Who do our children belong to? The parent or the Government?

Remember when the public schools in America were the shining example for the rest of the world to strive to become.  Me either...

Who is running our public schools... Wait, I mean our government schools? It sure is not the teachers or the parents. Why do I say government school? Because the government is telling you what your child is going to be taught, not the people who know your child the best. Why would the government want to control what is taught and how it is taught? They say it is so we all have the same common education. Oh I get it... Common Core, so they are all the same.   Is your child common, do they all learn the same? 

You would think the government would be all for improving our education system and allowing those who know and teach to build a better education system, even if they are private schools.  But apparently they don’t.  Here is one example: The Justice department filed suit against the State of Louisiana trying stop the voucher program they put in place in in 2012.  According to the DOJ, the program “impedes the desegregation progress” demanded by federal law.  On the contrary, this program Ninety percent of children in Louisiana’s program are African-American.  This program promises a voucher to students from families with incomes below 250 percent of poverty line whose kids attend schools graded C or below. The vouchers can be used to attend other public and most private schools.  Does the government want you child to excel?

Why is it teachers are not paid based on performance? The students are graded or judged by their performance every day and this is how they get into the best Universities. Many other professions have performance based pay so why is it we do not reward they best of the best and get rid of the poor performers. Using General Electric as an example, every year they get rid of the bottom 10% of their staff. Sounds like a good idea, hold teachers accountable for their performance and the product they produce. Why would we want less than the best teachers teaching the children of our future? Let teachers compete for their job.   What if schools had to compete for students?

Competition makes all the difference. Look at your smart phone you are

reading this on. If it wasn't for the breakup of the Ma Bell Monopoly creating competition among phone companies you might still have that dial phone on the wall in the kitchen.

Common Core… Really!  We need to break up the Government Education Monopoly.   Our kids are mutli-taskers, they live on technology, texting their friends, updating their status, playing video, all while ignoring their parent all without breaking a sweat.

Are teachers becoming facilitators?  I have to ask you why do the great teachers put up with this and even protect the bad teachers. Do you know how hard it is to get rid of a bad teacher? Do you know what happens to them if they are finally labeled as a bad teacher? Some call it the turkey trot; they are just moved from one school to another until they retire.   

In a report recently published by Harvard University's Program on Education Policy and Governance American students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading.  This happened while the federal government poured  $89 billion in stimulus dollars to prevent teacher layoffs.    Maybe they should have pumped it into private schools. 

Norway and South Korea are ranked at the top and when asked about the dropout rate in they said "what dropout rate".  Both countries have virtually a zero dropout rate.  In America, many states the dropout rate is near 30%.  Do you want fry's with that?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, from 1970-2009, funding per pupil for K-12 has increased 300 percent in real dollars. Now the United States spends more per pupil than any country in the world; 30 percent more than a decade ago. That is $859.9 billion on public education in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a 30.1 percent increase from $660.5 billion (adjusted for inflation) that the U.S. spent in 2000.    All this and teachers are buying supplies out of their own pocket.

The next time someone says to you the problem is we don’t spend enough on our schools, ask them how much is enough and what will we do with that money.  We continue to spend more and more and the only people who benefits is the politicians and the unions.  

Is there a way to change the Education system from the ground up?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Why are we the taxpayers standing for paying more for less.  Remember Hilary Clinton's book  “It takes a Village”  Did she mean a village of idiots?  I say it takes involved parents.

Am I talking to myself?