Public education is not in the toilet everywhere. However, the public education system in the US is broken. The fault does not fall solely on the government. They do bare a significant load though. I realize this statement is not going to be a popular one. Along with the government is the teachers Union and the parents. Between the three, they have destroyed the education system of this country.
Before I go into issues I see with the teachers Union, let me go over problems with the school systems lack of proper support of teachers:
- Teachers starting salaries are far below acceptable levels.
- Some school systems are still in the 24,000 range.
- Constantly running out of supplies due to insufficient school budgets.
- Many teachers pay out of pocket to purchase supplies for classroom projects.
- School buildings are aging and in disrepair. This results in unsafe or unhealthy environments for our children.
- Classrooms lack the resources such as computers to help educate the children.
- Education solely focuses on English, math, science, history and a few other extra curricular courses.
- Schools have moved away from teaching trades to our children.
- Trades such as
- Automotive
- Computers
- Cooking
- Carpentry
- Electricians
- Plumbers
- etc
- Growing up there were still a few vocational schools left.
- Today, vocational schools are all but gone.
I am sure there are more, these are the highlights.
Now for my issues with teacher unions. (which is going to go over like a lead balloon.)
- For the first ten years of a teachers career, they are guaranteed raises in the form of steps.
- These steps are assessed by other teachers in the school system.
- Once a teacher hits 10 years, they are tenured.
- Most teachers that are tenured are not an issue. However, for the small percentage of tenured teachers that are on autopilot good luck getting rid of them.
- And the other teachers will defend the poor teachers to the death.
- At the expense of our children education.
Parents bare just as much blame as the teachers or the government.
- Far too many parents are hands off. They send their kids to school, and rely on the school system to do everything from educate to coddle.
- When a child is struggling in class, the parent blames the teacher or the school system.
- The successful teaching formula is where the school system and the parent(s) are active in the education of the child.
- Involvement in school functions is extremely low by parents.
- When I go to school events where the whole school participates, far to few parents are there.
- I realize this is during school hours, but are you telling me that a parents work is more important than being there to support your child?
When someone starts saying it's the governments fault that education in the US is failing, realize that it's not just the fault of the federal government. There is no one fix. In order to fix education in the US, there will need to be a major shift. One that breaks the current funding model, increases starting pay for teachers to be competitive with other professions.
Another piece that should be looked at is summer's off. Many school systems around the country have already moved away from this model. Summer's off was instituted for farmers. This would allow the farmer's children to work the farm during the growing months. Lengthen the school year and spread out vacations. This will prevent the summer dullness from occurring.
In college, you could not get into the education degree program unless you had a 3.0 GPA or better. I commend that effort. However, that does not answer the issue of low paying jobs. Why does someone want to jump into being a teacher starting at 24K when they could go into business, law, or be a doctor at a much higher starting pay.
Thank you
