Do you think the American public school system has serious problems?

Question

1. What are the problems?
2. What are different ways to fix them?
3. What do you think would be the best way to fix the problems?

Answer 1

Well with the drop out rate still way to high in this country, with tenure for idiots commonplace, with SAT scores falling each year, with immigrants (illegal) being used to fill high tech jobs because not enough Americans qualify, with college now recruiting for tuition dollars instead of talent we get pretty much what we expect.

Superintendents of schools should be elected everywhere. These elected officials should be able to discharge useless teachers, more importantly administrators where performance is below acceptable levels. Not presidential mandates for standardized testing, just the local standards for communities concerned for their kids with voting rights to change the decision makers at the top all the way to the bottom. The NTEA teachers union should be burned at the stake and wholesome, back to basics taught at the ground roots level using experience and talented teachers who care about kids. We have too many teachers, administrators and politicians trying to legislate our learning process. We have gotten what we deserve.

Answer 2

I think we need to face the fact that not all kids are educatable in the same degree.
Some kids are just not capable, they need other programs, geared more towards non college aims, and they shouldn't be counted along with the rest of the class, because they bring down the averages making everyone look bad.
We need to have places to put troublemakers. Real ones, not the kid caught with a dummy musket in his car because hes a Civil War re enactor. (really happened here). Zero tolerance seems to mean zero brain power. Lets get rid of blanket punishments.
We need separation for bullies and those who physically challenge the teachers or other students.
We need to get over the idea its the parents fault...its the kids once the kid is in sixth grade. If you blame the parent, you absolve the kid. I was an occaisionaly rotten kid, if someone had said they would put my parents away for something I had done, I might have done it on purpose. I know better than to give a kid that power, they don't see much past getting what they want.
We spend entirely too much time dissing teachers, and teachers spend too much time still thinking this is the fifties.
Mothers and dads both work, they can't drop work to come to school to be told Little Edgar isn't doing his homework.
Give less homework and actually teach in school. Works wonders. Let parents enjoy some time with their kids instead of turning them into slave drivers.
I know I represent a minority view, but I've lived through a bunch of off the wall methods, none of them work for all kids, but I'll tell you this, this is the worst of the worst, and No Child Left Behind is a failure on too many levels.

Answer 3

Yes I do. Basically, I think the problem is that there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Republicans fight to keep kids praying, learning about Jesus in science class, and studying abstinence. Democrats fight to keep them learning about evolution, sexual safety, and social tolerance. All of those are fine things to know, but the school day is only six hours long. In the meantime, Math, Logical Reasoning, History, English, and Science all suffer; and Art and Music programs are being cut altogether. To complicate things, State and Local governments also take interestin the curriculums, which often affect the amounts of federal aid that they and the districts receive.

I think the only way to fix the system, is to speak with one voice. Establish an independent agency to oversee the running of the school districts that isn't beholden to partisan concerns. This should cut down on the amount of beauracracy that's currently in place, and allow for a more organized approach to educating. We could spend a lot more time teaching, if we spent less time arguing over what to teach.

Answer 4

As a wife for 36 years of a dedicated teacher, you might be surprised of my answers that are echoed by my husband

1) The biggest problem is the teacher's union
2) There are unfortunately too many lobbyist involve in education
3) Getting rid of the previous 2 it would be first and most important. Having parents paid for tuition instead of the states robing our money in the form of propriety taxes would help too. Teachers should be accountable for their performance as it is done on any job in the private sector.
4) In recognizing that some children's parents don't have the means to pay for an education, THEN...is when you dip into the the common coffers (aka taxpayers money) and help ONLY the ones that want an education and need the funds.

Answer 5

1. What are the problems?
A. Schools are responsible for "babysitting" children for
up to 8 hours a day and are not allowed to discipline
children
B. The famous Cliton "No child left behind" policy, has
done nothing but dumb down the children (particularly
minority)
C. There are too many criminals in our schools.
D. Too many children are graduating without the basic
skills (you know reading and writing)
2. Different ways to fix them
A. Go back to corporal punishment for problem children.
B. Hold back children that fail.
C. Put the criminals in jail where they belong and get
them out of our schools.
D. Hold teachers accountable for educating children.
3. Best way?
A. There is no one best way to address these problems,
but I think a good start would be to fire all currently
elected officials, and start over from scratch with
conservatives, and give them all term limits.
B. Blow up the ACLU with all liberals in the building

Answer 6

1) a) Government runing the schools. Anything the Government runs ends up broke beyond repair.

1) b) Parents not caring about their children and being too self absorbed to help teach their children.

1) c) Disrespectful and disobedient children

2) Getting the government out of schools, making the parents more responsible for their children, and treating children more like adults to stiffen the punishment when they get out of line.

3) The best solution is to dissolve our public school system and encourage homeschooling. It gets parents more involved in the children's lives so that they make sure that their children are on the right path. Get rid of the television because it has turned both parents and children into vegitables. Short of this, there is no real solution because parents dumping the children off on somebody else to care for so that they don't have to has ruint the parents of today and now is ruining their children.

Answer 7

Yes
1. Not enough funding, and high demands without the tools to meet the demands. Allowing the same people to teach the same things without changing their presentation of the curriculum throughout 30 years. Many others, but those are the first that come to mind.

2. Either eliminate or fund No Child Left Behind. That program has taken money away from schools that do not meet standardized test results, but has not provided the tools necessary to meet/exceed the standards. I would eliminate the tenured career position. After working for X amount of years, their jobs are secure, and there is virtually no way of getting rid of the bad teachers. I would also start a reward/bonus system for the teachers.

3. I answered in number 2.

Answer 8

Yes. Local control needs to be eliminated and national standards established. School boards are nothing but a huge was of money. Schools should be run teachers and professionals not whatever idiot can get elected. The results have been an eduction system mired in failure. The fact the we have school boards debating whether to teach science or the bible which is clearly illegal is a big part of the problem.

Answer 9

man the problems are so vast and wide its insane

the schools and goverment and most major news and television have so far gone out of touch with the people have u watched the discovery channel lately the people who make up the majority of the work force are considered to have dirty or dangerous jobs the blue collar american family has been obliterated from sight because we dont fit the liberal plan (the reason schools and most goverment people just seem not be working ) stop acting as though a a kid with a red *** has been abused stop teaching that god is wrong kids need to feel as though there is always someone watching over them making sure numbe one they ok number 2 they are doing the right thing with no fear there is no reason to not do anything they could kill somone long as the authorities who are gonna throw them in jail where people will hurt them dont find out get the idea stop acting as though phonics doenst need to be taught cus it makes some feel uncomfortable stop teachin 4th graders about sex stop telling them that ervytime they get thier feeling hurt that they need to have someone pick it up who the hell is gonna do that later when they work 60 hours a week and they rob em of 1000 in taxes . ooooo boxing rings in schools boys need to be boys let em get thier aggressions out as men tell them there is nothing wrong wit hard work let men be men and girls be girls not everyone needs to be accepting of ervything ask any man if they want thier kid to be gay u will never have a yes answer oh stop educating mexicans they aint citizens stop acting as though kids are worth more then what they are tell em to shut the **** up once and a while make them pay attention

oh and one more thing teach them how to hold down a house hold god the important things arent taught to them ever why you think there are so many little hoodlums that go ballistic or have kids and dont take care of em

Answer 10

yes the are major problems, students do not learn much less in poor schools.
answer: reduce administration to almost nil.give most of the power to principals,get rid of all unions for teachers and admin staff.
go to a year round session with longer hours 8 to 6 reduce homework to almost nil. smaller class size and more teachers.Much much higher teacher pay to attract people who know the subject(authors for English teachers, scientists for science teachers etc)

Vastly increase the teaching of civics so that people in the future wont let this happen again.

the money is already there so no new taxes would be necessary