What would work?
I like vocher systems because I beleive competition is self policing. Parents would compare schools and use the ones that appealed to them.
My Father was taught in a one room school house , the School marm was a state employee but she had a lot of autonomy and controll of the class , the class was all grades in the same room ,but the teachers task was not impossible , she taught the older grades mostly and taught them to teach the younger kids.
Where is a modern , first world ,school system being effective? We probly don't need to invent anything .
Private schools offer a lot more to families because families hold stock in the "corporation"...sort of speak.
Public schools don't have the luxuary of such things as funding (from wealthy parent for the MOST PART) the refusal to allow students who test lower on assessments designed by the directors of the school to enter they facility to begin with, a teacher student ratio of 2/17 in each classroom. So, of course there are going to be parents who would LOVE to move their students to facilities that hold such prime qualities---if given a voucher to do so.
But we are talking about public schools, charter schools etc. Set up a voucher to attend a "better" PS then that school better be funded, equiped and ready to face the music. SO, WHY not rebuild what is already on the dock. Why not fund the public school system in ways that will give everyone involved a head start? As it is, we don't have anything to work with in order to provide a better system. We have 1/28 ratio of teacher/student, classrooms that are 30 years old or more broken down, families who don't give a damn about their children's education..why should they.....they don't have an interest $$ wise or otherwise....
Put a match to the flame and make the parents accountable in the public system might help. Make the parents pay if their child fails to pull weight. Who knows what the solution would be best. But, as it is now, parents don't have to care....so kids feel as though they don't have to care, and then we are put in the newpaper as bad apples.
You would never see that in a systme such as a private institution. WHy? Parent contribute work with and make damn sure their child follows through in the learning process.
If you think one can drop a child off at the door and expect the teacher to do all given these cirucumstances, that's not realistic nor does it help anyone----especially the child. Realistically speaking, it does take a lot more to teach children these days. We are up against parents who do drugs, single parent families, latch key kids, abused kids (sexually and emotionally), children robbed of the luxuary of being read to because the video games industry has taken strong hold....and the elements go on and on.....But, still folks like to agrue that it's all about poor teaching....poor argument. Not even close to correct. Too easy to blame and call the game on the sidelines, but people do it with such ease all the time.
As it is now, the push to make things "better" for the public schools is played out on the stage of a kind of intimidation, and humiliation with a dose of hard core NCLB pressure to DO BETTER OR ELSE.
There are too many factors in the mix to just say
go vouchers.....I am for fixing the broken system and supporting people like myself, who loves to teach.
GOd, I would love to be able to see children experience a science experiment, or travel to the Native Pueblos around here like we used to do. I would love to see the engagment of children in the world of learning....questioning, not stressing, enjoying the life of learning. But, they too are stressed to the max. Testing has affected more than the teachers...the children are losing something precious in all of this...but no one wants to see that.
They would rather read about it in the newspaper and cry that we don't want our dirty laundry to air about....
