[cartervt2k]

Decent article until he started deluding himself with the idea that corrupt teachers unions would choose to stop being corrupt.

[pnh102]

Heh. People forget what most government schools are in the business of these days... and it is not education.

[556x45]

I stopped when he stated that the dems were cowed by the teacher unions. The truth is the teacher unions are operating in agreement w/ the dems...an illiterate population is easy to RULE.

[ALPAPilot]

Two things are required for the schools to improve.

1) Fathers must raise their children.

2) Parents must pay directly for their children’s education.

If he thinks single payer education is bad, wait until he gets single payer health care. It’s just takes work to educate your children yourself, performing heart bypass surgery on yourself - not so easy.

[Above My Pay Grade]

While the quality of the instructors and facilities at many inner city schools are sub par, I doubt those things are the primary factors in the poor education the students receive.

It would be fascinating to conduct an experiment where the students from a wealthy, suburban school swap schools with a failing, violence plagued, inner city school, for a school year. The teachers and administrators would stay at their own schools. (Is there a reality show here, “School Swap”?)

I'd be willing to be that the behavior and test scores of the inner city kids would not improve that much and the behavior and test scores of the suburban kids would not decline much.

The main problem, IMO, is not the school buildings, teachers, books, computers, etc., but the students and their parents, and the clueless and corrupt local officials and school board members they elect. Unless parents prioritize their children's’ education and encourage and push them to work hard and do well, the best teachers and facilities will not make much difference.

[freespirited]

I dont disagree with his criticisms, but the fact remains that good outcomes require motivated students. It’s naive to assume that all of the problem rests with the “system.”

[libs_kma]

"...and over the decades it has admirably led the fight against poverty"

AND LOST! The war on poverty is a quagmire. RETREAT!!

[achilles2000]

The idea that government education can be reformed is delusional.

[The Great RJ]

The incompetence of teachers is due to more than just unions. The educational establishment itself helps to create teaching mediocrecy. To get teaching credentials requires students to take all kinds of "education" courses, but not develop any particular competancy in the subject matter they eventually will teach.

For example, it is totally possible to teach high school chemistry without an academic major in chemistry or even taking more than a few science classes. I personally know a student who wanted to teach high school chemistry and though she had a full academic major in chemistry and had done summer research under NSF grants, she was unable to get teaching credentials without taking some mickey mouse earth science classes. Yet if she had taken no more than these science classes she could have easily been credentialed to teach high school chemistry.