“Every job I’ve ever had was based on my job performance. Why should teachers be different?”
Because in most jobs, it is in fact YOUR job performance that is being measured. In teaching, no matter how good I do my job, I cannot guarantee the outcome, especially not when it is being measured by a test taken by someone other than myself, i.e., the student. Some fool who stamps license plates can guarantee that 1. he can stamp them all the same size; 2. that they are all the same consistency; 3. that I make so many in an hour, so many per day, etc. It is in fact a lot like being a doctor- if you tell the patient “take 3 of these and you won’t die” and the patient takes one and croaks, then it is not the doctor’s fault (although some pathetic lawyer can probably turn that into falsehood...)
You guys want to make a real difference in education? It won’t be by trying to run it in the same way you stamp license plates. The real difference is made by 1. getting conservatives elected to school boards, who will hire conservative administrators, who will hire conservative teachers. Graduate conservative students who go on to college, some of whom will eventually become school administrators, teachers, and even college professors. Give money to private conservative universities, and if such don’t exist, found some. When we can get people into education that have sensible notions about what is possible and what is not, then we can at least begin to address the numerous ills with what once functioned as an education system.
And yes, I teach- and I am a better teacher 12 years after I started than I was when I started, and I hope I will be better still in the years to come. Experience matters in most jobs more complicated than swinging a mop- and it even helps with that.
While I admire your passion, if you ran a business the way the School system has been run over the last 50 years, it would have been OUT of business 45 years ago.
Why does it take half the money per student in the Private School System? Why does it take twice as many Administrative positions to run the school offices than it does a Major Corporation with as many employees as students? What company can vote itself raises when the money/profit isn’t there?
You have to ask yourself why folks like me are a little indifferent when it comes to the decades of crying and whining from teachers. BTW, my daughter is an Honors student, straight A’s as matter of fact. It is her hard work not necessarily the teachers (although she has a few good ones) while the rest of her class has a grade average of 80%. If a teacher consistently has failing students, why not take a closer look? Why do students on average do better in a Private School through Vouchers than he/she performs in Public school?
Fair enough questions don’t you think?