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From: devonst@burdvax.UUCP (Tom Albrecht)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,net.kids
Subject: Re: Taxing Schools Etc. (paranoid educational establishment)
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Date: Tue, 9-Sep-86 10:00:10 EDT
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Posted: Tue Sep  9 10:00:10 1986
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janw@inmet.UUCP writes:
>I agree with your priorities, which makes me reject your position.
>Since early 60's, as government kept throwing more and more
>money at public schools, the education level was steadily
>going down. That system does not work. If you want to
>develop minds, try another system.
>
>Another point is that the public school system is  too  standard-
>ized,  too  uniform.  The  minds  capable of designing new things
>(like the ones you quoted), have to be *different* from each oth-
>er. It is useless to have the *same* idea a million times over.
>
>Let us therefore give kids *different* backgrounds.
>It was important in an industrial society, it is *necessary*
>in a post-industrial one. The pluralism described in
>the top paragraph is just what we need.
>
>		Jan Wasilewsky

Secretary of Education Bennett relates the story of a school system in the
midwest that set up a sort of magnet school specializing in the humanities.
The educational possibilities were so superior to other schools in the same
system that four times as many students applied as there were
openings in the school.  So what did the benighted school officials do?
Did they open another school or two in order to accommodate the demand for
quality education?  No, they shut down the new school because they said it
was "unworkable".  This sort of story only points out the utter failure of
public education.  As long as "professional educators" run the system, the
public schools are doomed to failure.  In New Jersey, Governor Kean has
said that a degree from a teacher's college is no longer needed to teach in
the state.  All one needs to show is a proficiency in the subject area and
an ability to communicate with young people and you can teach in NJ
schools.  Someone is finally moving to break the death grip that the
educational establishment has on the public schools.

95% of Americans support the concept of merit pay and teacher competency
tests.  Americans believe that good teachers should be paid more money and
that bad teachers should be fired to make room for better teachers.
Teachers unions, on the other hand, want more money but are unwilling to
submit themselves to any review process linked to salary increases.
Teachers say they want to be treated like professionals, but are unwilling
to accept the same sort of qualification process that other professionals
have.  Would you want a doctor who refused to take medical board exams and be
licensed by the state medical association to operate on your 9 year old 
child?  Would you go to a lawyer who didn't take the Bar exam?  It's
time people started using some common sense when picking their children's
education.  Teachers and school administrators better get it through their
heads that they work for the parents and not for themselves nor the
teacher's unions.

--
Tom Albrecht