Look what I found on the Daily Kos website.?

Question

A liberal who is willing to admit that many of the problems within our educational system stems from the Teachers Unions. I’m shocked.

1. Education. At present most inner-city public schools have drop-out rates of over 50%. And for those that don't drop out they are not prepared to succeed in college. But the problem does not end there. In highly educated rich Boulder Colorado for example, only 50% of the 10th graders are proficient in math.
We no longer have an economy with plenty of jobs for those with just a high school education and additional jobs for those that did not complete high school. Not just the good jobs, but most jobs period are there for those with a college degree.
We cannot address the problems we face today and will face tomorrow without fixing our school system. And we cannot compete with India and China if we don't improve our education system.
And we, as liberals, must face the fact that we will have to fight the teacher unions to fix the system. The teacher unions are not the only problem. But they are a large barrier to fixing this and they in many places have a stranglehold on those from the left that need to fix the system.
My question is:

Do you believe that any of the Democratic forerunners are willing to meet this problem head-on, or will they shy away because the Teachers Unions are the largest, strongest, and carry more clout than any of the other unions?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/6/04545/36663

Pip, thank you. I will. :)

Answer 1

It's the first time I've heard a Liberal say this. (The rest of the article came from the Liberal Handbook written 30 years ago.) They've been in charge. Guess who's in charge of most of the inner city schools. Guess who's in charge of most of our public schools. Liberals! There solution has always been to throw money at problems. So here's our plan: tax the citizens until they flee our city! Good plan.

All of us have seen these so and so cities pay so and so amount per child to educate. Typically, the worse school districts spend the most per child.

The Federal government needs to get out of the education business. Grants, loans, programs, everything. Give all the monies back to the States and let local government regain control of our schools. No more letters from my kids saying you need to be to school on Monday so we can get our full allotment of money from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. It's our money and they don't need to touch it.

Answer 2

I am lucky enough to say that I have three children who all attended and graduated from high school with the ability to read and write. My oldest, a daughter, did attend college and is still taking classes part time (since she has now become a wife and mother) to get a degree in Nursing. My second child, a son, chose the service after participating in ROTC in his high school years and is serving as a Chaplains Assistant in Iraq. My youngest finished high school..and has no desire to aquire a higher degree. She is married, her and her husband both have full time jobs, a house, two cars..and appear to be doing well with their choice of occupations. I believe the reason that my children succeeded as they have is because of their family support....not because of their teachers. I see this arguement all the time where someone wants to blame the teachers or the school district, etc...for the poor level of education afforded our children in this day and time. My question: what are the parents doing to make sure their children are getting the education they need? How closely do the parents follow their childs education and know what level they are on?? If the drop-out rate is 50%, then there is a failure occuring not at school but in the home....parents who want the best for their children do not ALLOW these children to drop out unless they themselves are less educated than their own children. Don't blame it all on the teachers or the teachers union....the education of children starts at home with a parent who takes the time to be involved in their childs education.

Answer 3

i was able to call up the link and was shocked to find it there also. they will not take on the teacher's union, it is far too strong and in my opinion is one of the most critical reasons our current education system is failing our children and our future.

"We cannot address the problems we face today and will face tomorrow without fixing our school system. And we cannot compete with India and China if we don't improve our education system.

And we, as liberals, must face the fact that we will have to fight the teacher unions to fix the system. The teacher unions are not the only problem. But they are a large barrier to fixing this and they in many places have a stranglehold on those from the left that need to fix the system."

i personally believe the voucher systems would be best so that parents could chose where to send their children, then schools would have to compete and those who failed, like in any business, would be eliminated.

charter shcools have had miraculous success and should tell public education that just throwing more money at them is not going to fix their problems.

Answer 4

There are some common threads here.

Unions are socialist organizations. If you are in one getting fired for incompetence, and particularly the teachers union, it is next to impossible. When a school must get rid of a BAD teacher they do not fire them, they transfer them to another school

As long as the Democrats pander to socialism and these types of organizations the schools WILL NOT CHANGE.

If you want real change, real improvement, privatize the schools, let the free market address the needs and then you would see this entire mess essentially disappear, and once again the US would lead the world in this area.

Socialism fails, every time, when are people going to wake and see this.

Of course you know for the socialist whackos, you have just quoted their source du jour for all knowledge and positions.

Answer 5

Answer: As an original concept to protect employees from "evil" bosses, unions may have had their place...
Apparently teachers see that vile evil in their employers...
But wait! Don't they work for the government?
Does that mean teachers HATE their government?
They sure seem to have contrived a scheme to extort power and privilege from those that pay their salaries and!!!
Hey! That's all the other tax paying citizens.
And it does seem that the more influence the government and unions have in education the lower the test scores and graduations rates!
Maybe what America needs is a tax payer union!

Answer 6

On education, what no one has mentioned is that we have taken personal responsibility out of schools. we do not hold students, parents or teachers accountable for education. By doing the pass them because if we don't it will hurt their self-esteem has also helped dumb down the educational process. I do not understand how no child left behind has "dumb" downed our educational system By holding schools and teachers responsible for doing their job is not dumbing down. What is wrong with having schools reach minimum standards? Just throwing money at the problem will not fix it, there has to be rewards and punishments if standards are nt met.

Answer 7

here's some common ground for real bi-partisan work, regardless of who's in office, but we have to stop thinking things can significantly change from the top. this is more of a local problem. it's our own neighbors on the school boards and in the local govt's that are soaking us. but you're right -the dnc will not drop it's support of any union, especially the teacher's.

Answer 8

Well, I went to the site and read it for myself. No where in that article does he make the case as to WHY the teachers unions are the problems. He doesn't make a credible case for this issue in the small paragraph he writes about it. In other words, he doesn't pose any connections between these problems with schools and how the teachers unions are involved with holding these schools back. This isn't a very credible article that you pose. It's pretty over generalized and weak. Good luck blaming teachers however instead of posing real solutions. It's an argument straight out of an 8 year olds play book. "He did it" "NO, he did it", "No, I swear he's to blame", "No, he is". Blah blah blah it all tastes like chicken.
If it is the teacher's union, please point out exact examples of how it is linked. And, don't provide the old cliche that they don't fire bad teachers. Because I know for a fact that just is not true.

I'm 100% behind Delphi on this. And, my point of view is from behind the front lines as well.

Answer 9

Teachers should not have the ability to strike.

Neither should:
Firefighters.
Police.
Military.

I admit many area's teacher's salaries are a joke, but then many public school teachers are a joke themselves. For all of the hard-working, dedicated teachers, I would apologize but this is not a comment on the majority of teachers, I would love to see you get a raise. I would also like to see the ability to remove a pupil from public schools if it is determined they have "no desire" to complete school or after a certain number of failures. But until pay can be related to merit, I don't have much sympathy, because there are too many over-payed worthless teachers that cannot be fired.

Answer 10

The truth is the use of birth control pills cause the ability of children born after its use to be of a much lower IQ . This drug was tested on lab rats and showed that the offspring often could not complete the maze .

Thats why private educational institutions push parents to teach abstinence as the only birth control to use .

The use of the pill was a government program to create workers who would not be dissatisfied with mundane repetitive tasks .

Lower educated students who would accept jobs that needed to be done . Like garbage pickup and yard work and generally stocking a shelf and what made things really take off are bar codes and now people do not even need to add anything which they would have trouble doing after completing high school these days .