Posted on 12/02/2007 8:43:47 AM PST by shrinkermd
I strongly support school choice. However, the existing public schools need a strong dose of military discipline. There should be zero tolerance for violence and thuggish behavior.
And short of Soviet-style government work assignments, that's when good teachers will reassign themselves to the 8-5 shift at Target. ;)
the other premise, not said, is that they need the White teachers in the black districts....now, who woulda thunk....
The Democrats don't care about education or any other issue peripheral to their agenda of turning America into a French-style, secular-socialist welfare state, except insofar as that issue can be spun for political advantage. Their ultimate (and ultimately unreachable) goal is to finally create what old-time Austrian economists called "the socialist man", and a society in which all men will always put the good of the community (or "village") ahead of their own welfare.
And, of course, the reason the Democrats have relentlessly pursued this agenda (since at least FDR) is because it is their means to the selfish end of attaining and keeping political office. (High elective office sure has lots of perks, power, and priviledge, you betcha!) The Democrats are pushers of the drug known as "government" and they naturally want to create as many addicts ("base voters") as possible.
There are no true issues for Democrats - - only campaign tactics.
the only sure thing is the there will be a huge jump in pay and pensions for these "best" teachers and that is precisely why the worse idiot teachers will go there and stay there....
its not about the children...
This is like taxing the rich; it destroys incentive. Why would a skilled teacher want to achieve assignment to a battleground maned by indifference?
I’ve heard there are 6 million+ K-12 students in CA and that a very large percentage of them are underperforming.
This, like it or not, is a snapshot of the future of the CA population.
ensuring mediocrity for all.
The California Liberal education system is set up not to raise the education of the uneducated but to dumb down the other students to the level of the problem student. In this manner, they believe they will look better. Todays students couldn’t compete with students of the 50’s on a bet. Look to genetics for the main problems. Those school areas are controlled by gangs. Outlaw the gangs and round them up, put them in a massive prison in the desert and you will get rid of the main problem.
I would add an equallly important prerequisite. In 1964 or thereabouts, James Coleman reported on things like educational success being improved by integration and other social engineering devices. His report, based on massive research , returned the conclusion that success and failure depended on "the home".
As accurate as his study was, it was consigned to the dustbin of the world of education because it was not, in the words of out time, politically correct. Nevertheless, as a NYC teacher in Catholic and NYC public schools for 30 years I say without hesitation Colemn was and is RIGHT!!!
How long does the LA Times expect middle and upper-middle class students -- the ones whose parents have a choice -- to stay in schools that are systematically stripped of their best teachers? How long do they expect top teachers -- the ones who would be snapped up anywhere -- to stay in a system that involuntarily assigns them to the hellholes? People can vote with their feet.
Yes, urban school systems have to make special efforts to remediate the disadvantages of the underclass. (Starting with strict discipline and rigorous academics, IMHO, but that's another story.) But at the same time, they have to be very careful to remain attractive to the middle class or they will end up like the schools here in Washington, D.C., where the middle class has essentially given up and is either in the suburbs or private school.
NCLB (No Child Left Behind)
=
NCGA (No Child Gets Ahead)
Keepin’ the Herd Together For the Greater Good
We ain’t never goin’ nowhere as long as we make everybody above average.
I haven't figured out why leftists don't also envy the good looking or the athletic. Why not also assign the best coaches to only instruct the least athletic? Why not pressure the beautiful to get fat so that everyone is equally attractive?
Race is not and can not be the only factor. 2-parent households play a much larger part in a child's ability to learn than race. So does a breakfast prepared at home. So does a stay-at-home parent, while the other parent makes a living.
No bureaucrat can make a better-educated child by throwing more money at a teacher. All that will do is reduce cash available for projects that might actually work.
I disagree because I’ve seen the exact opposite in practice. Without NCLB, schools could concentrate on the middle, assuming the good students would offest the bad and the school-wide average result was what mattered. Under NCLB, each measurable group must make progress, so even the gifted students must be taught, not be allowed to skate by and provide cover for another group. There may well be other troubling aspects to NCLB, but from the perspective of applying business-style metrics to all aspects of the “product line,” it is a success IMHO.
Wise administrators, of course, would avoid forcing teachers into schools where they would be unhappy or resentful - and raped or murdered by their precious little 'students'.
There, fixed it.
The liberals are completely clueless on this issue. I know a woman who taught in an inner city school for a number of years. She told me that for the most part, the children of single moms in these schools cannot be taught much no matter how good the teacher. They simply do not want to learn. And she felt that most of the teachers in her school, at least, were reasonably competent. Until someone figures out how to change the culture in the minority community, nothing will ever change. When prominent blacks like Cosby try to point this out, they are shouted down.
Before NCLB, the successes of each, individual child was the goal...not AVERAGES. NOW schools have to look at which kids will get the school “more bang for the buck” in the progress of averages.
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