Schools out in Chicago

[nikimcbee]

Education needs real reform. The teacher's union isn't going to allow that to happen, because it cuts into their money and power pool.

I don't know how to reform it. Here are the issues that I can think of (atm).

1. Teachers need to be held accountable for their output. If they are bad teachers (for whatever reason), they need to be fired so a good teacher takes their spot.

- Get rid of tenure, make it merit based, I say.

So the million dollar question is, how do you evaluate the teacher?

2. Not, sure how this will happen, but the money needs to go straight to the school, so they can manage their needs directly and not to the state to be redestributed back as needed.

3. Too many mid level beauracrats that siphon off the money to their pet projects or programs.


One thing I have learned from being in the system is that more money does not fix the problem. That is why I reject any calls for more money.

Case in point, Utah spends the least on education in the nation (they are near the bottom anyway), but they have some of the highest ACT schools (on average) in the nation. Go figure. So compare it to the Minneapolis School district. They spend on average ~$10,000 dollars per student and have a horrible graduation rate.

Now, a big part of that is parental involvement, but these urban schools are a train wreck and they spend A LOT per student. Who controls the urban schools?

I'd rather spend the money on everystudent that cares, buy them a laptop and their internet connection and let them choose their own school. Atleast they could choose a better school to participate in. It doesn't work for everyone, but it's thinking outside of the box. If a child is able to escape a horrible school and go to a better one, then I'm all for that.

I wonder if online school is the future and brick and mortar schools are going to go the way off the dodo.