So Rob Portman voted to confirm Betsy DeVos

[Benton]

(02-08-2017, 02:09 PM)mallorian69 Wrote: Of course they are going to say it all boils down to money. Would you go to your boss and tell him that you are overpaid AND suck at your job all in the same breath?

Er, that's not exactly the same thing.

When a district performs low and I go to the Superintendent and say "why are your students testing X amount of points below the state, and Y below the region?" I've never had one say "Well, jeez, Joe, it's because I don't get paid enough."

The usual answer was "Because my teachers are working out of textbooks that are 10-12 years old. My science lab is basically a bunch of tables and PowerPoint slides. I can't get quality staff because insurance is insanely high, and a person with a four year math or sc ience degree can go down the street and make three times the pay, with much better benefits."

Granted, I'm not an education beat writer any more. Maybe in the last 5-6 years, schools across the country have magically been gifted current textbooks, high quality staff, and hands on equipment for computer labs, science labs, engineering programs, etc. No kidding, one high school in my coverage area had six computers in a computer lab. Expecting them to teach computer literacy to 600-700ish kids is laughable. It's physically impossible for each kid to get a few hours a week on one.