Educating Davis

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, April 8, 2002

[daviddennis]

I grabbed the bill text from that site and attempted to read it.

Attempted is a good word; unless you're trained to read this stuff, it's incomprehensible. I'm sure I missed a lot of the real meaning behind it.

If I understand what I read correctly, teachers, as represented by their union, are going to be able to advise on, among other things, their own evaluation methods. If this is done through collective bargaining, it strikes me as highly dangerous. THe foxes are guarding each other from the henhouse; not exactly effective.

They then talk about an elabourate system involving parents and others attempting to fix the problems. Earlier today on Free Republic, I read the problem with this: Parents don't attend school events unless they feel they're actually going to be able to make a difference. Most of these invitations will be used as doorstops or free notepaper.

The standards are pretty weak, too. You're given money if you make your targets. You can continue participating in the program if you improve even microscopically. I didn't notice what happened if you didn't improve. However, if teachers can influence the evaluation of results, there's no way improvement, however bogus, won't occur.

This certainly confirms my impression that vouchers are the only way to go. I wonder why they have been consistently rejected in the state.

D

[Salvation]

NEA and GLSEN Seek to Stifle Free Speech