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Gee, who do you put your trust in? |
Posted on 03/08/2006 4:32:16 AM PST by beaureguard
Teachers unions are mad at me. The New York State United Teachers demands I apologize for my "gutter level" journalism, "an irresponsible assault on public school students and teachers." This is because I hosted an ABC News TV special titled "Stupid in America," which pointed out:
-- American fourth graders do well on international tests, but by high school, Americans have fallen behind kids in most other countries.
-- The constant refrain that "public schools need more money" is nonsense. Many countries that spend significantly less on education do better than we do. School spending in America (adjusted for inflation) has more than tripled over the past 30 years, but national test scores are flat. The average per-pupil cost today is an astonishing $10,000 per student -- $200,000 per classroom! Think about how many teachers you could hire, and how much better you could do with that amount of money.
-- Most American parents give their kids' schools an A or B grade, but that's only because, without market competition, they don't know what they might have had. The educators who conduct the international tests say that most of the countries that do best are those that give school managers autonomy, and give parents and students the right to choose their schools. Competition forces private and public schools to improve.
-- There is little K-12 education competition in America because public schools are a government monopoly. Monopolies rarely innovate, and union-dominated monopolies, burdened with contracts filled with a hundred pages of suffocating rules, are worse. The head of New York City's schools told me that the union's rules "reward mediocrity."
All that angered the unions. But when they criticize my "bias and ignorance," I don't hear them refute the points listed above. They don't refute them because they can't. It's just a fact that rules that insist an energetic, hard-working teacher who makes learning fun must be paid exactly the same as a lazy, incompetent teacher are rules that promote mediocrity.
Ironically, before I did "Stupid in America," the New York teachers union wanted to give me an award. The United Federation of Teachers' Social Studies Conference wrote: "Our organization, ATSS/UFT, would be proud to present you with the Hubert H. Humphrey Humanitarian Award for the outstanding work which you have done for social causes. ... Your development and generous sponsorship of In the Classroom Media provide students with the opportunity to enhance their civics education. This is the highest award that we can give to an individual. Past honorees have included Mario Cuomo, Shirley Chisholm, Charles Schumer, Dolores Huerta, Major Owens, Charles Rangel ... "
Wow! Chuck Schumer, Charlie Rangel and me! Alas, after my education special aired, they decided not to give me the award. Apparently my work with In the Classroom Media -- which provides teachers with videos about the free market -- only helps kids as long as I stay away from the "social cause" most relevant to them: their education.
Instead, teachers' unions announced that Wednesday (3/8), they will hold demonstrations against me and ABC in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, and elsewhere. One police permit suggests the crowd outside my office will number 750-1,000 people. It should be interesting.
"We want to make sure that ABC hears the voices of incredibly hard-working teachers," says the union website, quoting New York City's UFT President Randi Weingarten. "The network needs to hear how unfair and biased those of you in the trenches believe their broadcast to have been."
I'm sorry that union teachers are mad at me. But when it comes to the union-dominated monopoly, the facts are inescapable. Many kids are miserable in bad schools. If they are not rich enough to move, or to pay for private school, they are trapped.
It doesn't have to be that way. We know what works: choice. That's what's brought Americans better computers, phones, movies, music, supermarkets -- most everything we have. Schoolchildren deserve the joyous benefits of market competition too.
Unions say, "education of the children is too important to be left to the vagaries of the market." The opposite is true. Education is too important to be left to the calcified union/government monopoly.
I bet they really wouldn't like the article I read the other day holding the NEA's feet to the fire for the rampant pedophilia within their ranks.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
If you've got a link, I'd love to read that.
Hurray for John Stossel!
Anyone have links to data rich sites comparing and analyzing student achievement?
Since these kinds of claims are everywhere, seems to me as a global economy our growth must be lagging behind, or stagnating, or else we're importing many of those finely educated foreign students to keep pace.
A Stossel article is always a must read for me!
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Gee, who do you put your trust in? |
IMO theres nothing wrong with any of this. Those who work hard and are interested move ahead. Those who arent, find their own level.
Imposing a japanese style suicidal curriculum on students will not help America.
NEA directed, Union controlled public education does not help America either.
As for suicidal curriculum, what's your data on that? Are there more suicides in Japan from their curriculum and education process than there are student shooting-murders in the US from the pervert led socially reprobate style of education taught in US public schools?
Here's a tidbit from my state that I caught yesterday.
www.news14charlotte.com/content/ local_news/?ArID=114742&SecID=2
Judge threatens to shut down schools
Updated: 3/4/2006 1:05 PM
By: News 14 Carolina
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A Superior Court judge wrote to North Carolina’s education leaders Friday, and he told them that low-performing high schools won’t open next year unless they meet certain criteria.
The consequence applies to high schools that have had poor test scores for the past five years -- high schools where less than 56 percent of students were at grade level. Judge Howard Manning said those schools will be allowed to open only if there is a new management or a valid plan under way.
When it comes to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, four schools are at risk. But Frances Haithcock, the school system’s interim superintendent, said Garinger, E.E. Waddell, West Charlotte and West Mecklenburg high schools won’t be shut down because the state has been involved with reconstituting them.
"There will be schools available,” Haithcock said. “I feel very hopeful that the state won’t even have to do anything other that what it’s doing right now. We are continuing to work the plan that we think and we're very optimistic about having the ability to move these schools.”
School board member Kaye McGarry believes Manning’s letter, which was sent to the state superintendent and the state board of education chairman, is a call to action.
“I think Judge Manning has been screaming at us to change and we have been resisting that and resisting it and resisting it,” she said. “I’m hoping with this and the task force that perhaps we may get some movement here.”
Manning also mentioned he was pleased to see CMS had set substantial target goals for student achievement and also created 9th-grade academies. He supported the findings from the CMS task force as well.
He wrapped up his letter saying that after five years of low performance, the grace period has run out.
According to 2005 tests scores, West Charlotte was the lowest-performing high school with a 36 percent composite score. Garinger had 42 percent, West Mecklenburg had 47 percent and E.E. Waddell had 48 percent.
Web Journalist: Lindsay Varner
What article? I would be interested to read it. It is something I always suspected but have not seen adressed.
I watched Stossel's special and it was very good, however, there will be no improvement in the education of American children until the American family re-stablizes.
If the teachers are mediocre then their students will be mediocre...it is the law of the top. Some of my best teachers came from the old school..they didn't take your crap or your excuses. They made you toe the line and do the work. I had one teacher who also taught my father. She was a math teacher. I also had her for homeroom and study hall....I always had my homework done (we couldn't got to the library without showing her our completed assignments) and I actually learned math in her classroom. But then she had a stroke and we got another teacher named Mr Lemon...his idea of teaching was to give 2 questions at the beginning of the period...you either passed or failed...oh an actually teaching the stuff before testing on it...? NOT A CHANCE...the rest of the time he spent telling the boys dirty jokes in the front of the classroom. It was the first "F" I ever got. He never taught anything. The next marking period we got a real teacher (because of all the complaints by parents) who actually taught math...I took my "F" to an "A+".
I think competition between schools is a great idea...it will keep the teachers and administrators sharp...and I believe innovation will only enhance the education of our kids. My kid sometimes astonishes me with some of the stuff she has "learned" so I let her read Free Republic and her social studies grades have soared...she is pulling 100 average this marking period alone.
It may be too late by the time my child is out of school to be able to benefit from a reformed educational system...so I do the best I can by speaking to her about things and issues of the day.
You're right. In suburban schools where there is an intact nuclear family and parents are involved in their children's education, students excel. The problem lies primarily in urban areas where children do not have family support and involvement in their lives and their role models are not their parents, but the newest, raunchiest rapper thug on the scene.
It's difficult for teachers to be miracle workers when a child's personal life is in shambles. Doesn't mean teachers can't be held more accountable, just that they can't perform miracles.
Stossel's great.
I'm sorry, I don't remember the name of the article, but I think I saw it here yesterday.
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