D.C.'s Distinction: $16,344 Per Student, But Only 12% Read Proficiently

If someone fails to do the job they were hired for, they get fired. Not always fair, but thats life in the real world.

Believe me I know that for sure. Things sure don't turn out for me hardly ever the way I want them to. I'd be rich if I had a penny for all the times things haven't gone my way. Heck, that could be a new way of paying off the debt. :)

That already happens here to a good degree. But again, there are subjective things that can be considered too.

If someone has it out for the teacher--parent, principal, or whomever, even a good teacher could get fired. A VERY good teacher here who'd won awards for her teaching and training student teachers got a principal who for some reason just didn't like her and failed her on her observations. She was given "one last chance" by the principal and "passed" with flying colors with the principal saying "Oh look you much I improved you." She subsequently assigned the teacher to teach sixth grade when she had done WONDERFUL work teachng third grade. If we do allow complete jeopardy involving the good teachers, we lessen the quality of the teaching in the community and school. I don't have the complete answer now (except for some things like frequent monitoring and parental input), but am just bringing up some points to consider. You're right, sometimes it isn't fair. Sometimes I think that there could be a different way to go about things sometimes.

My own wife got layed off due to outsourcing (of computer programming), and the greed and incompetence of the managers in her company. It is now a shell of what it once was. The president wondered why no one would talk to him like they used to.

This problem is generations deep and nationwide.

The educated class in DC send their kids to private schools, or, if they send their kids to public school, they live in the wealthy suburban counties of VA or MD. That leaves behind only the children of the underclass who are themselves undereducated and often illiterate.

This is no different than any other major city, but in DC it is ONLY the city kids who are counted, whereas, say, Detroit gets mixed in with Grosse Point for a state total. If you took DC and its surrounding suburbs you would have a far higher 'average' but still same kids with the same scores and the same problems.

.... and the cycles continue.

I know there are good teachers, I just don't think a teachers union is needed.

If tax money is to be used for public schools there should be a voucher system, and the schools should be run by education managers with the power to hire/fire as they see fit to manage the schools.

The taxpayers should be much like stockholders, who in turn can fire the manager if he/she doesn't do their job.

Privatize the schools and run them like a business.

I won't get into that debate though I think there are different elements to consider rather than just running them that way. I am in favor of strong communities working together to have strong schools (as they do where my sister lives--it's really a model school), and moving the schools away from bereaucratic control (as they are very much here) and down on a community level and one in which teachers, parents, and children all play important roles as they should. I'm not necessarily in support of having a full-time teachers' union either. BUT I do see a need for having strong teachers and for there to be some measure of protection for ALL parties. Too many times it's too easy to pass the buck to the teachers (or the parents) when really, many factors play a part.

I think private sector vouchers might be okay, but I'm not in favor of another welfare program,nor of the "purse strings," and I favor keeping private entities private .

Actually, I'm in favor of getting politics out of education altogether--on all sides--from those who place a lot of blame, promote the negative, bash teachers, encourage disrespect, and such AND from those who may use it to promote certain dogmas which have no place in the school. At least here, a little change in attitude would help and a little bit more time spent would be a giant first step. Other areas require more drastic measures.

"I think private sector vouchers might be okay, but I'm not in favor of another welfare program,nor of the "purse strings," and I favor keeping private entities private ."

All schools, public and private, get their money from taxpayers, vouchers should work for both of them, let parents choose the schools they want their children to attend.

The tax money isn't voluntary, it is extracted from the taxpayer if they like it or not.

Nobody should be forced to pay for failing public schools, and then pay again to send their kids to better private schools. That is just plain wrong.

Even many of the inner city poor parents would like to get their kids into better schools, if a voucher system would give them a choice.

I don't see it as double taxation--one is a private choice. Taxpayers do not need to subsidize those. Whatever the circumstances, people have a "choice" on how kids are raised, what education they recieve, and values taught. Yes, the taxpayer money is a shared cost, and therefore become an extraction from other taxpayers to pay for that personal choice. I like private schools staying private, I don't want more government in them.

At least here (not elsewhere) we could decentralize schools and allow them greater local control while keeping the high degree of choice that we have here already.

Yes, I can see the argument about inner city kids, though at least here that is an argument used.

Most of my concerns are personal. I believe that if the person has the "choice" to raise a child, they already have one of the best choices one could ever have and the greatest privlege one could ever have. I have been wanting that "choice" for many years and may never get that. I just would like the "choice" to raise just one child. BUT I will never expect someone else to pay for that choice. It will be on my own dime. To complain about a "lack of choice" when one has the choice to raise kids already and then on top of that expect me to subsidize that personal choice does not sit too well with me. I am taking my own "lack" of choice and using it as a vehicle whereby I can serve others while working towards that goal of being able to raise my own child. Like I've said very often, that child I have will not be the most spoiled child, but may be the most loved. If one has several children, I look on that as all the more blessings that one has received (responsibly anyways). And I think a person should thank the guy upstairs for that. I know I would.

Again, I didn't mean to get in a discussion about this. It's my own community and neighborhood that I am most concerned with.

Here in Birminham, the school system is a baby sitting and free food service for all. We feed the future brood mares and the future drug pimps well, so that their parent (singular) can have a lot of extra dollars left of their welfare monies. The brood mares keep the cycle going and the drug pimps land in prison. They are fed very well in prison also, most likely better than school. We had a federal judge here that his son was on free lunch the whole time he was in school, go figure.

"What does Massachusetts know that nobody else has figured out yet? Their spending is among the highest (42nd), and their scores are #1."

As a former teacher who is proud to say that my granchildren are ALL home schooled, I'd say that MA schools "teach to the test". In fact they may even pre-teach with the test!

Padding scores is not unheard of and I wouldn't trust that State to do anything straight up.

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