current School Boards which are made up of ‘TEACHERS’ represent a situation that is NOT an ARM’S LENGTH TRANSACTION. It cannot be. Too many conflicts of interest. The school board members are ‘teachers’ or ‘educators’—and they have convinced America that THEY know best.
I say BS—and lots of it.
The school boards today have created an empire which is out of control & the parents are treated like crap. The kids are NOT learning a trade—they are all being pushed into ‘STEM programs. College isn’t for everyone.
Today’s students are as varied as they were when I was in school. We had classes in Agriculture—shop—home economics—business machines—even print shops where school items were printed in house. Kids learned a trade & costs were cut....and WE ALL had to take Physical Education & MOVE ourselves at least 5 times a week.
Today- no vocational classes—no PE—& we have serious obesity & other health problems with the students.
Chucking thousands of books because they want a book with 5 changes from last year’s books is stupid & very expensive. Feeding kids in the cafeteria a menu designed by the FLOTUS—who has no experience—is more costly than any of us can imagine. The kids won’t eat it & the food gets trashed.
We didn’t have a ‘school police force’ ever in the schools. Now—every school district has a police force-—just for the schools. How much more useful could those trained officers be in the general population—keeping crime down?
Don’t even get me started on ESL teachers-—
The cost of ‘building’ new schools or remodeling existing schools is out of control. Reno wants to build a new high school-—and they are ESTIMATING the cost at $700 PER SQUARE FOOT !!!!!!! They are bringing in Temp classrooms—2 rooms & one bathroom & 2 doors—trailers like construction trailers-—Guess what they cost? $$70,000 +++ each. 2 rooms & 2 doors & a bathroom!!!
My house is 1350 sq ft. At $700 a sq ft, my house is worth $945,000 !!!! What the devil are these school boards thinking?> Money is being printed in the back room??? WELL-—NOT any more—there are no more printing classes!!!
Some years ago I was at a public forum which -- ostensibly -- would allow parents to comment on the proposed curriculum in the elementary schools.
A teacher stood up and proudly explained that kids in the Second Grade would be given calculators and taught how to use them to solve math problems.
I stood up and commented that kids at that age need to learn and understand arithmetic. A calculator would hold them back and perhaps permanently damage their ability to really do sums in their heads.
The teacher became very condescending and "explained" to me that current education theory "proved" that my point was invalid.
Another parent immediately stood up and said, "No, that guy is right. Calculators are ridiculous in Second Grade. You people need to actually teach our kids how to do math!"
Well, at that point, the principal stood up and stopped the whole thing: "We have a lot of material to cover and we can't spend time discussing each point, so let's move on."
Yeah, parents are treated like dirt. Our concerns don't matter. The education professionals make all the decisions, and the decisions suit them very well -- the decisions don't suit either the kids or the parents, but who cares about that?
(We pulled our kid out the school.)