public schools will be broken until we repeal the labor laws that force "good faith" negotiations with them. should be free to fire them and never speak to them again and hire teachers that are willing to be actually held to standards.
Creative solutions are needed to educate our youth. Those students that disrupt classes should be required to play video games that require a certain knowledge level be obtained before they can win the game. Winning the game would be required before they could return to class.
The President requested that the Congress take action to consolidate some of the overlapping duties of these agencies over a year ago. This is the job of the Congress to take such action and you would think, for all the rhetoric about reducing the size of government, that the Congress would have been eager to do so. That said, they refused to act. The President is right to request this power. It is the only way to force Congress' hand and make them sh!t or get off the pot. The President is a smart guy and he knows that Congress isn't going to grant him this power. That said, it is one more instance where the Republicans in congress are contradicting what they claim to believe in so they can make the President look ineffective. You cannot have it both ways.
This version is more apt to get positive results! I opine that teachers have about a 30% - 40% impact on students and their knowledge. Parents and peers, my friend, parents and peers. hwr geaux tigers
Consolidating agencies doesn't make the overall any smaller. It just takes people from A and sticks them in B.
Its teachers and parents together. Lack of effort exists on both sides. My 6th grader has a substitute in at least one of his classes every week. Teachers use every second of the time off that they get and the class gets babysat on those day. When we send the kid to tutoring and also talk to the teachers directly about his grades and classwork, the teachers are very appreciative of our effort and concern and wish more of the student's parents cared as much to make the effort. So teachers and parents point fingers at each other and lament how the system is failing. Some teachers are sucked in to their jobs entitlements and don't worry so much about their performance and some parents think that their educational commitment ends at the drop off lane. The 'its not my fault' attitude has got to stop. However, our country's leaders show us everyday how it is someone else's falut.
I didn't watch the other night but have heard many teachers and parents complaining about "teaching to the test" for the past decade or so. This has all taken place since I finished high school (and without kids in school yet) so I don't know all of the details. I recall a couple of teachers (family members) a few years ago complaining that they are forced to spend way too much time on tricks to pass the test instead of actually having the kids learn the material. I don't know if this problem is widespread across the country but their concerns sounded valid.
Actually this would shrink the number of federal employees as well as reduce the number of regulations. I am a small business owner and can tell you that the over regulation complaint comes from seperate federal agencies over lapping so you are getting a person from two, sometimes three different agencies who show up to do the very same inspections as the last guy. It get's really hairy when two find no violations and the third one does not. Honestly, I think the politics comes into play, on both sides, in the fact that the agencies the President wants to shrink are more business related agencies that are typically Republican leaning. If this were the EPA I doubt the President would have any trouble getting Republicans to cooperate.
I agree. The tests takes all creativity away from the Teacher and, IMHO, makes even eager and ambitious teachers fall into a rut thus diminishing the overall product.
Nonetheless you seem to know it . . . Changing it is exactly what teachers are complaining about. Look it up, it ain't hard to find. You should listen to Stacey sometime. A High School graduate who does't at least understand pi is improperly uneducated. Look, I'm not discouraging testing, I'm saying that the government-imposed standards for testing have become onerous and the first ones objecting were teachers. I'll give you an example. My department has for decades provided high school science teachers with maps, posters, Louisiana-specific environmental and geologic samples, and traveling technical exhibits as a part of our outreach. Traditionally teachers were very happy to receive and utilize the materials in their classes. But since "No-child" many teachers have told us that they miss using the stuff, but they just don't have time to introduce anything that isn't directly relating to the mandatory standardized tests. The tests have become so important to funding that individual or regional variation in broadly educating these kids is discouraged and the learning process is secondary to cramming them for tests. It can become the tail wagging the dog.
