Posted on 05/31/2013 4:08:26 PM PDT by GodAndCountryFirst
MACKINAC ISLAND (WWJ) – Controversial education reformer Michelle Rhee says there are hundreds of thousands of wonderful teachers in America who do “heroic” work.
But that doesn’t mean ineffective teachers shouldn’t be identified and fired, Rhee told the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference.
She also criticized the hypocrisy of politicians who she said allow conditions for other people’s children they would never, ever accept for their own.
Speaking of the Michigan Education Achievement Authority, created by Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration to take over low-performing public schools, Rhee said: “If you are willing to have your child in a failing public school in Detroit, you can be against vouchers and the EAA.”
(Excerpt) Read more at detroit.cbslocal.com ...
No more government schools at all. None of any kind. Make it all consumer-based, competitive and market-driven with no government oversight. Parents would be the gatekeepers and be in control.
Once we do that, then we could move on to Phase 2, which would be entirely severing the connection between education and tax money over time. We could slowly reduce the value of the vouchers so that parents started out having to write a check for, say, 10% of their kids' tuition. Then 15%, then 20%, etc. We do this - while at the same time lowering taxes across the board - until we get to 100%.
Instead of having parents (and EVERYBODY ELSE) pay the government to pay for schools, the middle-man would be eliminated over time. Parents would then be back in control of the education of their kids.
Now, sure, this could be expensive while the kids are in school. But, once the kids were out of school, people would be free of the now-permanent tax burden of paying for schools they are not using. For most people, the savings over their lifetimes would be enormous.
The LIEberals will cry that "poor" people won't he able to send their kids to school. But, first of all, the "poor" in the U.S. are not really that poor. Second, charities would be able to help in extreme cases. And third, MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, people should finally learn to stop having babies they cannot afford!
She is only controversial because she is successful.
The unions took her out in DC.
I agree. We need to privatize the schools. Anything else is just a case of re-arranging the chairs on the Titanic.
The unions have a death grip on the schools - and they don't care about the students.
Many (not all) parents use the schools as a baby-sitter, and they don't really care that johnny is not gaining knowledge and skills - because they aren't paying anything for their children's education.
Good teachers are not rewarded for their skills because seniority trumps all in the unionized world.
The net result is an expensive system that does a very poor job of educating and preparing the youth for the future.... But a wonderful job of creating a class of dependents who believe that it is government's job to support them from womb to tomb.
She was fired from the Washington DC public schools, if I recall correctly. She was too threatening to entrenched teacher union and bureaucracy and a culture which thinks educational achievement is acting white.
I personally love your idea. Kudos to you. End government schools.
Do black folks ever wonder why white liberals are okay with black inner city children not getting a good education?
Do black folks ever wonder why even liberal whites fled inner cities decades ago, when liberals preach about tolerance and celebrations of diversity?
In my vision, it wouldn’t matter how people felt about educational achievement. Some will value it, some won’t. And the personal achievements of both groups will speak for themselves. Everybody would have to live with the results of their choices.
Krazy keyboard kommando attack in 3,2,1.....
Nicely done
If the student does not want to do well there is no way the teacher is going to do well.
My school district hates it because I know all of their little lies, the thing they always say in certain situations to make themselves look good, etc. And I don't put up with it.
There is a math teacher at the middle school my daughter just graduated from Wednesday that received numerous complaints (including from us). Word is that she will not be back next year. The teacher went missing several weeks before the end of the year, and my daughter said the replacement teacher was awesome (she loves math, so she was ecstatic).
Guess what, people? Parental involvement does work, but only when you stop sitting behind your keyboards and get involved. I have 4 kids—next year they will be in three different schools—elementary, middle, and high school. I am active in the PTOs. I am the secretary next year for the middle school PTO. I am head of a committee for the elementary school. I teach religious ed for two grade levels at our Catholic school. I am active in my local right to life group. We have a large homestead with a massive garden and livestock. I meet myself coming and going, but if I don’t volunteer, no one else would.
We let our schools get away—TAKE THEM BACK!!!! We live in a small town on the Ohio/WV border where prayer is still practiced in schools and it is a Christmas program, not a holiday one. My son was involved in a Bible study in his recess time, led by his 5th grade teacher. That teacher grew up here and has kids in the same school we have ours in. He is a good man who loves his job and is (gasp) black and fairly conservative.
I want the feds out of education, because we here in Gallipolis do a decent job of taking care of it on our own. Having sat in on many PTO meetings, I can tell you what most of them think of federal guidelines on standards and lunch and everything in between.
I have homeschooled, spent thousands on Catholic school, and now have my kids in the public school system. I will support any parent in any choice of education for their children. The key is who controls those avenues, and a lot of us on FR like to put down each other rather than support each other on the path we have chosen to educate our kids.
You're both wrong. ALL schools are prisons that serve only to discipline and indoctrinate the party line. People who say public education is a failure are naive. Education never was the goal.
Kids belong with their parents. A crack whore Mom is a better teacher than strangers.
With several different teachers handling the same group of kids each day, how do you identify the bad teacher? Why is the phys-ed teacher graded as good but the math teacher graded as bad?
The problem with public schools is a reflection on society. Teachers aren't the problem, the parent(s) are. There is no short term fix to this mess.
Dear Michele Rhee, why can't government schools find and reward good teachers and dump bad teachers. That's not exactly rocket science. They can't and won't, because they are organized according to socialist principles.
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