Robert Ariail for March 12, 2014

Think you’re missing his point……………….

Too bad it isn’t one or the other the way it is portrayed here. It is about choice and competition. Public schools without competition and having no reason to be effective have ended up being bloated and inefficient. They are becoming more about being good on paper than producing anything.Forcing them to have competition and removing bureaucracy is the way to start to fix that. Vouchers are one method of doing that.

Clearly we need to improve our educational system. Other countries do a better job especially in the STEM subjects. Bloated school bureaucracy and teacher unions are failing to provide a world class education in this country. Not educating the poor means you will be stuck with another generation of poor.

How far over the top does it have to be before you recognize sarcasm?

When I was a child, we were motivated to learn for a variety of reasons.First, out parents expected us to learn, to succeed. They read to us when we were toddlers, counted things, talked about colors and shapes, and taught us manners and proper behavior. Parents in those days respected what teachers were doing, and backed them up.Second, we knew that children who did not master the required skills were going to have to repeat a grade. Today children are promoted with their age group. This results in careless, unmotivated students at three or four reading levels in fifth grade classrooms.You see, it isn’t politically correct to tell children that they need to work hard. It’s part of the “everybody gets a trophy” and “everybody is wonderful” mentality. It must be somebody else’s fault if you are not doing well. When I was a kid, we had to work hard to get respect. We were taught to work hard to achieve. It is not so today.Next, it isn’t politically correct to tell parents to prepare their children for school, or to back teachers up. Nope. There are more of them, and they vote.It has become, however, politically correct (in some minds and political philosophies) to bash teachers and teacher unions. It’s part of a “all unions are bad, and we can pay people less if we bust the unions” mentality. Check out the information on educational and economic effects of teacher turn-over.http://www.nber.org/papers/w17176 (Please read more than the first sentence in the description.)http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/why-do-teachers-quit/280699/No business could function well with that much job dissatisfaction and such high turnover. When the economy ever really gets going again, watch teachers leave the profession for respect, more money, and better working conditions.Public educators that I know don’t hate charter schools. They dislike seeing public money funneled to for-profit schools with questionable success rates and that treat their employees poorly. (Public educators pay taxes, too.) Public educators dislike being compared to schools that can pick and choose their students, when they can’t. Public educators don’t like being told that they are the source of all the problems in education, and that charter schools will solve the problems.Every single challenge and every single problem in schools today has one solution, as far as administrators and parents are concerned: Teachers must do more. Longer hours, more training, get more done in the same amount of time. This has been going on for decades, and the burdens are becoming crushing. Well, my lunch is over, and I have to go pick up my class. Yes, I am a teacher, and I am proud to be one, and proud to be a member of my teacher union.

Alternative schools show better results because they can choose the students they accept. Who would choose behavior problems, children too hungry to pay attention, or those with special needs? Leave those for the public schools, and then blame the public schools for not achieving the same results.

And look how well we’ve done by deregulating trucking (no more owner-operators), the airlines (down to just a couple and they are in and out of bankruptcy courts), and banking.

So, what’s not to like with deregulating schools?

Here’s an idea: for years, school systems have been told how to be run by people who have never taught a student. Are we surprised at the outcome?

(And now, we have a health care system run by people who have never seen a patient. What could possibly go wrong?)

In a one word reply:.How?

why would anyone want to make urban students attend unacredited schools

That’s what the cons want. So they can teach kids about the flat earth that’s 6000 years old.

How many articles or sources would you like? I am particularly conversant on the subject of “Critical Pedagogy” and “Social and Economic Justice” as applied to public education in a number of states.Would say 5 sources be sufficent?

A significant problem for public schools? Elected Boards of Education. When I was on the budget committee to advise them, they’d cut math, science, art, and humanities courses in the high school, to fund transportation, or uniforms, for the football team. Extra-curricular sports spending usually, across the country, takes money from actual education. It’s a social problem across the country, and all “political parties” are guilty, but Republicans and “conservatives”, like TEA party folks, are far and away the most damaging to education. Then they call for “charter schools”, because they’ve gutted the public schools.

on both education and healthcare, the issue is “WHO IS IN CHARGE?”-US education began with private schools and the liberals changed that to put themselves and their agenda in charge of all the taxes dedicated to education. Result was dumbed-down education that is 90% propaganda of the Left, and graduates that business and military must “re-educate”….-Ditto healthcare….began with Christian groups starting local medical treatments that were private sector. Unions and businesses branched out into insurance for workers and regulated medical benefits. The Liberals in government wanted to get their hands on the money and their power of control over patients, doctors, hospitals and insurance, drugs, and the decisions of what healthcare “is” with computer-friendly codes for each diagnosis and with the Feds in 100% control of everything, even who gets treatment and who does not get treatment.

Here’s an example. High School grad working in my doctor’s office, can’t add the 2 numbers on the scale (like 200 + 17) and can’t alphabetize charts without a sorter. Doctor claimed she was the best of the bunch, “at least she shows up”.

Just a note: EVERY land disposal law passed by Congress has designated the funding to go for PUBLIC EDUCATION! EVERY ONE, has sought to fund education with the income from the sale of the PUBLIC LANDS… Even the state selections in the western states were designated STATE SCHOOL LANDS, to be disposed of by the STATES, with the money going to public education..

Administrative costs have risen to high in proportion, and much of that is because so many federal programs have dictated things like NCLB programs, that have taken away from the classroom effectiveness. Looking at it from a “private sector” viewpoint, it’s also explained by looking at the increases in CEO incomes while the “workers” have remained relatively stagnant.

Quiet down! If people start doing that they might start finding out why they are poor!

“When the schools spend more than $15,000 on a single student you have to wonder why?”Curious to know where you get that number. In 2011, the national average was $10,560 according to the Census Bureau.“And if Charter Schools were so ineffective, you have to wonder why the school monopoly in this nation, teachers unions, administrators, HATE them.”Charter schools are an existential threat to the existing system. Evidence showing charters perform better than public schools with similar student mixes, is non-existent. Evidence showing they cost less is compelling. Even Democrats like Rahm Emanuel are replacing union teachers with charter schools.“There are so many parents that do nothing to educate their children BEFORE school starts.”This is the real problem. It’s not just that parents are uninvolved before, they are uninvolved throughout their kids’ (hopeful) education.

“it is a spit in the eye of our founders that public schools exist at all.”Thanks for the laugh. Rather than flooding the thread with the mountain of evidence showing the Founding Fathers believed in the importance of an educated Citizenry & were all for using public funds to pay for it, I’ll ask you to back up that airy little statement.

If sports are so bad, why are charter and home schooled students bitching and suing to play for the “local” team if they don’t have them available.Also see any Columbus Dispatch report on the amount of WASTE and CLOSURES of charter schools, and the inbreeding and graft from “get-rich-quick” operators!

I particularly like the “look of interest” on the teacher’s face. It can be taken so many ways. I see an optimistic resume’ brewing!

BTW: in 40 states, the highest payed state employees, are coaches, mostly football, a few basketball. Charter schools don’t spend so much on football and basketball, or pay decent wages in most of them, or have the same requirements for teachers credentials.