Maine Schools--New Grading System

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by birdinmigration

I dare say the governor will do some back-walking if a lot of charter schools start cropping up in Maine that turn out to be .

Religious schools, because why not.

Has this happened elsewhere? I mean we have private catholic schools but I haven't seen catholic charter schools.

[roadrat]

Originally Posted by flycessna

Has this happened elsewhere? I mean we have private catholic schools but I haven't seen catholic charter schools.

A charter school is a public funded school that is using a alternative form of teaching, I don't believe they will ever be allowed to be religious in origin.

check out this alternative form of teaching, it's from a 60 minutes interview.
60 minutes: Khan Academy's "world-changing" plan for schools | Our vision | Khan Academy

Unfortunately the union is doing everything in there power to kill them,
I guess the teachers union is fighting to keep the failing status quo and all the money for themselves, so much for being for the children.



bill

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by roadrat

A charter school is a public funded school that is using a alternative form of teaching, I don't believe they will ever be allowed to be religious in origin.

check out this alternative form of teaching, it's from a 60 minutes interview.
60 minutes: Khan Academy's "world-changing" plan for schools | Our vision | Khan Academy

Unfortunately the union is doing everything in there power to kill them,
I guess the teachers union is fighting to keep the failing status quo and all the money for themselves, so much for being for the children.



bill

We are also losing good teachers because they're fed up with having to jump through the ridiculous hoops that politicians and parents (and yes, unions too, no union is perfect - they're only as good as the people in them) that we've set up for them.

We are rapidly becoming a society of know-it-all's even if we have no practical experience or personal knowledge of what we're ranting about. We seem to feel perfectly justified in telling professionals how to teach, but we don't seem to be willing to tell our surgeon (for example) how best to perform our appendectomy do we? Sure, we drive our primary care physicians nuts with WebMD "diagnosis" that have us convinced our mildly-infected finger laceration is surely the start of the necrotizing fasciitis, but overall, we don't march in there intent on telling them how to doctor. We sure do seem to with teachers though don't we?

Education is so diverse in terms of learning curves and living situations, that there will never be one perfect way of getting kids to learn. Somehow, we don't want to believe this little fact of life; therefore, we keep cycling through lousy curricula and educational fads, or we set the bar at a spot where we either can't drag some up to, or we end up dragging others down to. This has been going on since the dawn of public education, and it'll continue long after my kids have graduated and I'm pushing up daisies.

Regardless, IMHO most people really do want to do what's best for kids. It's the method of getting there that we can't seem to agree on.

I would hope that charter schools would be a light at the otherwise dim tunnel of education, but I can see why educators are concerned about losing funding. Let's be honest here: Public schools would probably cave. To be perfectly honest, I'd be the first one to check out a new charter school for my youngest if one popped up. The more I research them, the more I like the idea of them. My oldest will hopefully be headed to the technical high school in another year, so I don't want to disrupt his structure at this point.

Personally, I think this little "Grading" system for schools is little more than a way to justify cutting funding that the state probably doesn't have to give anyway. As cynical as that sounds, I don't see where the State of Maine has suddenly come into a windfall of moolah recently.

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by flycessna

Has this happened elsewhere? I mean we have private catholic schools but I haven't seen catholic charter schools.

I don't see religious schools being anything but private. As much as LePage likes to stir the hornet's nest, I don't think he's foolish enough to stir THAT one - even with his bad case of "foot in mouth" disease. Thank heavens for Adrianne Bennett's ability to come right along and say "What he REALLY meant to say was..." I hope he pays her well.

Now here's the thing about private schools (be they religious or not): They operate free of regulatory horse poo. They aren't mandated to educate every child regardless of their ability to learn. If a student is severely disabled, they must be educated through whatever means possible (even if a town has to pay tuition of $25,000 per year to send them to a special school). Ours had to do that a few times for a couple of severely mentally disabled kids. That's not a commentary on the practice of that mandate. It's simply a statement of fact.

Once we had a town meeting whereupon several parents stood up and started whining and indignantly questioning how a nearby catholic school could operate at a far lesser cost per student than the town could.

They demanded to know why the town couldn't take their "hard-earned tax dollars" and operate the school at a level that this catholic institution can (and they outscored us to boot! Harumphh! Grumble! Mumble!).

They shut their pie holes in fairly short order when they were educated by a smart school board member who saw this righteous indignation coming and armed herself with a list of mandates that PRIVATE schools - catholic or not, are not even required to know much less follow.

[namder1]

I wonder if a vote were taken by teachers(ballot box, not show of hands) how long the teachers union(s) would be around?

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by roadrat

... Unfortunately the union is doing everything in there power to kill them, I guess the teachers union is fighting to keep the failing status quo and all the money for themselves, so much for being for the children.

A union is formed to assist workers, union organizers, and to perpetuate it's own existence.

My father was a lifelong member of the IBEW, the IBEW focused on helping electricians and union leaders. They were not concerned for the electrical wiring the union members were installing.

The plumber unions focus on helping plumbers and union leaders. They were not concerned for the pipes and faucets being installed.

All unions are businesses. They have revenue and expenses. They have leaders, employees and contributors. They must focus on their paying contributors, or else they have no future.

It is the nature of a union to do this.

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by namder1

I wonder if a vote were taken by teachers(ballot box, not show of hands) how long the teachers union(s) would be around?

I'm willing to guess that they'd be happier to vote out administrators, parents, and politicians who want to tell them how to teach first.