The private world of public education

The New york Times printed a story Friday that gave an inside look into the politics of public education, though I do not think that was the newspapers intention. It seems that the Chancellor of schools in NYC Joel E Klein has closed a number of poor performing schools. This of course is the conservative dream, I always find it ironic that the conservative dream stops there. The reality is that there are now thousands of students and hundreds of teachers in NYC that now have nowhere to go when school starts. It seems that the better performing schools are all full of better performing students.Well who knew?

The teachers can not be fired because the Taylor Law not the Teachers Union provides for a lengthy process for firing public employees especially when there is no cause. The Administrators at the public schools in NYC have been given a budget and are responsible for hiring their own teachers. This is a quote from the NYT, I find the choice of words interesting as has been my experience that administrators always feel as if they literally own the people who work under them.

The problem is that these Administrators want to keep costs down by hiring younger teachers who do not make as much money as teachers who have seniority. So these older teachers are assigned to a sub pool and sent out to different schools everyday, and NYC is a big place. I wonder how the Administrators would feel about being sent to a different school everyday?

So we have the old system giving way to the new system and these older teachers are caught in the middle. The new system is really a Shuck&Jive shell game called whose got the Blame. There is a reason why Willie can not read and the reason is because Willie does not want to read. That is the ugly truth. Expensive and complex studies have been done on this subject, the strongest reason is Willie has a bad home life with poor role models, but no public official wants to lay the blame at the door of any ethnic group as this spawns a whole new set of expensive and complex studies into Racism in Education.

So unelected public officials play the blame game and the teachers are the victim this time around.{which is Propaganda at its worst a generation ago teachers were a valuable asset.} Before them, it was crumbling falling down school buildings and play grounds that were portrayed as third world hovels with incompetent teachers inside. The magic words "Federal Money' were uttered and millions were poured into renovations of the public schools, so now it is just the teachers left holding the Blame Bag.

The new system of Public Education is pretty slick it kills two birds with one stone. Make the School Principals responsible for hiring so he or she can be fired for poor performing teachers. Hire Young teachers on one year contracts with salary and health insurance , but no tenure and no pension so their contracts will not be renewed when the are needed to be blamed. This assumes that there will be a never ending supply of School Principles and Teachers to blame and fire. This is a big assumption.

Despite the fact the Conservatives and Republicans hate the Teachers and their Unions. Teachers are very smart people and they can easily switch professions and a few years of teaching experience is like gold on a Professional Resume. But I would like to suggest a different scenario.

Brazil and Bolivia to take just two examples will probably be two of the richest countries in the world over next fifty years. Brazil because of the discovery of the Biggest Oil Field ever discovered off the coast of Brazil and Bolivia because it has Lithium deposits that are so huge the geologists can not measure them and Lithium is the key ingredient in the batteries that will power the electric cars of the future. Third World countries looking to be world class.

Suppose the Governments of these countries were to offer American teachers Handsome salaries, Pensions and oh by the way some Respect to relocate and teach in their countries. Relocate into growing communities where a teacher was important and respected who worked with students that wanted to learn and achieve. Despite the cherished belief of the Conservative Republican true believers that teachers are the Problem not the Solution. Most teachers love teaching. It is what they have always wanted to do , It is their passion. Suppose they started to leave for better offers and some appreciation for the important job they do? Hey that's the American way.

Think it can not happen? Check out the number of Computer software and hardware designers and engineers who are moving to India for more Money and Stability in their careers or the number of health insurance companies that are sending patients to India for expensive operations because it costs so much less there.

America stands at a cross roads right now. The past two years have shown how the Wall Street Smoothies who practise fraud under the guise of free market capitalism have bankrupted the whole country. Do we as nation allow this to continue until we have devolved into a third world country with a Mexican style government where corruption,poverty and violence are part of everyday life. There is another way and we should find it before it is to late. Before Glenn beck is elected President for Life with Sarah Palin as his Vice President for life. The Conservative Republican Dream Team or the end of America as we knew it.