You people are full of b.s. Seriously. That's worth saying twice. You people are full of b.s. You all want to talk about fixing public schools-- just as long as it doesn't come down on your back.

You want to fix public schools. Hire. More. Teachers. Build. More. Classrooms.

Why? If you knew anything about education you'd know that there is a direct correlation between the number of students in a classroom and student achievement. But you won't do it. Mostly its because you're shiftless hypocritical bastards-- because you and I both know that in order to hire more teachers and build more classrooms you have to stop voting with your wallet stuck up your ass everytime you step into the voting booth for education referenda. You're so barkingly stupid about it that I have to go door to door and try to talk you into what is good for our community, property values and economy. But you'll be damned if you give the public schools ten more bucks a month.

But take the easy way out and beat it out of the teachers who have to make due with 30 to 35 kids crammed in a classroom designed for 20 at the max, and tell them they are bad teachers.

Maybe I'm being too harsh about it. Maybe there are other ways to fund the public schools. Sure. Stop funding your schools with property taxes all together. Oh, hell forget it. The whole reason you bought your fancy big house in the premium school system is because you wanted your kids in the premiere district in the metro area and you'll be damned if your going to let any of your tax dollars go to support those poor black kids or those migrant latinos with your hard earned cash. That won't stop you from bitching and moaning about the state of public schools, now will it? Nope. Bastards.

Okay. Here's some other thoughts.

Let's raise money through the lottery for education and then let's sell the lottery to a private investment firm. Total bastards.

Let's raise sales taxes and thereby increase the tax burden on the poorest amongst us whose children already struggle in school because of the associated effects of poverty. Bastards.

Funding's short this year. Let's pressure the principal not to reduce spending on my kids sports programs and instead contract academic and arts programs even though there's a direct correlation between music and math achievement. Bastards.

Foreclosures are rocking my community! Children are stressed out by economic circumstances at home. Well I'm gonna write my republican congressman to make sure that he does everything he can to stonewall congressional aid to the poor. Bastards.

"But Guacamole," you protest. "We can't keep throwing money at bad school districts." Right. That's like not giving medicine to people because they're sick. But take it out on the teachers. That way you can pat yourself on the back and pretend that you're doing something without it having to cost you anything... in the short term.

You morons have the school systems you deserve. Go fornicate with a stick.

Oh, hell. Give them all vouchers to bush's faith-based schools and let them get an

ej a kay' shun.

Actually, that isn't a bad idea. In my area private school is 4 grand a year and does a good job. The public schools spend twice that amount to give kids a mediocre education. One school district here just lost its accreditation. The salary of the head of that failing school district is so high that you could send every child in the district to private school for less than what this joker is being paid.

When you start policing your own rather than protecting your own people will be more willing to part with their dollars to support your cause. The days of giving money blindly are over. Get used to it. And you may want to check your stats....kids involved in sports programs also do better in school. And most times the kids in the sports programs are the poor kids you seem so hell bent on trotting out to prove your point...the poor kids. Not many poor kids get to have pianos let alone piano lessons. Lots of poor kids play basketball though. How about we provide programming for kids period whether it be music, art, theatre, or sports to keep them involved. As for contraction of academic programs? Which programs were eliminated? Non-college track classes were eliminated first. But you do realize that was an initiative from within the school systems right? Or we talking about something like getting rid of the Greman language program? Becuase we all know how valuable the German language will be to a poor latino kid.

Kids do better when involved in activities, that doesn't mean that a school needs to poor the majority of it's funding into its athletic department as is common. Too much money is spent on making athletics sem- pro, when kids really just need something organized to grow in.

German? Ich kann ganz gutt Deustch sprech!

Policing our own? We do. You guys just want us to do it more vigorously because even though you have no professional knowledge to speak of, you clearly know more than we do.

Poor kids on the sports teams? Bzzt. Most of the kids who go out for the frosh/soph teams get cut. The ones that are retained on jv and varsity are the ones whose parents can afford to send them to camps and pay for summer leagues-- that is, presuming its not one of the bottom the barrel districts to begin with.

Non-college track classes were eliminated first? Educational malpractice. We all know that not all the kids in the school are going to go to college, because, you know, they're like dumb and poor and stuff. As long as those poor dumb kids can play their sports, why would they need a foreign language. It's not like they're ever going to travel, now is it? I mean, who cares if we give them a broad background and show them how vast and wide the world is. So long as they can play sports and entertain their assinine dreams of professional athletics, then everything is gravy.

You should run for public office. The sooner people like you bottom out the system and run it into ruin, the sooner we can get it fixed by, people who know.

guac.

Masters Degree in Education. MBA. Six years as a teacheri n a public school in a poor neighborhood. So I gues you were wrong about my credentials. You are also wrong about most everything else you have posted. The non-college track programs were the first to go. You arrogantly assume that the reason this is bad is because I think poor kids can't excel and go to college. The truth is much different. Classe like auto shop and welding give kids with very little opportunity something they can see as a stepping stone to a very real job. Those classes provide opportunity to break out of poverty right now. Since when did we become a nation that serves only those students that have the ability and ambition to succeed at a University? Shame on you for suggesting that some poor kid won't be exposed to the broader world if he doesn't have foreign language classes. Many of them are already bilingual unless you have forgotten. Many of them have a broader exposure to your narrow view of the broader world than you think. They also see the world with a jaded eye and don't value history class or english becuase it won't get them a job that they can see or understand. The question is whether the schools are providing them the skills they will need to build a successful life that breaks the cycle of poverty. The answer is that you don't and haven't been for a very long time. How is that for reality? From the article reading proficiency went from less than 40% to over 90% at or above grade level by getting rid of bad teachers. You can't really explain that one away can you? The variable that changed is the teachers. Shame on you for attempting to once again shift blame.

Quick plug for vocational classes/programs. Not every kid will go to a 4 year college, nor should they. We have all kinds of needs in society, many of them can be met with technical educations rather than a full blown college education. Like I posted before, a kid with a liberal arts degree (or PhD for that matter) can struggle finding a job, but if that kid can weld or fix computers, the world is his oyster!

I would like to see the emphasis in schools to be more about exploring a student's interests and aptitudes, cultivating those interests, and putting that student on a path to a good profession, be it lawyer or mechanic. Many students who won't go to college would be better served if the second half of high school was more career/job placement focused.

How about if we get rid of bad teachers too? Or are you going to pretend there are none?

Getting rid of bad teachers would definitely help. The real problem is waaaaaay too many students and not enough teachers / classrooms. I would like to address a few issues from this thread and others;

1. Public education is excellent - if you get your kid into the GATE/Honors/AP track. That track is a completely different education and curriculum than the regular track, and is far superior to a private school. Private schools have plenty of kids who have attitude problems (and similar parents), and the level of rigor is not as great as in the honors program. I teach AP English and have had kids from private schools and home schooling that always had enormous difficulty catching up during first quarter.

2. Even with the enormous crowding in our shcools, they could still do a credible job if schools and districts did not kow tow to every nitwit parent who believes their little psycho can do no wrong, or that there is institutionalized racism in whatever class their kid is failing. Teachers end up having to cater to the weakest link in the chain - subjects and verbs don't agree? I must be more sensitive to alternative expression - calling a classmate a ho? - I should accept the new cultural realities - little Billy fails four classes - summer school at district expense... Oingo Boingo's song "Only a Lad" comes to mind.

3. We have a BSU on campus that was taken over by a no - nonsense woman. To stay in the club you must keep up your GPA, not dress like a gang member, and not be a foul mouth buffoon. The club has become enormously popular and the STAR test scores of black students as a population have risen dramatically. Dancing to the tune of the losers of any group simply does not work. Setting strong, attainable (with effort) and identical for all - standards works.

My wife did some substitute teaching in the LA school district last semester. She "taught" in some of the worst schools in the district. It was a very eye-opening experience. Discipline is non-existent. There is very little help from the administration. Ultimately the parents are at fault for raising little monsters, and secondly administrators for letting a bad situation get worse. No doubt good teachers would never stay in this environment, therefore there are plenty of bad ones. The main fault is not theirs. They do share some of the blame.

The thing that scares administrators more than anything is the type of public accountability that may result if parents simply visited the schools, sitting in the classrooms, volunteering to help. This would send reverberations down the back of the Body Administrative. Parents may actually find out how much time students are wasting in schools and the influence of their peers in the subversion process.

They may even discover that THEIR child is the problem, not the teacher.

Imagine, asking parents to REALLY be responsible for the behaviors of their children. Wouldn't that be a novel approach?