Posted on 03/27/2002 6:26:25 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:33:03 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WHILE the Bush administration wants to make sure no child gets left behind, some state public educators say they may be forced to fire thousands of teachers who would no longer qualify for their jobs under new federal regulations, worsening a teacher shortage crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Our children will be affected forever by unqualified teachers.
We don't have a teacher shortage crisis, we have a teacher quality crisis. And that's a problem no teacher's union is ever going to solve.
I could not qualify for a teaching job - no degree in education.
Not that I could afford to work for 1/4th the going rate, anyway.
You get what you pay for.
Most parents do not really care, either. Many could homeschool if they cared. Rhetoric and nanny (government care) is all expected.
Apparently not in Washington D.C. They spend more on education than almost any other school district, yet they have some of the worst results in the country.
There are a zillion problems in the educratic system. Here's what I see, in no particular order:
Teaching below college level sucks as a job. You can't remove really dangerous students from the classroom, but no tolerance policies result in students who pose no threat getting ejected for up to a year. Any time you do reasonable discipline, somebody is going to file a lawsuit. Students can curse at teachers and be back in the classroom in 1/2 hour. When I visited campuses, teachers were scared of their students. A couple told me to just let them sleep in the classroom, because they'd sue me if I touched them, and then wait for me with a gang after school. Any idea how many inner city teachers suffer from symptoms similar to battle fatigue?
Pay sucks. I know a lot of freepers think teachers are overpaid, but the simple truth is that one of the biggest reasons for the teacher shortage is that the salaries are low. Educrats that never get close to a classroom in the school district receive huge salaries, though.
No support from the school district. A lot of teachers have to spend their own money if they want to decorate bulletin boards in their rooms.
Many, if not most, of the best students are no longer in public schools. Their parents either home school them or send them to private schools.
How'd you like to be a male teacher and have a thirteen year old female student start complaining that you tried to grope her after class? Been a trend among girls that age for about five years now that if they get mad at an adult male, they claim he tried to molest them. Even if it's proven false, how'd you like to have your wife have to deal with those accusations? Your kids? Like to try to resume a normal life after being photographed walking into the courthouse in cuffs with "alleged child molester" written under the caption in the local paper?
Wanna teach a curriculum written by the left, about the left, for the left? Wanna teach history? Forget Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt. Harriet Tubman, Jessie Jackson, Elanore Roosevelt, and Magic Johnson were far mor important to this country's history, according to much of the new curriculum.
Can't grade students on what they're actually doing. Mustn't hurt their self-esteem.
Have a problem with homosexuality? Tough. They can come in and take over your classroom, throwing out any lies they wish, and if you contradict them, why you're homophobic, and we'll get your job.
Impossible to get lousy teachers out of the classroom.
Teaching today is a constant walking the razor's edge, worrying about saying the wrong thing, touching someone the wrong way, getting a knot in your stomach if a student walks into the classroom when you're alone, because they can claim you did or said ANYTHING, and you can't prove them wrong, Parents who don't care, and students who care less.
One thing in this article I do seriously question. If the Feds are only supplying seven percent of the budget, why don't the states just turn down the money? I know, of course, that most state officials are just as gutless as national politicians, but there are two things to consider here. First, Federal rules cost a lot more than seven percent of the budget to implement. Second, all Federal judges can actually do is take away state funding for a school district. I know if a state did away with bussing, quotas, and all the other federal crapola that Jessie and Al would be down screaming in a minute, but can't anyone phase any heat anymore?
Good amswer.
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