Posted on 01/30/2007 5:45:59 AM PST by wintertime
(snip)
1. The practitioners know and can do things the public in general cannot do. They have a specialized body of knowledge.
2. The specialized body of knowledge practitioners have takes an extended period of time to learn.
3. The educators who prepare the practitioners are experts who agree upon the specialized body of knowledge practitioners must have.
4. Admission to a professional training program is highly selective.( snip).
6. Only members of the profession set the standards for licensure and certification.
7. The primary responsibility and loyalty of a professional is to serve the client and not simply the institution or governmental agency in which the practitioner may be employed.
8. Neither the public at large nor an employing institution may control the way in which professionals relate to their clients, or the treatments, methods or procedures they use.
9. Neither the public at large nor an employing institution may set the purpose, goals or objectives for the practitioner’s practice with clients.
10. The public at large does not decide how to evaluate professionals.
11. Only members of the profession can determine malpractice and dismiss or disbar practitioners.
12. Professionals determine the cost of their services.
19. Professionals are trained to serve clients with problems. By definition “professionals” do not seek to perform services to clients without problems.
21. Professionals share a code of ethics to which they commit and adhere. They cannot be directed to perform or not perform services for clients which conflict with their professional code.
The case that teaching does not meet any of these twenty one criteria can be readily made.
(Excerpt) Read more at ednews.org ...
I wouldn't take the deduction, not if there were strings attached, but it might help a lot of people.
Tax deductions have less chance of being used that way than vouchers though there's still the off chance.
"I wouldn't take the deduction, not if there were strings attached, but it might help a lot of people."
I'd be more interested to see a state offer private business an opportunity to come in and compete for student dollars/students, unconstrained by anything other than a contest to demonstrate higher quality at a lower price. I think that once that happened we'd see a dramatic change in P/E.
Not everything can be fixed.
The traditional American attitude is the exact opposite. I still tend to believe it.
Oh Lord, Lord, we Americans love to tinker and fix stuff. We seem to think we can do anything! It's probably from the early pioneer spirit that helped us carve a nation out of the wilderness.
We seem to think we can do anything!
And 90% of the time we can!
Most people who have been students in the public schools dislike them. Yet nothing ever changes.
If you got to some of the parents with kids in public schools in high end communities, Scarsdale,NY, Greenwich, CT --you will find the parents quite happy with the public schools -- though keeping an eagle eye on the SAT scores, etc. and screaming like stuck pigs the instant they drop a singe point in the average.
If you go to the parents in NYC's specialized high schools, you'll find the same thing.
Education is expensive -- quality in almost anything always entails spending more money and knowing how to quantify results. The much despised teachers' unions mitgated this for awhile, but they're becoming less effective. Now it's becoming a "get what you pay for world" in education. So the rich school districts will continue to poach the best teachers from the poor school districts -- luring them in with higher salaries. NYC, for instance, regularly poaches teachers from Texas, etc. with higher salaries while wealthy suburbs in Westchester and Long Island poach teachers from NYC.
Seriously, how anyone can say the schools need more money, and that'll solve the problem, bewilders me. Fiscal responsibility from the money they take from me by force is more like it. Has the amount we spend on education ever gone down? Money and results seem to be totally unrelated in the government education system.
Has the price of a good pair of shoes ever gone down?
Do money and results seem related in the private education system? A good prep school is now $25,000+
I would agree that just throwing money at a problem is bad. However, spending money wisely is good. To do this takes an enormous force of will on the part of the community. The problem is -- many communities are breaking down into an every man for himself thing.
I am frankly offended as a soon-to-be teacher.
Teachers are not greedy for their 30 grand a year. Look at the salary schedules. Increases are VERY slow.
At least in KS, you start at about 30 and are lucky to get 55....maybe if at a top school you can get 60 when you retire after 30 years of teaching. And how do you get that extra pay......not because you are a good teacher.
You get the big increases because you have more education.
The system is based upon paying money to get more salary.
Good teachers work very hard, even in the summer, to make sure they have the best program they can possibly have.
And, it is extremely hard to become a teacher, often taking 5 years.
I got through it in about 4.5 years, but I will only have one area I can teach. You have to go BACK to school for every additional area you want to teach, and you can't simply go back and get a few classes...you have to do a full major in that new area to add other endorsements, and the program has to be an "approved program" by that state, further limiting ways to add other areas to teach.
I am wanting to add English, but I don't know how I will do it since there are no online programs or anything for that area.
I would not work in a school that I thought was hurting kids, and I do not know anybody else who would.
I would bet that the rate of increase for schools has been many times greater. Education funding has nothing to do with what the community wants. It has to do with what the teachers, local politicans, and media can dupe us into accepting. Here in Cedar Rapids, IA, we're getting a sales tax increase forced down our throat. The local paper has been devoting pages and pages to it daily, how desperately the schools need the money and how stupid we would be to vote it down. It's so one sided, they make it sound like people opposed to the increase shouldn't even bother voting.
It has to do with what the teachers, local politicans, and media can dupe us into accepting
These people aren't part of the community? Just a wild suggestion, but you should probably vote for people who live in the community. Likewise, teachers etc. should probably live in the community as well.
Sorry to sound like a wise guy, but your post illustrates my point. People no longer feel connected to their communities. The pols, the teachers, etc. etc. are seen as living "somewhere else" and possessing different values.
Don't shoot the messenger.
There are people who are teaching who should not be allowed to teach. You will soon meet them. I hope you do not become one of them.
I don't know where you live, but in Kansas, you MUST major in the content area you are teaching. Education courses are a "concentration," but let's face it, the class load is like a double major.
To get more pay, you need a master's. To get even more, a doctorate.....
There is no such thing as merit pay in teaching.
As a person now looking for my first history teaching job, thank you.
I have been appalled by this thread considering there are a lot of Freeper teachers.
There are people teaching who should not teach.
Definitely....I never said otherwise.
I sure as heck will not be one of them.
But, this thread is one big teacher bash fest.
Folks, there is no such thing as an "education major" unless you are elementary.
Teachers at the secondary level at least major in the content they teach, such as English or history.
They just take extra courses to fulfill the education requirements.
And for those who think the classes are pud, at my school at least, they were hard. And helpful...again at least at where I was the information was sound and very helpful, not something you would just "pick up" teaching.
Since it's a tax deduction, not a voucher or credit, it's never the government's money and they can't attach strings. Give businesses the same perks - if they give local needy children scholarships to good schools, they can write it off.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is why I favor tax credits over vouchers.
The parents who can afford tuition simply deduct the cost up to an amount equal to what children in the government schools receive.
Businesses and private individuals should also be permitted to sponsor individual children, or contribute generous amounts to private scholarship funds for the poor. The amount businesses and private individuals contribute would be deducted from their state, and local taxes.
I continually post that we must BEGIN the process of privatizing universal K-12 education. Tax credits are better than vouchers because there is less opportunity for government interference.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.