"Han" wrote
That statement is probably true (don't doubt your finding it). But it is
also not related to the problem. Keeping the old rules of seniority and
union employment together with a need to reduce spending is the perfect
recipe for chaos. What the system needs foremost is involved parents.
Next comes raising the standards for teachers and raising the teacher
esprit de corps. Money is a part of all that. For instance: If you fire
a teacher and then rehire him does he start out again at the bottom of the
seniority list?

They system started going to crap a few decades ago. Much of it was
unfunded mandates from the state and federal governments. Union rules that
keep a few of the teachers in classrooms that don't belong there. Parents
that think of the schools as cheap baby sitters, and the inability to
discipline students because of so many liberal laws.

There are some excellent teachers and students working hard, but no matter
what problem that comes up with the rest of the sysem, the answer seems to
be to throw money at it. Until they are willing to change the way they do
business, no amount of money will help.