Equality?

[Canyon]

I cannot argue everything you posted, but I think part of the problem is the Teachers union. You said right wing people blame them but they have chosen to try to be "change agents" for the advancement of the left. If they are week and ineffective its at least in part because they teach ideology rather than algebra.

Education systems in many other countries, some of which you named as better than ours, are very outcome based. You are being directed into future career paths at a much earlier age, and your education tailored to those ends. Do we want that here, where your 8Th grade scores determine how far in a university you can go, or begin to shape your hole life. I'm not sure I like that, but it is efficient.

I am in favor of higher pay for teachers, but let that be outcome based by the market place. If they provide better education, perhaps it will provide a better tax base, without raising taxes, to pay them from. I will bring back the old voucher idea, hated by the left, because it would allow many people who cannot now afford to, to choose the education of their children that THEY ARE PAYING FOR>

Get rid of tenure, if someone comes along and teaches algebra better than you, they should have your job. Very few teaching jobs (the Just the facts type of classes) should not be outcome based.

finely, require standards, make them high, and hold people to them. If you cannot compete in the American Educational system, as a student or teacher, you should be passed up. A friend of mines son failed almost every high school class and would get top scored in Adult School. I got a hold of one of his tests in adult school. I hadn't studied history in over 30 years and the test was beyond belief ridiculously simple. yet he gets A's. At the same time we are so afraid of offending children and their parents (are both the children and parents who are offended stupid) that it is now almost impossible to read a Th grade report card. no one can fail now, and therefore no one had a desire to achieve.

In my law enforcement academy I strove to be the best in a class of over 400. I worked very hard at it, and am still disappointed that my 96.14 overall score was second. I say that because now, they don't even tell the students how well they did. only pass or fail. What in the world is wrong with standards, and honoring achievements.

(P.S. I did tie for "top gun" on the shooting courses, as a consolation prise, so that was nice.)

I do agree with you that we like low taxes, but perhaps you are also right on our foolish pork barrel spending. I'll give you that there is room for improvement, but don't say the unions don't hold a very large share, perhaps the lions share of what problems there are in America's education system.

The thing is, no competition, just a monolithic secure bloc, makes for poor performance, not just in teaching, but in any field of endeavor, even some which are hard to quantify.

Even my own, (the prison system) very hard to have competition in could be improved by performance based outcomes. Seniority should not be determined by just time, but a combination of time, tested competence, performance evaluations, and physical fitness. This would both honor time, but also make learning, quality work, and effort a factor too. Have these both effect pay and posting and I would expect to see a vast improvement in the qualify of our staff, many who are already excellent. If you wonder what I think of private prisons, i cannot say. So far i have seen that they get to operate under separate rules and laws rather than the state systems, and in CA, they just return any problem, or medically expensive inmates back the state. The recent outsourcing of CA inmates to other state systems may be a good IDEA. I said earlier that public entities should be able to compete with each other for dollars, (if Reedley's department of public works can repair roads cheaper than Fresno's, they should be able to operate in Fresno.) just Ideas, probable not workable, but fun to think about.

I apologize again for the ramblings. I just came off of two days of double shifts.