Executive Producer Peter Ogburn fills in for Bill today!
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Peter:
Does your expertise on the topic of Education Policy stems from the fact that you once darkened the door of a school or did you stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night? Invoking the business model is faulty on many accounts. A business has quality control over the raw material that goes into its product. America’s public schools take all comers. The way dropout rates are calculated under NCLB is a fraud. For example, special education students who work to the best of their abilities and get an IEP diploma are counted as dropouts. Students who earn a GED are counted as dropouts. In some states, students who don’t complete their program in four years count as dropouts. Yeah, even the kids who fails a course in the last semester of high school, takes summer school and graduates in August is counted as a dropout. You’ve been suckered in by the right-wing “public schools are failing” meme that Republicans always invoke to get vouchers to pay for their exclusive whites-only country club schools or their Christian Madrassas. Why do you think inner city schools can’t attract certificated teachers in the first place?? When you fire the entire staff of a school, what kind of teachers are going to move to replace them? The bottom line is that you’re talking out your derriere and you really need to shut up and listen a bit more to successful teachers with 32 years who has survived at least 10 principals in that time, only two of them having been marginally competent.
Everyone has been in the education system but it does not mean that they are experts at education. There are bad teachers out there, but the problem is not that simple. Many, of our students come to school unprepared to learn or don’t come prepared for school. We spend a great deal on special education mandates and lower class sizes for those students, but our core classes get larger and larger. If a child is not at school or ill prepared for class, it is assumed that the parent is doing all he/she can and the school is at fault. It is hard to teach students who come to school with no breakfast and or no individual application(homework)done. The majority of student who fail, fail because they have not been successful at getting to school and doing their school work. I will guarantee you that any student who comes every day, shows up on time, and does their work will not fail.
I am a mother five in Buffalo NY and all my children are in school I have 2 sons in college and a 21yr old son w/special needs that in a program through the state. My daughter is in the top of her class in high school and I don’t hold her teachers accountable for her success they were a part of it, but I honestly don’t think teachers cause our children to fail it starts at home. And as for the warped wood statement. I live in what people would consider the poorest area of my city, but my childrens education does not reflect where I live, it reflects what I have embedded in them to be the best, do your best and you will get the best out of life. No teacher can tell my child anything that I don’t tell them first. We all need to be held accountable for our chidren’s education.
I’m a federal worker and agree with your assessment of the broken educational system and the broken teachers in it. If you think the school system is in trouble, you should look at the federal government where a many of the poorly educated students find employment. Many of the underachieving students find employment with the federal government where some of them make $60K to over $100K per year. And some why the federal government is so poorly managed. I agree with President Obama. Cull the bad teachers who turn out bad students. Make room for those who are motivated to teach and want to teach.
The president’s heart is in the right place but this plan won’t work. Peter you and the president are looking to solve a symptom not the problem first off. The fact of the matter administrators are at fault for allowing teachers not to perform. What Obama is suggesting is the same as firing the troops for losing a war instead of the admirals and generals. I grew up in a county that has low scores across the board. Do you really believe firing a big chunk of teachers will work? If you do how do you replace them? Keep in mind many of these ” bad teachers” aren’t even teaching in there field. Because of how hard it is to fill the math and science fields. To fix that Obama purposes to close some school and bus them away to mostly an already overcrowded school. The plan simply won’t work. It is far too complex to think firing bulk amounts of teachers will work. The biggest problem first off is due to our social problems caused by the right wing destruction over the past 30 years of our middle class. Second piss poor lazy overpaid administrators are a big problem. My aunt is an administrator/principal and her boss the asst. super (who is also front runner for next School Superintendent) is one of those school board execs that jump from job from district to district state to state have no loyalty to anyone and could care less about the kids in her district. Next the teachers that are not getting it done in their field or that are music majors teaching geometry. Then next you have the lazy good for nothing and or the single parents working two jobs that aren’t able to give their kids the attention and discipline they need. Then you have the bonehead governent factors like no child left behind or any of the other things morons like bill bennet have done to screw public schools. All of those things need to addressed to fix things or nothing will change. I and my ex wife witnesses this first hand being that both of us are in the process of becoming teachers plus dealing with multiple school districts through my former stepson. I have a mother and two aunts that are also in the field. I’ve see. Majority of teachers are good teachers and do work hard and it is unfair to target them exclusively.