NEA Teacher Day

Thought you people would enjoy the mention :P Google.com is celebrating "NEA Teacher's Day" today. Thought the mention of NEA would get some fires burning this morning. LOL Put mouse over their Google Icon or click on it. Nothing against teachers just NEA.

Dear Editor (my LTTE),

By all accounts and from every view, the Philadelphia school system is beyond broken. If the school system was a business, it would have gone bankrupt, had its assets sold off and been forgotten long ago. If it was an army, it would have surrendered and would still be interned in POW camps. If it was a car, not only would nothing happen when you put the key in the ignition, it would also periodically leak oil, gasoline and catch on fire for no apparent reason. If a devoted group of maniacal public servants 40 years ago had decided that they would wreck the Philadelphia public schools and, everyday without rest until today, had put all their energies into that one purpose, they could have hardly done better than the mess we have today.

One of the principal reasons we have this mess is that we allowed public schooling to become a very profitable monopoly enforced by the police power of the state. The worse the public schools do in educating our children the more money it attracts. There are no penalties for poor performance and no benefits for excellent performance. Those in power reap huge monetary benefits from those in the employment of the public schools and thus are unwilling to even tinker with it. It is a one hell of a system.

There are 176 out of 264 schools on the failing list in Philadelphia when spending per pupil is over $7500 per year. Nearly 63% of black fourth-graders are unable to read proficiently. They are doomed to a life of low wages and low expectations. Yet the NAACP, the teacher's union and the mayor's office see nothing wrong with the status quo. As a comparison, Catholic school spending per pupil is $3500 per year with much better results.

It is time to get government completely out of public education. They should have not one string or tentacle left to grow on the public school system. Parents know what is best for their children and would have left this madness long ago if they had the choice. Parents would not tolerate failure and would seek excellence in their children's school if they had the choice. Parents would not put up with waste, incompetence and fraud in their children's education if they had the choice. If they only had the choice...

Regards,

2banana

Where Do Public School Teachers Send Their Kids to School?
Heartland Institute ^ | Alan Bonsteel, M.D.

Written By: Alan Bonsteel, M.D. Published In: School Reform News Publication Date: November 1, 2004 Publisher: The Heartland Institute

Public school teachers in urban areas are far more likely than city residents in general to send their children to private schools, according to a new analysis of 2000 Census data by researchers led by Denis P. Doyle, who previously analyzed 1980 and 1990 Census data.

While just 12.2 percent of U.S. families send their children to private schools, that figure rises to 17.5 percent among urban families in general and to 21.5 percent among urban public school teachers, almost twice the national average.

The difference in the choices made by public school teachers and the general public were especially striking in America's largest cities, where public schools are often the most troubled. For example, in the New York City area, 32.5 percent of public school teachers send their children to private schools, compared to 22.7 percent of the general public. In Chicago, 38.7 percent of public school teachers, versus 22.6 percent of the general public, send their children to private schools. In Los Angeles, private schools are chosen by 24.5 percent of public school teachers and 15.7 percent of the public.

Also noteworthy are the differences in cities where school choice programs have seen their greatest successes. In Milwaukee, for instance, home of the nation's oldest publicly funded voucher program, 29.4 percent of public school teachers send their children to private schools, versus 23.4 percent of the general public.

In Washington, DC, home of the nation's newest publicly funded voucher program, 26.8 percent of public school teachers send their children to private schools, versus 19.8 percent of the public. One of the revelations that helped pass the DC voucher legislation was the disclosure in the news media that the politicians opposing school choice in that city did not enroll their own children in District of Columbia public schools.

"We can assume that no one knows the condition and quality of public schools better than teachers who work in them every day," note the authors of the new study. "If these teachers are more likely than the general public--which may not have nearly as much information or expertise in these matters--to send their own daughters and sons to the public schools in which they teach, it is a strong vote of confidence in those schools."

However, if public school teachers choose not to send their own children to the public schools in which they teach, "then we might reasonably conclude that those in the best position to know are signaling a strong 'sell' about public education in their communities," contend the researchers in the September 2004 study,"Where Do Public School Teachers Send Their Kids to School?" issued by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

In San Francisco, outspoken school choice opponent Jill Wynns, a school board commissioner, dismissed any effort to draw conclusions about the quality of public schools from the data. Wynns suggested many public school educators might choose a private school because of religious beliefs.

Wynns acknowledged her oldest son attended a private school. She denied any conflict between her public stance and her own actions, saying her son had been recruited to attend a private school through a summer program, with the small school having advantages for him.

"It was a choice I let him make; he created the opportunity," she told the San Francisco Examiner.

The Fordham study makes clear that--in the absence of publicly funded school choice--the ability to take advantage of such an "opportunity" is a function of income. For example, only 10.3 percent of families with incomes less than $42,000 choose a private school for their children, compared to 35.6 percent of families with incomes exceeding $84,000.

"We support a teacher's right to choose a private school," school choice advocate Howard Fuller told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "We simply ask them to support the same freedom for low-income families."

The authors note there has been little change in the data on this subject over the past 20 years. Doyle, the study's lead author, is cofounder of SchoolNet, Inc., a Web-based school improvement company. His coauthors are economist Brian Diepold and SchoolNet academic specialist David DeSchryver, who is also managing editor of The Doyle Report.

Financial support for the study was provided by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute; the American Education Reform Council, formerly based in Milwaukee and now part of the Arizona-based Alliance for School Choice; and California Parents for Educational Choice.

Alan Bonsteel, M.D. (bonsteel@earthlink.net) is president of California Parents for Educational Choice, which has a Web site at http://www.cpeconline.org.

For more information ...

The September 2004 report from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, "Where Do Public School Teachers Send Their Kids to School?" by Denis P. Doyle, Brian Diepold, and David A. DeSchryver, is available online at http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/Fwd-1.1.pdf.

"N-o E-dification A-llowed............"

The NEA membership is a collective of quasi "educators" who dictate public school policy through control of the teachers' unions. The NEA is not elected by citizens nor is it appointed by citizens nor is the NEA appointed by state governments. The NEA is a "policy" association - it acts like a DICTATORSHIP. The NEA exerts an authority, which constitutionally it does NOT have, to control all aspects of education in America.

For example, Charter Schools developed in opposition to public schools' deconstructive policies and its academic bankruptcy...and to get far away from NEA influences! YET, the NEA just cannot let go of its grasping mandate to control education in America! The NEA issues heavy propaganda against the credibilty of Home School and Charter Schools. Remember, the NEA is not ELECTED by citizens nor is it appointed by citizens! The NEA is NOT accountable to American citizens. We citizens are not obligated to accept the NEA's self-presuming authority and its subversive agenda.

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NEA's Policy on Charter Schools [www.nea.org/charter]

State laws and regulations governing charter schools vary widely. NEA's state affiliates have positions on charter schools that are appropriate to the situation in their states. NEA's policy statement (accessible to NEA members only; registration required) sets forth broad parameters, and minimum criteria by which to evaluate state charter laws. For example:

A charter should be granted only if the proposed school intends to offer an educational experience that is qualitatively different from what is available in traditional public schools.
Local school boards should have the authority to grant or deny charter applications; the process should be open to the public, and applicants should have the right to appeal to a state agency decisions to deny or revoke a charter.
Charter school funding should not disproportionately divert resources from traditional public schools.
Charter schools should be monitored on a continuing basis and should be subject to modification or closure if children or the public interest is at risk.
Private schools should not be allowed to convert to public charter schools, and private for-profit entities should not be eligible to receive a charter.
Charter schools should be subject to the same public sector labor relations statutes as traditional public schools, and charter school employees should have the same collective bargaining rights as their counterparts in traditional public schools. [excerpted, www.nea.org/charter]
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