The problem Red Tail is that public schools have been failing for many years, and the problem is not money. Every time someone mentions poor test scores the first thing that seems to thrown out by the NEA is the need for more money. If you look at the problem in simple money terms then according to the stats posted
AT PBS (not a conservative think tank) you would think New Jersey and New York would have the best educated kids in the world. I will grant that some areas have poor public schools because the areas are poor to begin with (Mississippi, Oklahoma) and those areas probably should get increased federal funding. If you look you might find it interesting that your hero, Bill Clinton's state Arkansas ranks 48th among funding for education.
Funding is only part of the problem. There are several.
One is poor input by parents. Parents drop their kids off at school and use it more as a babysitting service than an educational start. If you look at areas with poor student performance you will find that many of these areas parental involvement is little to none. My wife's best friend is a teacher, it seems the only time her failing students parents become aware of a problem is when the failure notice gets home. All the money in the world won't mean crap if the parent's aren't involved at home.
The other problem is the institutional makeup of the schools. Unions like the NEA have bastardized themselves into something they should never be. These groups care more about maintaining the status quo than they do improving outcomes for kids. I am not saying they don't want kids to improve, its simply that they don't want to try anything different from the status quo to improve it. Schools are administration heavy and advisor heavy now, something that sucks funds away from educational and extra-curricular activities.
Lousy teachers with tenure are almost impossible to fire in some districts. These teachers continue not teaching and are pretty much untouchable. Sorry, have seen it first hand with my own kids. Mrs Krabople from the Simpson's is a satiracle overdramatization but I have seen some teachers that are pretty close. Good teachers are threatened with censure (or even firing-I guess it is ok then) if they fail too many kids. Some teachers have literally had their grades altered by administration personnel so that the kids can make graduation or so they can get a better GPA for college. What does that prove? Nothing. Grades are worthless if they mean nothing.
What bugs me is that even things like Charter schools are getting flak from the NEA. These schools try new things, in the public realm, yet never make it due to static from the union. Many of these new ideas are attempted so they can be implemented at the entire school level. However the status quo is what keeps the NEA happy, not the improvment of students.
That is why school vouchers have become the latest idea. If the public schools weren't jacked up to start with why would the idea come about? The rich aren't going to benefit that much from it, they can afford to send their kids to private schools anyway. Do you think that John Kerry's kids went to public school? Name one big name politician that sent their kids to a public school? Who will benefit? Why the poor will, those that can't afford a higher priced private school.
But then again, an eductated electorate may not vote the way we want. Better off keeping them dumb, it's easier to manipulate them that way.
