In response to the Politico article "What do you think of Obama's education plan?", I wrote this:
Unfortunately, Obama's policy is the same as any other government official's policy. We have administrative officials (whether superintendants, education commissioners, and politicians) who feel like the weight of the educational system is on their shoulders. So, instead of relying on the teachers to do a good job, these non-teaching suits make policies and tasks that take away the teachers attention away from the classroom. This is their way of saying they did something…whether good or bad.
For those people who say that unions are the problem, getting rid of the union will not solve any educational issues. In fact, the only issue I see with the union is that they cannot easily remove an ineffective teacher. To compound that problem, the schools then make policies (like TPS reports) to make up for not firing teachers. For instance, in a local district a teacher was getting a divorce and lived in his classroom instead of finding an apartment. Instead of firing the teacher, the district spent $$$$ to rekey all the schools. This just an example of how schools make bad and broad policies to cover-up bad actions.
I believe the way to make education better is to ask the teachers what they need to help teach the students…I doubt many will say to spend more money. They will mention that they want support/backing from the principals, counselors, and superintendant. They will mention that they want parents to be more involved. They will mention that they want to spend more time teaching and less time doing paperwork. They will mention that they want an effective attendance policy. Some teachers will say we need to expect more from our students. Most teachers will even say that there needs to be a better process to remove ineffective teachers.
Personally, I don’t like the idea of basing a teacher’s salary on how well the students perform. Some classrooms are filled with brilliant students while others are filled with special-needs students while others are filled with gang members. This policy is similar to basing your salary on how well your neighbor’s students perform…you have some influence—but not a whole lot.
Finally, remember that the most we can get out of our students is the least we expect of them.
