Posted on 07/08/2021 4:09:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
Question my sanity, but I'm considering running in this election to recall California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Here's a big reason why.
No one doubts that bad K-12 public school teachers exist. There is a phenomenon known as the "turkey trot," in which bad teachers wind up in the worst schools.
Why? There is a connection between bad schools and lack of parental involvement. When you have strong parental involvement, parents pressure their schools to remove such teachers. Because of strong, protective teachers unions, these teachers are rarely fired, merely shuffled from school to school, until they land in one where few parents complain.
And while the vast majority of teachers do not fall into that "bad" category, look at where public school teachers send their own school-age children. Nationwide, approximately 10% of kids attend private school. Six percent of Black kids do so. But more than 20% of public school teachers send their own kids to private schools.
A 2004 study by the Fordham Institute found that 44% of Philadelphia public school teachers send their kids to private schools. In Cincinnati and Chicago, 41% and 39% of public school teachers, respectively, put their own school-age children in private school.
In Baltimore, in 2017, there were 13 public high schools where 0% of students could do math at grade level, with another half a dozen Baltimore public high schools where only 1% could do so. So, it is hardly a surprise that Fordham's study found 35% of Baltimore public school teachers with school-age kids placed them in private school. In San Francisco it was 34%, and New York-Northeastern New Jersey was 33%. In Los Angeles, nearly 25% of public school teachers sent their kids to private school, versus 16% of Angelenos who did so.
For this reason, school choice has never polled higher. A June 2021 RealClear Opinion Research poll found support for school choice at 74% among registered voters. This includes 83% of Republicans, 69% of independents and 70% of Democrats who strongly or somewhat support school choice. In April, 2020, support for choice was 64%. Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children, said: "Public support for school choice is at an all-time high. And, as the nation recovers from unprecedented, nationwide school closures, a new story is unfolding. Parents are rising up and demanding the freedom to choose the best educational environment for their children. ... Already in 2021, seventeen states have passed legislation to improve, expand, or create new school choice programs."
School choice is not a panacea, especially without strong parental involvement. Studies show that Black kids spend less time doing homework than Hispanic kids, less time on homework than white kids and much less time on homework than Asian American kids. Economist Walter Williams told me, "If you don't have someone in your household to make sure that you do your homework and to insist that you go to bed on time, the school you attend will not make a whole lot of difference."
When I was in elementary and middle school, several classmates were Asian American, most of Chinese or Japanese descent. They all told me the same thing. If they got a B -- they rarely got a grade lower than that -- their parents told them they did not work hard enough. If they got an A, their parents told them the test was too easy. Their parents did not accept the notion often heard from my Black classmates, that so-and-so is "just not good in math." The parents of my Asian American classmates believed that in academics, as athletic coaches say, "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."
School choice benefits children of parents who preach that education and hard work are key to upward mobility. School choice will be of little benefit to the kids of parents who do not.
Larry Elder subtly letting us know he may run for CA Governor.
Indiana barely has unions, and bad teachers still dont get fired. The FEE put out an article a few years ago that most teacher firings occur for reasons other than teaching, mainly that they disagree with administration. At my school and many others, teachers who give out Fs to deserving students, actually teach and force kids to learn instead of play on their iPads struggle? Why... Bc when kids get bad grades, parents complain.
No one cares that their kids receive a good education, regardless of whether there is a union or not. All most people care about, Republicans included, is that their kids get a good grade, regardless of work or talent.
Choice of Mr. & Mrs. Jones: Harvard
Choice of Mr. & Mrs. Brown: Yale
....
How old is this school?
About 95 years old.
It had mainly Jewish students for several decades.
Indeed, it did.
What happened to those students?
They went on to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, businessmen, etc.
Realtor.com has a feature that allows users to read the comments parents make about schools.
It can be fun to read.
In the 1980’s Baltimore had a flood of good private schools in the area. Choice was great in the 90’s But parents had to wait in line in the middle of the night to sign up for the few non sibling enrollment spots in private schools. Getting a first born child into a private school is cut throat and key for the whole family.
Here’s how you can have school choice in September. Parents come to the first day of school, and summarily kick out the worst teachers, just bum’s rush them into the street and guard the door. Also refuse to pay property taxes. Instead, install one of the rebel parents, chosen in advance and most capable of teaching into the class room, and everyone pitch in on his or her salary. Maybe kick out every last NEA teacher, and take over the whole blim-blamming building.
When the Superintendent or any other muckety-muck shows up demanding an explanation, do the same to him.
The police will not show up. They’ve been defunded. And some of them would be participating parents.
Call it a Cooperative Autonomous School Zone.
Yet the GOP does nothing, too scared of teachers. Someone needs to tell the GOP that teachers vote for Dems in higher percentages than Blacks.
It will take something like that to ever get reform, the GOP is too scared to do their jobs.
Parents are the only ones who really give a sh!t about their kids, and they are p!ssed. It could start out small, in a suburban town in LA or Long Island, and catch on from there like wild fire.
The GOP is a party of drones, for the most part. Once the strongest and fastest drone sticks it to the queen and dies, the hive casts out the rest as useless. If they disagree, let them get off their a$$es and get to work.
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