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I think unions are part of the problem. They protect teachers who deserve to be fired. They should be trying to get higher pay for the teachers who deserve it. But they oppose merit pay.
A competent supervisor can get rid of any and all incompetent employees. It takes knowing the rules, building a proper case and then firing them. Most school administrators won't go to the trouble.
When my kids were in school, I spent a lot of time in the principal's and the superintendent's office, doing their jobs. IMO, given a teacher that should be shown the door, they took the easy way out and passed their trash to another school. I told them that, too.
You might say I'm nosy, or need to mind my own business. IMO, it is a parents' duty to monitor who is teaching their kid and what the kid is learning.
Yes, there are rotten teachers. But there are also rotten supervisors and parents who have no clue.
Betsy DeVos is championing a $5 billion school choice program. I think competition is the best way and maybe the only way to improve schools. If you fail you deserve to lose your students then your job. Right now with no school choice teachers can do a bad job with no fear of losing anything.
I attended both public and private schools. While the private schools were better for education they had the ability to pick and choose their students. I had to pass an exam and have a clear disciplinary record to be allowed in, then was on a waiting list for a year, and my parents had to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year tuition. I could even be expelled if my GPA dropped below a specified level. This all ensured that they had no problem children, or kids with learning disabilities, or children from families that were not committed to to their education. Public schools do not have that luxury, they have to take any and all students including slow learners, those with disciplinary issues, those with no parental support, and those that just don't care.
The only way to have true competition is for all schools, including private and charter schools, to be required to take all comers just like public schools have to do. It's not an equal playing field if private and charter schools can pick the cream of the crop and reject the rest while getting paid from the tax base. If they want that funding they should have to follow the same rules as public schools.
Not requiring private schools to follow the same rules will do nothing but remove resources from public schools that will be left with the kids that can't make it in to a private school.
There are about 14,000 school districts in the US. No two are the same.
Most charter admissions are lottery based. Charters have more flexibility in removing students with chronic behavioral and/ or truancy issues and back they go to traditional public schools.
It’s the highly selective public magnet schools that skim the best and brightest from traditional public schools.
Then there are some districts that are all non- selective magnet schools.
What's wrong with school choice? It probably does benefit some kids but it also puts many others at a disadvantage. A voucher often does not cover what a decent private school costs so parents end up home-schooling. But not everyone can do that because many families both parents are working. The voucher system ends up benefiting parents with financial resources and hurting poor parents. When a lot of money is sucked out of the school it hurts the school so the kids who are left behind are doubly screwed.
But I am in favor of getting rid of the unions.
In rural districts there is always little choice, if any at all, because there are very few, if any private schools. So rural legislators are not going to support school choice plans, if most of the money will be going to urban areas where there are more private schools.
What's wrong with school choice? It probably does benefit some kids but it also puts many others at a disadvantage. A voucher often does not cover what a decent private school costs so parents end up home-schooling. But not everyone can do that because many families both parents are working. The voucher system ends up benefiting parents with financial resources and hurting poor parents. When a lot of money is sucked out of the school it hurts the school so the kids who are left behind are doubly screwed.
But I am in favor of getting rid of the unions.
I am in the Chicago Metro area. The public school teachers have been on strike for 2 weeks. Despite being the highest compensated amongst large cities, the #1 issue wasbpay. Other issues include smaller class size and increasing the ability to strike going forward. The latest issue is that the teachers want to be paid for the time on strike.
Thinking eliminating unions in schools is a matter for the SCOTUS.
Last edited by middle-aged mom; 10-31-2019 at 10:37 AM..
So...... you're in favor of being given the choice to be shot in the right arm or the left arm.
If this is a matter of school safety, then I think it's even more important to not send tax money to private schools. Use that money to make public schools safe. Taking money away from public schools would just make them less safe. I can't condone that!
In rural districts there is always little choice, if any at all, because there are very few, if any private schools. So rural legislators are not going to support school choice plans, if most of the money will be going to urban areas where there are more private schools.
There is no uniform definition of School Choice. It can mean choice of public schools within a district or beyond or include certain private schools.
The best performing private schools are highly selective and tuition easily runs $40,000/ year.
Most faith based private schools are Catholic and increasingly make religion studies optional.
You are right about rural areas in terms of very limited, if any, choice.
I attended Catholic schools up to the end of 7th grade. We were required to attend mass 7 days a week. We also attended every single funeral mass in the parish. During the busy death season, ( Late November- December), there were some days where the entire day was spent in church. Many kids had holy card collections and traded like baseball cards. I can still do tricks with a rosary. Then there were rosaries strung on elastic that became sling shots. Most kids snuck in comic book and other books to relieve the boredom. Who knows? Maybe our reading scores were better as a result.
If this is a matter of school safety, then I think it's even more important to not send tax money to private schools. Use that money to make public schools safe. Taking money away from public schools would just make them less safe. I can't condone that!
What does funding have to do with safety?
Is a rural school in Iowa that gets $1 mil in funding inherently "less safe" than an urban school in Detroit that gets $5 mil?
A competent supervisor can get rid of any and all incompetent employees. It takes knowing the rules, building a proper case and then firing them. Most school administrators won't go to the trouble.
When my kids were in school, I spent a lot of time in the principal's and the superintendent's office, doing their jobs. IMO, given a teacher that should be shown the door, they took the easy way out and passed their trash to another school. I told them that, too.
You might say I'm nosy, or need to mind my own business. IMO, it is a parents' duty to monitor who is teaching their kid and what the kid is learning.
Yes, there are rotten teachers. But there are also rotten supervisors and parents who have no clue.
There are rotten Fill in the Blank employees everywhere. They don’t represent the majority. Public unions seem protect the rotten more so than the private sector. Parents put tremendous pressure on school districts to end strikes. It’s often easier to give on rules and pensions than other issues.
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