Posted on 10/06/2004 4:55:16 AM PDT by shezza
Edited on 10/06/2004 5:05:59 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Link to rest of article at Yahoo! News
How to improve schools:
Get rid of the teacher's unions
School choice
It says public school teachers earn their own wages as unionized educators so they can send their own kids to non-unionized schools where standards and discipline will be high. We used to believe that "what's good for the gooose is good for the gander". But since public education has become an employer of last resort, teacher quality has continuously declined. Trial lawyers, PC-ness, and racial "victimization" groups put the finishing touches on eliminating whatever discipline there had been in the public schools.
Headline and link only for USA TODAY articles.
A simple answer to a not-at-all-complex question:
Get rid of the Dept. of Education, and give the schools back to the people.
We'll never have decent overall education in this country until the bureaucrats are done away with.
If fire fighters and policemen have to live where they work; why don't teachers' kids have to attend public schools? I once had a very liberal friend who taught in the Chicago public schools. He freely admitted his one goal each day was to just get through the day period. He religiously supported his union, the Democrat machine while he kept his own kids in private schools.
Catholic school structure:
student, teacher, principal
Public school structure:
student, aide, teacher, counselor, coordinator, vice-principal, principal, dean
That's why the teachers are always going on strike for higher wages so they can send their kids to private schools
Unions and liberal parents must go. It's possible but unlikely the unions will go away, but you can't get rid of liberal parents. Liberal parents make it necessary for schools to protect themselves from lawsuits, resulting in ridiculous rules, regs, and "programs". You can't fix public ed. It has to be abandoned.
If we're going to do anything about education, it'll have to be vouchers. If enough people abandon public ed, that's the next thing to come (at least we're talking about it), because we won't pay for these black holes anymore.
My mother, who taught for years in the Denver Public Schools, waited in a line outside all night in order to gain a place for her granddaughter in a private school with limited openings. (She got one of the spots!)
I now homeschool my three sons, and life is wonderful.
You should see the convoluted mess I have to get through to get my license.... these liberals have ruined so much.
Actually, my niece's school is church-run and doesn't seem to have those particular problems. My Mom's school, on the other hand, had to deal with drive-by shootings, kids with mace, tire slashings, whorehouses across the street, and incomptent teachers and principals who had been moved sideways after complaints because no one would fire them. Now that she is in her 80s, she subs closer to home (thank goodness!)
Bless her heart. It's obvious she cares about the children. BTW, love your tagline.
You mean, like government involvement?
Like a huge percentage of parents treating it like free daycare?
Like mandating attendance, making it impossible to get rid of the stubbornly/intentionally uneducable?
Like the infeasability of getting rid or horrid teachers, and just hoping they go away voluntarily?
Like paying along a union scale, so that achievement is never rewarded?
Like giving students power over faculty, thanks to red tape, lawsuit threats, and administrators who are deathly afraid of complaints?
Not that I have any experience or thoughts on the matter.
QED. It's not very complicated really.
Public school structure:
student, aide, teacher, counselor, coordinator, vice-principal, principal, dean
In Washington D.C. there are 100 times as many administrators per pupil in the gov't schools as there are in the schools of the Archdiocese of Washington.
1. National (NEA) and state unions need be revert to being merely professional societies, with no real means to negotiate for wages or benefits.
2. If public schools must be involved with unions, then membership must be optional. Teachers should not be required to pay dues to an organization that they believe does not serve their students or their own best interests.
3. If a public school teacher must pay dues to a union, the union should be forbidden to donate any monies to any political cause whatsoever. The union and its professional representatives must remain politically neutral if non-voluntary dues are accepted.
4. The power base of public schools should be returned to the local level (school district). At the state level the only responsibilities should be school accreditation, teacher credentialing and curriculum.
5. There needs to be real school choice. Another public school is not much of a choice. (A Big Mac is a Big Mac whether it's on Park Blvd. or Main St.) If the money to educate a child in public school is $5,000. Then parents should be able to take a minimum of $2,500 and choose the best public or private school option for their children. 6. Public school employees should be required to send their children to public schools K-12. I taught in a private secular school in an upscale community. The public school district was considered one the best in the state of California. Typically, about 30 -35 % of the students enrolled in the private school had parents who worked in the public school or nearby state university. For a public school teacher to have his own child in private school indicates a lack of faith in the qualitity of a public school he or she serves.
6. Teacher tenure should be abolished. Too many students have to suffer through truly terrible teachers. In public schools bad teachers are shuffled from school to school. Smaller districts cannot afford to bump a truly bad teacher into a non-teaching position. In one large district the toxic teacher was reassigned and given the job of traveling around the district to rate and improve the classroom environments (bulletin boards, air fresheners, plants). A bad teacher is toxic not only to the students, but to fellow teachers. A bad teacher effects the scores of the whole school. As a sub teacher, I overheard four 4th grade teachers bitterly complaining about their absent colleague. His classroom's miserable scores always pulled down the school's 4th grade average. The teacher in question is in his fifties, and has been reassigned many times. One teacher summed it up this way, "Guess it's just our turn to be stuck with him."
1. National (NEA) and state unions need be ABOLISHED!
Oh, I think it's for hazard pay.........
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