Posted on 10/26/2003 1:59:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Pasadena teacher who assigned politically charged letter writing to resign*** Williams' supporters say the district proposed firing her in response to political speech. The district denies politics played any part in the decision to fire her.***
The report calls for a stronger history and social studies curricula, starting in elementary school and continuing through all years of schooling. It also suggests a bigger push for morality in education lessons.
"The basic ideas of liberty, equality, and justice, of civil, political and economic rights and obligations, are all assertions of right and wrong, of moral values," the report says. "The authors of the American testament had no trouble distinguishing moral education from religious instruction, and neither should we."***
'Pluralism' manifesto lights a furor - Academic Bill of Rights***DENVER - A Republican proposal to boost pluralism in academia in Colorado has enraged the left, prompting cries of McCarthyism and calls for an investigation.
The flap erupted last week after word surfaced that Colorado Republican leaders are throwing their support behind the "Academic Bill of Rights," a document drawn up over the summer by Los Angeles-based conservative activist David Horowitz.
The eight-point manifesto calls for increasing intellectual diversity in academia by urging universities to seek more conservative professors, include more classics in the curriculum, invite conservative speakers to campus, and protect students who disagree with liberal professors from academic harassment.***
"Some people are income poor and property rich and said, `We can't afford it,' " said Lyons. Others might simply not want to pay for a service they don't use. Public education is an act of community and public faith, a pact between those who use the public schools and those who don't.
The gamble is that making school engaging, which might cost an extra $400 a year in taxes, will add to public life, if not real estate values. But how do you sell something as intangible as educational quality? "A lot of people don't want to support the public schools any longer. They don't feel like they should, and that is a real moral issue," said Arlington School Committee chairwoman Suzanne Baratta Owayda, noting the pressure to pay for programs with user fees. Judi Bohn, Arlington Public Schools partnership coordinator, wonders if the town will lose appeal without excellent schools. "Are we going to end up in a place where people say, `Oh, Arlington is a great place to live, but you have to send your kid to private school,' " she asked.***Source
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People don't wan't to support BAD public education.
In Oregon, we voted down a tax increase, despite the hand-wringing ads run by the corrupt teachers' union, but they managed to get the governor and legislature to sign a budget to raise taxes, so they can have an even fatter budget.
Now, as we collect signatures to reject that increase, teachers are using their classrooms to indoctrinate children into begging their parents to not sign the petition, and giving them propaganda printed up by the teachers' union that summarizes their position.
Because I find it difficult to believe -- not saying you didn't, just finding it difficult. When I left teaching, I found just the opposite. The most classroom time I ever spent was 4 hours and 10 minutes per day (5 classes @ 50 minutes each. Grading papers never took, over the course of a school year, more than 1 hour per day on average. There were other things, similar to what you mention and most of which I was paid for, clubs, director of the school's intraural programs, gifted program committee, test and textbook selection committe, but I almost never remained at school after 4pm. Sometimes I would return in the evening or on Saturday to take tickets or keep score at sporting events. But again, I was paid to attend events other had to pay to attend. They were also all voluntary. In ten years of teaching I never had one mandatory activity on a weekend or holiday.
When I got into business, I found myself quickly drawn into 12-18 hour days, seven days a week.
College graduates with the lowest ranking diplomas become teachers, then administrators.
Cafeterias receive 'commodities' from the Dept. of Agriculture.
Superintendents usually make as much money as Congressmen, but the pay is so low for 'support staff' (the folks that actually DO something) you're better off working at Burger King!
I also should comment on the analogy that is often made between the difference in salary of school teachers and professional athletes. This argument is often made by liberals and is intended to show that priorities in our society are somehow screwed up. How absurd, the comparison. All I have to say to that is that if an Algebra teacher can fill Shea Stadium on a Sunday afternoon for his lecture with millions of people tuning in at home on TV, then all the power to him - he can make $10 million a year too. And maybe Texas Instruments will sign him up to endorse their calculators.
I don't think anybody has a problem with paying teachers well but since (in the case of public schools), they are paid with our tax dollars, it would be irresponsible to pay them a penny more than what the market will bear (and that goes for all public servants).
What I don't understand about our public school systems is the glut of non-teaching personnel that now hang out at our schools - all paid with tax dollars. You got your school psychologists (who evidently are the ones "available for counseling" everytime some kid gets run over by a car or ODs on drugs), your guidance counselors (not one but many), your "outreach" counselors, etc., etc. There are probably more people employed at my son's high school in non-teaching roles than those who actually teach. And on that subject, why are there full-time janitors? Can't they subcontract cleaning services to sweep the floors and empty the trash cans at night like 99% of all businesses now do? Or maybe they can have the teachers be responsible for sweeping up their own classrooms and having unruly students stay after school to sweep the hallways and clean the bathrooms instead of sitting in detention?
Put me in charge of schools and I will get things fixed and maybe get these teachers more money without having to raise any taxes.
As for public school teachers, they do have it pretty good overall. They get the summers off with several weeks during the school year (when schools are closed for winter break, Christmas, etc.). They get this thing called "tenure" which basically means they can't get fired unless they do something really, really bad. And pensions are pretty generous in most places.
At the heart of the discrepancy may well be a reluctance on the part of educators to report campus crime fully.
Many schools prefer to handle crime – even violent crime – themselves, using detention or suspension rather than filing police reports.
This could be one reason why.
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