"Pete C." wrote in
.com:


Jim Yanik wrote:

"Pete C." wrote in
.com:


Han wrote:

"Doug" wrote in
:

On 25 Jan 2012 14:03:07 GMT, Han wrote:

RonB wrote in
news:49abe15e-ccf3-4bc0-bb20-
:

On Jan 25, 5:00 am, "HeyBub" wrote:


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...503544/mitch-d
ani els -...

Yep. The government is slowly but steadily eliminating one of
the most effective educational systems in our country.....
Small, but strong rural schools.

Ours survived a serious school battle about five years ago.
But it will probably be gone within ten.

What's needed is dedicated teachers and involved parents.
BOTH! I said BOTH!!


I only watched a portion of the pep talk but when he said the
best teachers should be rewarded, I asked myself define "best"
and then I said with what. I mean some people can't afford
their homes much less property tax increases of which help pay
for the teachers. I thought maybe a better way was not to
reward the "best" teachers but just get rid of the bad teachers.
Of course then we have to define what "good and bad" is but
aside from the definitions, I think a teacher doing his/her job
shouldn't get rewarded but should keep their job instead. I
think the reward is seeing their student graduate college and
come back to say thank you to that teacher. I realize not many
students do this but maybe we need to teach the students
"manners / respect" as well as academics. Just my 2 cents
worth...

It is difficult to define and measure what a good teacher is,
Indeed!! I am not saying it would be easy, nor that there
shouldn't be ways to so so. But ...

Both my daughter and son-in-law are high school teachers in less
than privileged districts. While it is very rewarding for them to
see students succeed, especially those they get when they at first
appear to be "losers", it isn't helpful to them when their net
take home pay gets cut significantly, as happened in NJ when the
millionairs' tax was cut, but teachers were told to pay much more
for their healthcare and in addition had their pension funds
reduced once again (NJ has refused to pay the contractually
arrived at amounts into the pension funds).

Everyone wants to pay good teachers more (and get rid of bad ones)
but nobody wants to pay for it. The thing is, what legal,
constitutional, moral, etc. justification do you have for taxing
some people at a higher rate just because they have deep pockets?
Why should one person pay $0.50 of every dollar they earn while
someone else only pays $0.15 of every dollar they earn? No rational
person can be in favor of anything but a single flat tax on all
income from all sources as being fair to everyone.


Does paying teachers(good or bad) more bring about any increase in
kids passing or getting better grades? Does it better prepare kids
for entering the real world of employment? No and no.

Yes, and yes. Better salaries for teachers brings better teachers into
the teaching profession who otherwise go down other career paths that
pay better.

that is what the teachers unions would like you to believe.


Fact is,the teachers knew the teaching salaries before they accepted
the job,and probably before they selected teaching as a career.
Perhaps they should only teach for a few years,and then move on to
some better paying job(if they have the skills...),if they don't like
their salaries.

What happens is that idealistic teachers come out of college, take
teaching jobs and rapidly become disillusioned with the relatively low
pay and the poor schools.

they get "disiiusioned" because of all the unprepared and unruly students
that they MUST put up with.
OTOH,private schools expel unruly and bad students.

The good ones generally leave for better
jobs in the non teaching world in a few years,

that is what the teachers unions would like you to believe.

while the bad ones
remain and get tenure and are protected by the unions. The end result
is failing schools full of bad, tenured, union protected teachers.



Fact is,all the billions we've poured into the Dept.Of Education has not
improved the education of our kids at all.

Maybe we might be doing better by our children if we put that money back
into local schools.(dumping the DOEdu)

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com