Posted on 06/14/2009 5:28:48 AM PDT by reaganaut1
After listening to the debate at last week's Los Angeles school board meeting, business leader Carol Schatz said she was appalled.
She had attended to support a resolution to speed the firing of teachers accused of serious crimes. But even this proposal -- tiptoeing on the margins of improving teacher quality -- generated heated objections from the teachers union and its supporters.
With some last-minute amendments and sniping among board members, the resolution passed by a single vote.
"I came away depressed," said Schatz, who heads the 500-member Central City Assn. of Los Angeles. "If they can barely pass something like that, how are they going to tackle teacher quality?"
By even grazing the hot-button topic, the nation's second largest district has entered one of the most contentious debates in American education, one that increasingly is pitting powerful teachers unions against school boards and would-be reformers.
Teacher effectiveness is considered one of the most significant factors in student success. But giving it a hard look can involve reexamining teacher tenure, teacher evaluations, dismissal of "bad" teachers and merit pay for "good" ones -- all highly charged political issues, especially in California.
Such scrutiny historically has been urged by those on the right, but Democrats -- including President Obama and Arne Duncan, his education secretary -- have recently embraced it.
...
In California, a Times investigation recently found, it is remarkably time-consuming and cumbersome for school districts to fire teachers who don't meet standards. A review of cases in which teachers statewide contested their firings showed that far more teachers were fired for egregious acts than for poor teaching.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
That's a trick question, right?
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
LAUSA has a 50% dropout rate, students arrive in 1st grade unable to speak a word of English, and teacher unions have a strangle hold on elected officials. A real cluster *&^%.
“If they can barely pass something like that, how are they going to tackle teacher quality?”
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Tackle teacher quality? They can’t and they won’t.
Government schools can’t be reformed because they are a perfect example of socialist dysfunction!....Yet....STUPID, STUPID, STUPID conservatives continue to try.
Even DUMBER conservatives send their kids into these Marxist cesspools.
“teacher unions have a strangle hold on elected officials. A real cluster *&^%.”
It’s the same here in NJ. The teacher unions make their demands and the Governor gives it to them. That’s one of the reasons NJ is broke.
Our Governor is a pos, union bootlicker and must be defeated in November!
We have had waves of immigration in our nation in the past. The children learned English.
My grandmother came to the USA at 12 years old speaking nothing but Polish.
In order to make it in school, she learned English.
Carol, I have some friendly advice for you. Liberate yourself. Realize that public schools are socialist organizations. Socialism cannot be reformed. Don't waste another minute trying to reform socialist government schools, spend your time finding ways to help families get their kids out of the government schools. You'll be happier and you'll actually accomplish some positive results.
If parents knew what was going on in the college classroom, they would come apart at the seems...Out of sight, out of mind.
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Conservative K-12 education is the only thing needed to reform our colleges and universities.
If our college and university classrooms were packed full to the brim with students well prepared to defend their faith and our nation’s founding values, it would be like throwing cool fresh water on the Wicked Witch of the West.
These Marxist professors would wither before righteousness crying, “Help me! I’m melting!”
Carol, I have some friendly advice for you. Liberate yourself. Realize that public schools are socialist organizations. Socialism cannot be reformed.
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Bingo! Socialism can not be reformed.
In order to change things, you would need:
(1) Breaking up huge school systems into smaller onesOne radical measure that I doubt could be passed: have the ability to vote for school administrator be limited to the people who actually pay the school taxes, with your vote being proportional to the amount of school taxes paid.(2) Each school system having a single administrator (NOT an unaccountable committee or school board) who could hire and fire individual teachers at will, and who, in turn, could be removed for non-performance.
She’d be much happier, if she took our advice, right?
LOL! and the Soviet Union.
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