Fixing the Public Schools k-12

[Benton]

(01-19-2017, 01:49 PM)Mike M (the other one) Wrote: The reason the public wants to go this route, is because many inner city schools are not very good. Giving the parents a choice is the only offer they can come up with. I'd rather build up those inner-city schools, but that takes time and parents want results now. Whether the parent chooses the charter school option or not, they at least feel like they have a choice. The majority probably won't take an advantage of that, but some will.

If she can make it past the hearing, then her biggest enemy is going to be the Teachers Union.

To the bold, inner city schools typically have the best performers and worst performers. So, the case can be made that many inner city schools are very good... they're also just very bad. One of the criticisms of charter schools is it allows parents with means to move their kids into charter schools, but doesn't allow families of low incomes.

So you end up with charter schools of kids from a higher income bracket who test about the same as kids at the poorer inner city school. In the end, you're just shuffling tax dollars so "rich" kids don't have to go to school with "poor" kids. And there's valid points for and against that, too. I'm a big proponent of life skills learning (firearm safety education, home ec, basic carpentry, etc). Kids likely to stay in urban Louisville or St Louis aren't going to benefit as much from some of those classes, so having an inner city school that teaches carpentry isn't as good a use of resources as teaching that in a rural district. It might be using that money you could keep computer labs or libraries open longer, or offer life skills classes.

As far as the teachers, I dunno. I doubt teachers at a national level will strike. And if they do, I'm afraid the department will just have more over reach and tell states to lift teaching requirements. Which I wouldn't ultimately be surprised if that happens in the future anyway. It's hard to get people with degrees to work for half or a third of what they would make otherwise, and districts aren't going to pay more.

(01-19-2017, 01:59 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: I have to say that one of my biggest issues with her is her not agreeing that all schools, whether public or private, should be held to the same accountability standards if they receive federal funds. This has been something I have been in favor of for a long time.

A lot of her answers were very concerning and showed a lack of understanding of the field of education.

I think most districts/states will keep moving towards Common Core, regardless of what happens at the federal level. Which isn't exactly the same as your post, but it's still moving in the right direction.