We would not have an education proplem, if we did five things.
1. Decertify the unions.
2. Do away with tenure.
3. Double teacher's salaries.
4. Pay no administrator more than two times the average teacher's salary.
I am an education problem. Proplem=Problem
The sad fact in CA is that we are trying to educate children of illegal immigrants and other minorities who really don't care about educational achievement. The parents view school as daycare. My wife teaches as a chapter 1 (poor) high school. She teaches Spanish. 50% of the graduating seniors can't past the exit exam at her school, and the results are similar for most other big city districts. 50% of the CA state budget goes for education and the achievement levels are some of the worst in the country. CA schools are not going to get any better either. It's the biggest black hole of wasteful spending on the planet. Real reform will only come from charter schools and vouchers for private schools. Also, most districts now have a stupid practice of "school of choice" which allows any student to attend any school within the district if there is room. The end result is that they spread out all of the poor performing students, and schools located in more expensive and better quality neighborhoods look just as bad on paper because students from poor areas are allowed to attend.
I disagree with your 2 and 3. While I agree that tenure has gotten out of hand, it still does have a purpose. I think tenured teachers should be easier to fire with cause, but the protections given with it can protect conservative teachers. I personally think that teachers discovered to be conservative would have a much more difficult hanging onto their jobs were it not for tenure. High teacher's salaries where we live are part of the problem. Because they make so much more money than what they could make in private industry, they hang onto their jobs long after they are, if they ever were, effective. Good teachers are rarely motivated by money (although they should be justly compensated). My daughter went to a Christian school where teacher's salaries were a third of the public school. They held onto the best teachers without a problem.
OK,the suspense is killing me.