No question that teaching salaries have increased, but then they better damn well have since salaries in every other profession have as well, and teaching is a very labor intensive business. It's hit the teaching profession particularly hard because of the womens' movement. There was once a time when a career woman had a choice between being a teacher and being a nurse. As a result, there were a large number of very qualified women in the teaching profession. Not anymore.
Another problem with our schools is that that they have strayed too far from the 3 Rs, and have become mired in the tarbaby of partisan politics. The other problem is that they have put so much pressure on kids to graduate, that they don't acknowledge the fact that some kids just can't handle it, and should not be there. Get the thugs out of the schools, and things will turn around real quick.
Pressure on the kids to graduate ? Many schools have less than 50% of their population graduate - where's the pressure ?
The teachers and educators may not be the best but he real problem is that big city and inner city schools (white, black and other minority) students on the average have an IQ of 85. At this IQ level one half cannot graduate from a regular high school.
You may dumb down the standards or just give them a diploma but it will mean little or nothing. Employers have learned this and that is why they look for "some college" or college graduates.
Whenever I tell this to a teacher they accuse me of misfeasance at the very least. A good summary of this issue of urban flight and IQ can be found: HERE
As much as I like President Bush, "No Child Left Behind" is doomed to failure not because of the teachers or the educational system but becasue of basic human nature and its inequalities.
Correct. The unions have insured that it gets ever more labor intensive.
Here in Vermont as the number of students has decreased the number of teachers has increased. The avg class size is now only 16 students. This is absurdly low. Increase class size back to 24 students or so and maybe my property taxes will return to something reasonable.