Here we go. It’s wrong to criticize teachers in America. Especially when your sister was a career teacher. And, when many of your friends spent their careers in the classroom. US student test scores keep dropping vs. the rest of the world. When politicians approach this problem it’s always money. We spend more per student than the rest of the world, so how do we reconcile that? Charter schools do well in inner cities, but they aren’t union so we can’t have more of those.
OK, let’s test students and pay and fire teachers based on test scores. Most of us agree this is a good idea. Accountability in a union workplace, right? Whoa, scores were bad. What happens? Teachers just go back and change the test scores so everyone can get paid and keep their jobs. The teacher of the year in Wisconsin was let go a few years ago because she had no union seniority when the cutbacks came. Teachers in NYC with serious discipline problems, including sexual abuse, sit in rooms and do nothing and get paid because they can’t be fired.
Let’s look at another problem everyone sweeps under the rug. The school year for students and teachers is a breathtaking 186 days. A burger flipper at McDonald’s puts in 250 days. That 186 is far too rigorous. The average teacher in America misses 11 days a year. Chronic slackers miss 18 days or more and they comprise 28% of the national teaching population. Every day one doesn’t show up a substitute gets paid and kids don’t get taught anything.
Put this on the pile of educational reform issues facing this country. Just keep cruising along saying ” teachers in America are great” and wonder why so many young people are unemployable in this country.
Denial is not a river in Egypt, it’s the educational system in this country not being reformed from top to bottom.
