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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <117200046@inmet>
Date: Thu, 18-Sep-86 03:59:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.117200046
Posted: Thu Sep 18 03:59:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 08:17:42 EDT
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Nf-From: inmet.UUCP!janw    Sep 18 03:59:00 1986


>[devonst@burdvax.UUCP ]
>/* ---------- "Re: Taxing Schools Etc. (paranoid e" ---------- */
>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".  

They have the same kind of objection to the voucher idea: it would
ruin the public schools system, they say - because it would create
competition. A brazen position that they can afford because of an
immense political clout.

>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. 

Agreed.

>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.

Right way to go.

>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.

This depends on who evaluates the  merit.  Bureaucratic  or  peer
evaluation  can  become  a  nightmare.  Purely  objective tests -
change in students' scores - would be better than nothing.   Best
of  all  would be the marketplace test: a voucher system, parents
free to choose the school and the teacher - and teacher paid  ac-
cording to the income she attracts.

>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.  

Now here we have a choice: the present system (no good); a
"professional" system with more stringent state tests;
or a free-market system with parents being the judges of merit.
I would favor the latter; teachers could still pass tests,
on a voluntary basis, to show the certificates to parents -
the way some car mechanics do.

>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.

They only will when parents make them. Tax revolt got us a tax reform
of sorts; we need a parent revolt for a school reform.

		Jan Wasilewsky