Comments

1

They are only interested in their salaries and their power (whatever that looks like). It is pretty incredible that this country's public school system used to be so revered The dumbing down of America has taken decades, but it is now basically official policy. An educated populace is far more difficult to control and manipulate than millions of dumb fucks who can't read, write, or speak at even a 3rd grade level. And critical thinking skills? Forget it! They don't exist anymore! Common Core created a philosophy of rote repetition to succeed in standardized testing. No need to actually think any thoughts for yourself!!!

One of my favorite teachers, who taught me in HS and retired nearly 30 years after I graduated, told me that bureaucrats destroyed education. When I asked him why the HS I graduated from was no longer even an accredited educational institution (and this was upstate NY), he said they just paid themselves, did nothing for the students they were tasked with caring for and educating, and literally destroyed it for personal gain and personal profit.

A school from which I graduated in 1990 with a college prep degree (including 2 AP credits and additional college credits from the local SUNY school thanks to a program the HS had with the university) had become so bad anyone who "graduated" from there was not even considered as able to go to college with their "degree" as it was useless. And that school is the ONLY public school in the region (the capital district no less). the only other options are private Catholic schools (which of course have tuition costs and heavy doses of religion).

3

@2 . According to “The Myth of Unions’ Overprotection of Bad Teachers,” a well-designed study by Eunice S. Han, an economist at the University of Utah, school districts with strong unions actually do a better job of weeding out bad teachers and retaining good ones than do those with weak unions. This makes sense. If you have to pay more for something, you are more likely to care about its quality; when districts pay higher wages, they have more incentive to employ good teachers (and dispense with bad ones). And indeed, many of the states with the best schools have reached that position in the company of strong unions.

4

I am so thrilled to hear opinions on education from non-educators. No one, but no one knows what it’s really like until one is in the trenches. Having been an educator for 27 years, I know the majority of educators are dedicated and caring. I spent my own money on classroom materials, and rarely went home without working a nine to ten hour days. I certainly wasn’t alone. I know of very few bad teachers, but the danger of firing teachers because they speak out, don’t please the administrators or get on the bad side of the board of education is more pressing. Thank goodness for unions.
Additionally, administrators need to have teaching and administration credentials. They work thirteen and fourteen hour days with tremendous pressure. They have to discipline students which takes an inordinate amount of time, balance budgets, make sure laws are being followed, attend meetings, complete volumes of paper work, keep tabs on everything that is going on in the school and please EVERYONE.

5

One more thing, a big problem was No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the most ridiculous mandate ever. Schools were required to jump hoops to make certain every student was reading and doing math at grade level. Each student no matter what his or her ability including students who had developmental disabilities were required to take the tests. Instead of spending time on students’ education, special education teachers spent hours making test accommodations including rewriting the tests. Regular classroom teachers were forced to teach to the test. Trying to improve test performance every year became the focus for underperforming schools. It came to a point where a teacher was threatened to lose his or her job if his or her class didn’t improve test scores. Teachers don’t get a choice about which students they teach, so if a teacher had a classroom of challenging students, then it was next to impossible to improve test scores. When a classroom teacher has 30 to 35 students mixed with special education students who have behavioral, emotional and learning problems, that’s a big order. Surprise! NCLB was invented by non educators. I believe NCLB has contributed to the decline of education.

7

@2 Wait until Trump and his appointee Betsy Devos are done!!!


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