[Carley]

For the most part these are excellent goals but why haven’t these been in place all along?

How did we get to the place where the NEA and their local unions have taken over the system to ensure the advantage all belongs to the staff rather than the students.

Any attempt to improve the system will be met with howls of outrage.

Whether the parents are involved or not, the schools ought to be mandated to keep order, teach the basics, and maintain an environment that rewards progress.

[Amelia]

How did we get to the place where the NEA and their local unions have taken over the system to ensure the advantage all belongs to the staff rather than the students.

You aren't in Georgia, are you? In Georgia, the NEA is nothing but a lobbying organization, and doesn't have a lot of power.

[too much time]

The real power in Georgia is not the NEA - but the University of Georgia College of Education - where many of the teachers are trained. In addition, UGA produces most of the Atlanta Journal Constitution writers who are all thoroughly convinced that UGA is actually academically better than an Ivy League school. Teachers coming out of UGA now follow a "discovery" method of teaching - especially in math - where they are proponents of letting kids teach each other, rather than direct instruction in the classroom.

(By the way -the classmates in my rural Georgia HS 20 years ago, who became teachers, barely made it into college. They are now watching kids teach each other while they babysit the classroom.)