Dems flog a dead horse (Example #2,946)
I have ranted and raved before about the amount of money we flush down the toilet on education. Tim's analysis pretty well sums it up:
Why do Democrats remain so pigheadedly devoted to spending more and more money on education, when any idiot can see that the problems with the education system aren’t being fixed by more money?
Look, curriculum is not the problem.
– The problem is parents who don’t care how well their children perform academically, and who aren’t willing to discipline their kids for behaving like neanderthals in the classroom. Until parents get serious about their children’s education and stop seeing schools as glorified babysitters, nothing’s going to change — no matter how much money you throw at it.
– The problem is moronic teachers who can get hired simply because they’ve completed some inane certification process that means nothing. You want to reform education in this country? Start with eliminating the certification requirements found in most states. It’s ridiculous that someone can have a Ph.D. in history and be teaching at a post-graduate level, and yet the public education system insists they’re not qualified to teach junior high level social studies because they aren’t certified. Yeah, our schools are much better off hiring an imbecile with a certificate rather than a genius without one. Oh, and despite what education professionals insist, teaching doesn’t require an abundance of specializied training. You have to know your subject matter, you have to care for your kids, you have to be consistent in your discipline and you need some common sense. Those four things will go a long way to making you a good teacher.
– The problem is labor unions that oppose any meaningful reforms because their members are too lazy to be held accountable for their results. They want pay equal pay raises across the board, rather than raises based on merit, which would reward those teachers who are doing exceptional work and maybe force those who aren’t to leave the field and do something else.
The Minneapolis public school system spends in excess of $12,000 per student each year. That's easily the highest per-student amount in Minnesota and is among the highest in the country. Predictably, test scores are terrible. Having helped several of them with their homework, I can personally vouch for how far behind some of the kids in my neighborhood are. Clearly, money is not the problem. The items Tim lists are right on, especially the first one. Lack of discipline - both personal and corporate - is an epidemic here in the inner city. For all practical purposes, it doesn't exist. It's a foreign concept. Empowering our teachers to take control of their classrooms and have high standards of conduct, and backing them up when they hand out discipline will do more to improve our education system than any billion-dollar Washington spending spree. And best of all, it doesn't cost a penny.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, August 23, 2005 at 10:31 AM.
