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1)Good teachers are respected and supported.
2)Teachers work, on an annualized basis, just as much as any other job, and probably less than others.3)Everyone needs time off.
4)Everyone is responsible for their own inurance and for taking care of themselves.
5)A pension is a private matter between employer and employee. Only those two groups can decide whether it's been earned or not.
6)No one is guaranteed retirement.
I would take issue with this. In a good week my position requires six days a week. In a bad week........... We used to have summers off. Now we are required to attend workshops to sharpen our skills during much of the summer. I've just finished getting my masters. Three years, no sleep, no fun, no life, and thousands of dollars in debt. I have earned my pay.
I can agree with you that this is a serious problem but I implore you to look deeper for a reason other than the false idea of lazy teachers.
I never said teachers were lazy, I said they are unable to teach. I am certain that many teachers are very active, but many are nevertheless incompetent and should not be allowed to continue teaching. They are an impediment to the entire educational process, and they need to be replaced.
It is sad that merely being employed as a public employee gives many other people the right to disparage them for simply doing their job. Most teachers, police officers, firemen and other public servants go to work do the work they were hired to do to the best of their ability the same as most others in the private sector.
I find it distressing that both parties have taken advantage of a bad economy to scapegoat teachers and other public employees for doing their job. If they need to cut costs then negotiate, reduce staff, cut services, etc. Just be honest about it.
Last year, in Rhode Island, the Central Falls School District fired all their high school teachers for the failure of the students to make adequate progress on state tests. This decision was supported by President Obama and Secretary of Education, Duncan. This announced open season on teachers. In the past year the blaming of teachers has gone viral and both parties have used education and teachers as arguments for advancing their own agendas. Now President Obama states he will walk with labor. Last year he threw the same group under the bus. He is being hypocritical.
The crash of 2008 was not caused by teachers or even our educational woes as a country. It was a combination of poor policy decisions, too much credit, inflated real estate prices, and the opportunistic manipulation of complicated investment vehicles by financial institutions. The final death blow came from skyrocketing gas prices. One might say that with the exception of the people who bought homes that they couldn't afford, all the other players in this equation were highly educated.
Since neither party has any real solutions to our structural economic problems, in particular jobs for the working class and middle-income families, they redirect our attention to education/teachers as a magical yet simple solution.
We have real educational challenges as a country. However, they cannot be solved in isolation of other structural social problems which are highly linked to income level. Higher income requires cultivating specific skills and providing opportunities. I'm still waiting to hear realistic ideas from either side as to how they plan to get people back to work to start the ball rolling.
Last edited by Lincolnian; 02-25-2011 at 10:38 AM..
Well then please tell us what we do after we slash education budgets this year in the name of "fiscal conservatism/small government" in order to make a statement in time for the 2012 election?? What do we do this year right now, before enough private schools can be created?? How will people already living week to week afford that tuition??
Are you joking? Our local public school district levies 87% of our total property tax bill. Completely eliminate that, and I could use that same amount, literally, to send 3 students to private school for a MUCH BETTER education, each year.
It is sad that merely being employed as a public employee gives many other people the right to disparage them for simply doing their job.
1) If they were performing at an acceptable level, they wouldn't be disparaged.
2) The public employee unions' greedy ever-increasing demands of more, more, and STILLMORE from the tapped out taxpayers have earned public employees this backlash.
I'm from a family of teachers. The reality--spending hundreds of dollars (sometimes more) out of your own pocket each year to buy supplies for your classroom, or learning aides for your kids. Working countless hours off the clock to tutor and help students who are struggling. Dealing with students (and parents) who have little respect for your commitment to their child's education. Essentially being a foster parent for kids with very little support or care at home. Spending your summers in a classroom paying for your own continuing education (required by law) in addition to a voluntary masters that helps you more effectively teach your students. The tradeoff--when a child GETS IT, and they do something they didn't think they could do before. When they become excited about learning, and they're inspired to do more. That's why teachers do what they do, evidently with zero thanks.
You know what my mom used to do (and my family still does?) Buy winter coats, socks, shoes, you name it, and miraculously have them appear in the classroom as an "accident," just as miraculously in the right size (someone left this--why don't you keep it so it isn't thrown away?) for kids whose parents couldn't or wouldn't provide them. It happens a lot more often than you think.
Education funding is being drastically cut. You should be happy.
first lets take some quotes from your link:
For the U.S., the news in another area isn't as good: Kids still do slightly better in science than math and are well above average, but scores have stagnated since 1995. In the meantime, other countries, including Singapore and Hong Kong, have made significant gains, surpassing the U.S.
For the U.S., the news in another area isn't as good: Kids still do slightly better in science than math and are well above average, but scores have stagnated since 1995. In the meantime, other countries, including Singapore and Hong Kong, have made significant gains, surpassing the U.S.
You want education to improve, but you want to cut the budget. Good luck with that. Sorry that education didn't work for you.
Yes when i see local schools with 6-12 vice principals all making over a 100,000 dollars we can cut
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