Schools and Money
I just read - probably on the msn feed - that teachers in Seattle are going to be on strike on the first day of school; perhaps some others as well. For more money, of course.
and I had a blinding flash of the obvious
If what you have is a giant pile of poop, collected for years and years, and you send the same people out to spend money on "the problem", you'll just end up with a bigger pile of poop.
I wish they'd use it for something useful.
The "BPoP" Effect is also true in many other places...my mind was just on education then.
I hope the teachers pack a good and nutritious lunch, with no chocolate or cookies or other "bad" food. It gets hungry on the picket line!
and I had a blinding flash of the obvious
If what you have is a giant pile of poop, collected for years and years, and you send the same people out to spend money on "the problem", you'll just end up with a bigger pile of poop.
I wish they'd use it for something useful.
The "BPoP" Effect is also true in many other places...my mind was just on education then.
I hope the teachers pack a good and nutritious lunch, with no chocolate or cookies or other "bad" food. It gets hungry on the picket line!
So let's have home schooling, charter schools, and McRobot.
Jan
Jan
leaving it up to the schools and expecting more than day care
with homework. . I expect that many, many parents just want
to come home after work and have a beer and argue. -- j
.
full circle!
And the push for CC in the schools nationwide, which costs all schools/districts more money, with dubious results, is part of that steaming pile. New York, of all places, is pushing back hard against CC.
The low competence of some teachers does not just result in students learning less, similar to "low productivity" in other jobs. Instead, it has a negative effect on the student, by destroying motivation.
Another major issue is the growth of school administrators who do little to further a child's eduction. The growth of the administrative class drains resources for the classroom.
And, never, ever say such things in mixed company. There might be a parent like me in earshot who takes it the wrong way and calls you on the carpet. Make no mistake - it's all "wasted spending" when a public school teaches kids.
My wife, for the last 3 years, has been working in the local school district with special needs children. She becomes very annimated when the subject comes up because:
1) We assist kids who have only one problem, parents that do not care to be part of the education process at all. They simply want baby sitters and do things to keep there income down so that buses will pick up the kids from their homes... could give more but will stop there, basically they make sure they financially qualify even if means a lousy life for their kids.
2) They often deny kids with parents who care about their kids that could use extra help (like your case) because parents who care are simply not destitute enough to get the benefit.
Does this match your own observations?
Public schools run a business model that's really centered on the type of parent you describe - a parent (rarely two parents), who don't really care and need a babysitter. So what if Timmy ends up on disability and living in a home on the government dole for the rest of his life? Nobody cares about that. Public schools are the easy choice in that case.
I am glad that your child is such a go-getter. More power to him.
Jan
My son's recovery from autism has been unprecedented. He and I've been in a documentary about the topic. We are the curve wreckers. He still struggles, but he is an inspiration. Saturday morning we were at the local Starbucks (dad had to work and he had to do some homework). I noticed he kept looking at a child sitting just outside the window - a child with severe autism. The conversation he and I had about that was very special and something I'll keep to myself, probably forever.
I disagree that teachers as a group are underpaid. Some perhaps, majority no.
In my state the schools are open for 180 school days, and teachers attend some number of "professional" days without students.
Those are far fewer days than most full time employees work, and with union protections.
So overall, I do not consider them underpaid, especially when you look at the quality of school output as measured by testing.
The good teachers, it seems, work pretty hard - even on many of their days off. The profession doesn't really attract the cream of the crop, though, does it?
Then these new teachers, fresh out of education college, begin to save the world with what can only be called indoctrination in socialism via pseudo environmental teachings. A local state university was of the habit of taking majors in other fields in danger of funking out, and putting them in the college of education where they were assured they could graduate.
It used to be a cry for money for smaller class size, until an inner city black woman principal made do on what their district had, set some rules for student behavior, and came away with some of the best test scores in the city.
Way too much of taxpayer dollars are going to implement programs which teach our little darlings how great it is to be socialists. The young teaches would be hard pressed to define socialism or note how it never works.
Finally, the kids are doped up with Ritalin or some psychotropic at school request, given labels like ADD or ADHD, or dyslexic, given a large dose of values clarification (to clear away any remaining values from home), and taught a collectivists mantra, "There is no I in team".- for this we need higher taxes!
I went to an "inner city" junior high and high school in the late fifties, each with maybe 300 to 500 or more students in non air conditioned old brick buildings (this was in the South), with all the old creaky wooden desks, etc., hall passes, strict discipline (all that bad old stuff).
Staff consisted of a principal, assistant principal, dean of boys, dean of girls (as I said, this was in prehistoric times), a secretary, someone else who did some paperwork, and a janitor.
Went to my fiftieth reunion five years ago, and it was amazing how well they all turned out. They can actually, spell, write, think, talk, and they (or others like them) built the world that existed until fairly recently. Most did not go to college. There was even some paddling going on in the early years.
We went through racial integration about midway through all of that, and the kids worked it all out without adult counseling and reporters and armies and such.
It is a different world now, and of course all there is to do is work with what we have with a positive vision for the future. But there was a time when the country actually worked, as did the school systems that produce citizens who built a damned good country.
Having reread this, I appear to myself like the reporter in the movie "Network". Cantankerous, cranky, but still a little kid wishing it all would turn out better. But it won't without a whole lot of effort, and Galt's Gulch is where I come to get re-inspired.
Jan
There is strong resistance, usually with the reaction "but our children's futures are at stake". Even comparing education to other types of business is viewed by some as heartless.
Her comment at fifteen was I don't need to be in the school to attend games or proms. I can't afford the time i need to get my Education. She had already enrolled in the local Junior College.
After the first day her comment was an awe struck ,"The students WANT to learn and the TEACHERS WANT to teach!!!"
Jan
Washington state's teachers are no more special than any other employee who gets their wages via the taxpayers.
Times like this...I wish we had Scott Walker for governor.
to do things which the private sector should be doing.
and it is flung far and wide whenever an election occurs,
obscuring everyone's vision -- but, alas, the tomatoes
never seem to get the better of it. -- j
.
If a teacher chooses to teach in a publicly funded system with the protection of collective bargaining they should not expect the compensation system to reflect a total meritocracy. If they want a meritocracy go work in straight commission sales or open a business and put something at risk. Teacher salaries vary quite a bit from region to region, but in general they are vastly better than they were when I was in school, and far more attractive VS other career choices. Especially when you factor in benefits, time off, security, etc. We should be attracting better talent and I think we probably are, but I have no data to back that up. All I know is there is more competition for the full time slots in our area.
The funding of education reflects the age old dilemma of redistribution VS pay for services/personal responsibility. Right now every tax paying property owner pays no matter what their use of the system based on the the premise that public education is a "greater good". I agree that there is a greater social benefit to public education, but I believe the cost burden has shifted too far? Why not subsidize post middle school non-trade focused education by charging a tuition? Means test it, allow for some school choice? Why shouldn't we allow vouchers for people who choose private schools? Why should seniors who have paid into the system all there lives be forced to continue to support it in retirement? Why should a family with 5 children in the system pay less than a family with 1 just because they have a lower tax assessment? At some point we penalize the people who make the most responsible choices. Inner-city low income schools are often trotted out at the poster-children for maintaining the status quo of subsidies, but these schools continue to have abysmal conditions and results. Is this really a funding issue or a problem we would rather not discuss and face? Poverty.
The big mistake (where the pile of poop can be found) is to believe that the goal of teachers unions are aligned with the goals of society or even teachers. The job of the union is to guarantee its survival by negotiating better compensation for it's members. The pitch may be that its "all about the kids" but their actions tell a completely different tale. Unions resist anything that introduces accountability into the system or threatens the current funding model. Well meaning teachers often drink the Kool-aid because they are the beneficiaries, and it's easier to sleep at night if you buy into the pitch. The unions aren't all bad, but they are big and powerful and often overwhelm their fragmented opposition. When all of their money comes from statutorily mandated taxation its not a level playing filed and hard to defend.
George Carlin called it smiley faced fascism. Softer touch but still total control.
Each socialist nation including the USA has always developed their own version. Nothing new about that. Each version has always been at odds ergo the great socialist wars of the 20th century. They evolve, develop, redefine and move on liberally or conservatively arriving at the same common goal. Complete control with a one party system.
Why do Republicans cave to Democrats so much? They are the right and left wing of the Government Party Coalition. One two faced party. Each nothing but a controlled political union. No more Marxist Economics. or Fascist Economics it's now State Economics. Not to worry the other name is a 'hampered capitalism.'
Control includes schools...
Not to worry abut learning the differences. There are none substantive or meaningful from Europe in the first half of the last century except ours have a smiley face and their had death camps.
Government indoctrination centers (public schools) are there to make young people into sheep always willing to accept the government line. I spent some useless time in public school and I dont remember hardly anything from it other than language (which I probably learned at home anyway) and maybe reading. I spent more time on YOUTube lately and remember a lot of it. I have learned so much more on YOUTube, from new product design details to home repair.
The usual way school budgets get past is all the parents with kids in school vote yes. Those whose children are out of school vote no.
The theory is correct the problem after we've subjected our own offspring to a substandard education.
Somehow it works. Now the question is. Are they already making more than fifteen dollars an hour? It is Seattle after all.
If they weren't it's an automatic payraise. If they were they were overpaid.