I'ld throw some blame on the teacher unions as well.
Shit is getting -blam!-ing hysterical out here in California.
Teacher abuses special needs student. Other teachers/aides see it. Student tells parents. Parents talk to principle. Principle investigates. Finds nothing legally wrong. Principle is mother of the offending teacher.
English
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How do the teachers unions make math and science scores go down? [url=http://edudemic.com/2011/10/global-teacher-salaries/]Our teachers work more hours than any in the world. They are paid less than those in countries that are currently crushing us in STEM scores.[/url] Teachers unions aren't the ones deciding school funding or setting an asinine curriculum. They are just an easy scapegoat. [url=http://career-advice.monster.com/salary-benefits/salary-information/worst-paying-college-degrees-2012/article.aspx]Monster ranked elementary education the 3rd worst paying degree in the nation.[/url] [url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37246205/15-worst-paying-college-degrees-in-2011/]CBS ranked it second worst paying in 2011.[/url] [url=http://www.salary.com/8-college-degrees-with-the-worst-return-on-investment/slide/5/]Salary.com ranked education the 6th worst ROI profession[/url] We are already insisting they work long hours for low pay to meet hundreds of objectives a year, I think we could lay off them a bit.
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Edited by M37h3w3: 2/27/2013 4:16:10 PM[quote]How do the teachers unions make math and science scores go down?[/quote] Because firing a tenured teacher, even with plain as day evidence right in front of you of their failure, is akin to moving a mountain. The school system in my area kept a teacher who kicked a special needs child in the gut on the payroll rather than fire her because it was too costly to fire her.
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So, in addition to the extra hours and low pay, we should also get rid of the organization that fights for their benefits and gives them some job security? I'm quite sure it is not impossible to fire abusive teachers, and I'm also plenty sure we don't have an epidemic of teachers running around abusing special needs kids. So I don't think your one uncorroborated example is indicative of major systemic problems with teachers unions protecting child abusers.
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Edited by M37h3w3: 2/27/2013 4:37:22 PM[quote]uncorroborated[/quote] :\ [url=https://www.google.com/search?q=brentwood+teacher+kicks+child&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a]Brentwood teacher kicks child.[/url] [url=https://www.google.com/search?q=teacher+duct+tapes+student&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a]Teachers tape student's mouth closed, sit on them.[/url] I will admit that two cases does not an epidemic make, but it does come off as being ridiculously difficult to the point that it's nigh impossible to fire a bad teacher. Hell, I had to personally deal with teacher when my sister was in elementary school who didn't deserve to be teaching.
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Edited by Obi Wan Stevobi: 2/27/2013 5:04:53 PMThe teacher in the story was not a member of any teacher's union, it was state tenure laws and a legal technicality because the school admins had not done her performance reviews that made the process difficult. But ultimately, in less than two years, she was fired and her teaching certificate was revoked. In the second story, it appears the board voted to fire her immediately after becoming aware of a photo of a student with duct tape on his mouth, with no context provided on whether the photo was a staged gag or not. I don't see any mention of difficulty in removing her at all. [url=http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0122/Duct-taped-students-Should-Ohio-teacher-be-fired]In fact, it sounds to me like the firing proceeding was totally unwarranted and all too efficient[/url]. In that they didn't even bother to notice the kids were laughing and could have easily removed the duct tape if they weren't posing for a picture.
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Then I do stand corrected.
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My wife is a teacher. She will probably never earn enough to pay back her student loans. Well, at least not if she had to support herself as well. While that is her fault for going to an expensive private university, it is also a societal problem that we expect our teachers to get soo much education, and place on them all these lofty expectations of turning our kids into geniuses but scream bloody murder if our tax dollars give them a livable salary. I don't know why media and parents rush to blame teachers for problems in our education system. It is a popular opinion that if we fired teachers in under-funded districts, things will be better. As if a bunch of super amazing people are lining up for a $30,000 a year paycheck that requires at least a 4 year degree. A lot of people would agree with your original sentiment, but I just don't understand how that became a popular line of reasoning in the first place.
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Edited by M37h3w3: 2/27/2013 8:31:35 PMI realize that teachers are vastly underpaid and working a thankless job when it should be the exact opposite considering that they are literally creating the future when they teach. I had a wonderful physics teacher in high school who had a scale model of the solar system hung from the ceiling of the classroom. He told us at the start of the year that anyone who could figure out which celestial object was being reflected in a concave mirror in the corner of the classroom would be given extra credit. He told us that he would teach us the skills how to figure that out. My issue is that since teachers are the ones molding young minds, we should have low tolerances for unacceptable behavior. My issue is too is that unions on a whole haven't been that helpful in actually helping their workers. Case in point: Hostess going bankrupt. Chicago teachers striking for more pay when the system just doesn't have any money. My sister, 10 years my junior, had a teacher at my old middle school that was the poster child for why some tenured teachers need to be more easily removed. Almost completely sure she was undiagnosed ADHD, routinely lost student papers and gave out F grades as a result, class was generally completely unruly. But the biggest sticking point was the fact that she bought a pair of rabbits, asked the students to take them home and care for them, lost them to the wild when she had them and bought six chickens instead.
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Edited by Obi Wan Stevobi: 2/27/2013 9:19:22 PM[quote] My issue is that since teachers are the ones molding young minds, we should have low tolerances for unacceptable behavior...*cut*..Chicago teachers striking for more pay when the system just doesn't have any money.[/quote] Everyone would agree that we want high standards for teachers. But, at the same time, we don't want to pay the bill. We can't blame them for wanting to make up the money that we require them to spend just to get the job. We keep asking for more, but won't even keep their wages steady with inflation. If it weren't for unions, they wouldn't even have the miniscule pay they have now. [quote] Case in point: Hostess going bankrupt[/quote] That is a whole thread worth of arguing, but I guarantee you that if you read into that beyond conservative press outlets, the union didn't put hostess out of business. In fact, it took cuts during the first bankruptcy that are almost unheard of in a union workplace to keep the place going as long as it did. If you read up on the contract negotiations with employees throughout both bankruptcies, and look at how the business was actually being managed by the venture capitalists that put themselves in charge of a business they knew nothing about, I don't think you'll find it a textbook case of unions destroying capitalism. [quote]My sister, 10 years my junior, had a teacher at my old middle school that was the poster child for why some tenured teachers need to be more easily removed. Almost completely sure she was undiagnosed ADHD, routinely lost student papers and gave out F grades as a result, class was generally completely unruly. But the biggest sticking point was the fact that she bought a pair of rabbits, asked the students to take them home and care for them, lost them to the wild when she had them and bought six chickens instead.[/quote] Sounds really odd lady, but doesn't sound abusive, and doesn't really indicate she is a particularly bad teacher. I remember in high school everyone worked hard in English so they could get into honors English because the honors teacher was a senile old lady. She managed to get through the material, but was extremely lenient and let a lot of things slide like late work and being late to class. Occasionally she would talk to invisible hobbits, but we all thought it was funny. To this day I don't know if she was crazy or trying to get us into Tolkien. I had her her last year of teaching. Obviously she wasn't at the top of her teaching game, but nothing I would suggest someone close to retirement be fired for. Again, you don't have an excess of really qualified people willing to fight over a McDonald's shift manager salary.