Pink Monkey #5 said:
I agree that there are a lot of crappy public schools out there. It should also be noted that yes aproper education is more determined by the school itself in grades K-8. However students should
be taking a more active role and taking charge of their education by choosing the harder classes.
Back to the issue of bad schools. Can anyone tell me why teachers shouldn’t receive payment based
upon the quality of teaching rather than how many years they have taught? Why is it that schools have
a hard time getting rid bad teachers? All these problems plague public schools because the teachers union
exists. The union cares not about education and the well being of the students. They care about keeping
students exclusively in public schools and keeping their jobs. Note: this is a broad generalization, however
this is a real problem with the public school system. Has anyone asked why students in private schools tend
to have greater success? It is because private schools tend to have better teachers. Why? Because they
are paid based upon their performance and bad apples can be gotten rid of. However one issue with private
schools is the tuition. Less fortunate families cannot afford this extra burden. But ahah! There is a solution.
This solution is called vouchers. Public schools receive a certain amount of tax money for each student enrolled.
Vouchers allow families to taken the tax money allotted to their child and apply it towards tuition for private school.
However the teachers unions are generally opposed to this measure because it takes away their student base.
The national teacher’s unions are large supporters of the democratic party. Thus democrats are usually opposed
to the idea of Vouchers. See the attached link.
http://www.nysun.com/national/obama-open-t…vouchers/71403/
Note that observers find it odd that a democrat would even be open to the idea of vouchers. However at one point he
was against vouchers stating that it wouldn’t help students or even be harmful. I don’t have the exact verbiage and
cannot find an article fill in the blanks. It should be noted that President Obama’s daughters are currently attending
a private school. This is representative of many democratic politicians. However this isn’t a democrat bash I just want
to explain why I am opposed to many of the ideas of the democratic party. How can vouchers hurt students? It has
the student’s well being in mind by allowing them to attend better and safer schools.
I agree with you to a point that a better school means a better education. However parents and students can put forth
effort that can overcome even the worst of situations. Otherwise there wouldn’t be any success stories of individuals
making it out of the ghetto with the sacrifice of their parents and by working hard and studying their asses off. My
question to you is why can’t vouchers be used to help low income families or better yet why can’t the public education
system be forced to improve?
Can you at least agree with me on this?
One thing that should be noted however, is that there are more than one teachers union, which could possibly be part of the problem. Don’t quote me on this yet, because I’m recalling it from a Political Science class I took a while back, but I recall a couple of the major groups often don’t agree with each others ideas.
I agree that vouchers should be allowed. But I can also see why the teacher’s unions are against it. Public school teachers don’t get paid squat. Yes for vouchers, and yes for raising teacher pay, and of course, with raising teachers pay we should also raise the expectations of those teachers. Teacher observation and assessment already occurs, but I believe there can be improvements on the critiques and requirements of our teachers.
I also agree that it is in the parents hands to help provide the opportunities that every child should have. But not every parent is a good parent. Parents that fail to put effort in their child’s future should be fined or thrown in jail.