More like, "for the teachers' pensions."
The problem? The state has to educate all comers. Private schools can pick and choose; public schools have to take EVERYONE. That means the system has to TRY to educate the LOWEST I.Q. and the WORST behavioral problems. Failure is part of human nature and the educational system has to deal with failure-students...and worse, failure parents.
I could list all the stupidities of the PARENTS and you might, as I did, end up feeling sorry for the poor kids with their screw-up parents.
Nothing new, different or unusual in the California educational system. It's just HUGE because we have so many damn people. I grew up here when the population of the state was a 'mere' 10 million. Now, we are BUSTIN' at the seams with close to 40 million. FOUR times more people!!
YIKES!!
I disagree. It is the excessive spending that is the cause of the trouble! Brought on by the Unions, illegals, etc.
Just part of THE BIG DEMOCRAT MONEY-MAKING MACHINE!
California public education isn’t just fine. Spend an hour interacting with a public educated 4th graders and a home schooled 4th graders and you will see what I mean. I would never allow my child to be educated in a California public school today, although I did 30 years ago and I was educated in California public schools myself.
Any student who is unable to participate fully in an ‘average’ classroom setting, due to special needs from a physical or mental handicap should be given a grant to handle their educational needs. Hire a private tutor with it, go to a special private school - whatever, but here's your money, you're not going into the public educational system.
And any federal intervention into this should be ignored. ‘Thank you for your opinion, judge, but we've got this covered.’ This is not for creating a separate but equal system, because the demands of one can not outweigh the rights of the many.
And it should extend to troublemakers as well - congratulations on your gang affiliation, here's your new boot camp school. You speak Spanish (Tagalog, Swahili, etc)? Your class meets at this building.
The costs of creating these specialized campuses will quickly balance out in the vast reduction in costs for the various school campuses which must be designed to accommodate virtually any possible student. Yes, your child has (and I disagree) a right to an education. That right shall not interfere with the rights of others. If your child can't climb steps, sit still for an hour, go a day without hitting someone - then they go to a different school, or get home schooled, etc.
In my district alone, over 75 million has been spent on 13 schools to comply with ADA regulations and accommodating special needs students. The yearly budget JUST for maintaining these improvements is well over a million a year. And it does nothing to improve educational conditions.
Moreover, by creating ‘discipline’ schools, a layer of control gets put into schools. Get into trouble, get sent to the special school for a week or two, then decide if you like the place better, or if you want to actually stay on the straight and narrow and actually get an education.
In a more perfect world, I'd love to see actions reviewable by a parents council. Send a kid to the discipline school for daring to wear a US flag shirt on Cinco de Mayo? The person who made that decision can be immediately terminated. But unfortunately, the terrible truth is that most parent boards are dominated by the most liberal of parents, as they, by definition, love to tell others what to do, and are most attracted to power.
As I said in my previous post, change all benefits to be solely originated by the employee - bump up the paychecks and say ‘buy what pension and health care and benefits as you desire. Want vacation days? They cost us X amount of dollars, buy as many as you'd like. Want your tuition repaid? It's in your hands what you do with the money. Oh, and you get to pay the taxes on it, just like everyone else does.’
And of course, no reform can be complete without removing tenure. You're an at will employee of the people. You want really fancy review boards and whatnot? Then go get a job in the private sector that provides it. Will some be harmed by this system? Sure. But it will remove a great more harm from the students, and at the end of the day, that's where the goal is supposed to be oriented.
All unions lead to failure. Teacher union , nursing union, police union , auto union and building trade unions can’t compete against a motivated, performance paid work force.
Given the stanglehold the Left has on the state and the strength of the union, the only glimmer of hope is to circumvent the public school systems altogether and let the unions die on the vine. Only problem is, there is likely not enough time left for that to happen.
In all fairness, California is not the only State with the problem; it's just among the largest.
The National Teachers Union must be the first to go.
Public "Service" Unions and the bureaucracy are the only entiries in the universe not rewarded for performance.
The practice of accepting contracts with yearly increases just for being warm with a pulse, are over. All people are equal, but union thugs are no longer "more equal" than their employers. Starting with the local city government, districts, and moving on up.
"Angry" doesn't begin to describe it.