No surprise there....the anti-education crowd has a nack for using Ryan-like facts to support their stupid claims..
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The public school system in America is pathetic in my opinion. It's a fuckin' joke in Texas. Texas public schools are all about getting the little peckers to pass their pressure standardized tests so undeserving teachers get bonuses from good test scores. The public school system in America would be better if schools actually taught kids life skills that they can use once they are out of high school like how to fill out a job application, make a resume, open a bank account, job interviewing, filling out other important life documents, how to fiend for yourself in this evil world, etc...
That number does sound like bullshit. The source seems to be John Fund from the National Review. Salary.com has the median income at about $54,000 for public school teachers in Chicago, with the top 10% at $70,000.
http://swz.salary.com/SalaryWizard/P...hicago-IL.aspx
How much would you expect to make with a Masters degree and/or after having worked at any profession for 30+ years Bum? Unlike other professions where there is bonus pay for over-achievers and promotions to a higher level position....the only way to make more money as a teacher is to get out of the classroom and become a specialist or an administrator...there are teachers who have been teaching in TX for close to 20 years who are the top of their game and still make less than 52K per year...not more than an average teacher....besides personal drive, which crashes hard in the face of 70+ hour work weeks, tyrannical principals, a mountain of paperwork, helicopter parents, and low to no-motivated students, where is the incentive to over achieve?Quote:
Salary.com has the median income at about $54,000 for public school teachers in Chicago, with the top 10% at $70,000.
Explain to me how standardized state tests help a kid be successful in life. How does that shit prepare them for real life? What types of skills do they get from standardized state tests?
Right now, how to take a test....although more states are adapting tests where students must be able to synthesize information they learn in class by using it in other ways, but it will be awhile before students can be adapted to think at this higher level...that said, politicians have very little patience...this is why almost every district in the country will fail AYP next year and be subject to state bureaucracy and school choice....its an impossible standard..
Your an ass hat...you know nothing about teaching, teachers, or education in general..Quote:
Those who can, do. those who can't, teach.
It's a common saying. I though I would repeat it.
We have these teacher arguments here is Oregon too. Teacher get paid way to much for the job they do. There is nothing that special to teach kids Math, English, Science, etc, to warrant such exuberant wages and benefits.
Why the Chicago Teachers Strike Is Really About Better Schools
But at its heart, the strike is over the union's deep opposition to what it calls a "corporate reform agenda" that pursues a competitive or punitive relationship with teachers, rather than a collaborative one. Examples include blaming teachers and unions for educational shortcomings, promoting private but publicly financed charter schools, focusing on high-stakes tests and tying pay to merit.
CTU has instead pushed for smaller classes, enriched curriculum, better supplies and facilities, fairer and fuller funding (including the return of some public revenue long diverted into " TIFs" to subsidize developers), more counselors and support staff, respect for teacher professionalism, and a bigger say for teachers in their schools.
That clash puts the union at odds with CPS, the mayor and President Obama--whose education secretary, Arne Duncan, boosted the corporate-reform agenda as former Mayor Richard M. Daley's school superintendent. It also represents a more forceful rejection of such reforms than espoused by the national union, which nonetheless supports the CTU strike.
http://www.alternet.org/education/wh...tter708011&t=8
The strike is over much more than the mythical $76K.
The corporatization, privatization of school systems is part of the VRWC/ALEC agenda to destroy the teachers union as a scource of Dem funding and votes.
It's absolutely NOT about education.
FWIW...
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/06/...teachers-make/Quote:
By comparison, teachers in New York City earn an average of $73,751. That would be less than the average $76,000 average salary for Chicago teachers cited by CPS, but more than the $71,000 average cited by the union. Depending on which is accurate, Chicago would either be first or second in the nation in average teacher salary.
M.ed. <<<<<<< M. of anything else
Local district pays for students to get graduate degrees (Masters AND Ph.D.) from local University (serious quid pro quo mutually beneficial relationship there). Classes are a complete joke; profs openly talk about how their "Masters" level classes for teachers are less rigorous than their 101 classes for Freshmen. However, if they dare fail those teachers, the administration comes to talk to them about it. Run them through; cash the tuition checks from the School District.
Most of the pathology in the American school system stems from the refusal to accept that blacks on average are one standard deviation less intelligent than whites, controlling for socioeconomic and cultural factors. Since they can't compete, we've set up this system to pretend that they can and throw resources at dragging as many across the line as we can.
There isn't really a solution; if it were just Hispanics we could teach them the skilled crafts and turn them loose to make $100K and send their kids to college. But with the low blacks, you have to throw so many resources at them just to make them competent to work at Subway. They'll always be a drag on society.
your making some good point here imho and hope you aren't making the rant only to protest your personal remorse, but also the public suffering as well. the school system is fucked but i think it's the sector of colleges, rather than that of middle/high schools or elementary schools that takes the major brunt. hs kids are not supposed to be taught those advanced skills that you think should be useful in their lives cuz they're beyond kids' abilities to absorb at early ages and that's why they need to attend colleges after graduating from high schools rather than get dropped straightly into the cruel world.
colleges on the other hand are handing away degrees way too easily and there becoming more and more of a bridge for foreign students who want to immigrate to the US, or simply steal technologies from the US back to their countries. while most local students are often denied the chance to continue their studies due to the fact they can't afford the skyrocketing tuition, immigrants & foreigners are getting free-education plus maybe scholarships to help cover their living cost, and you know every fucking penny comes from American taxpayers
I am reminded...
Obama's Lost Annenberg Years Coming to Light
I wonder how much of Obama's failure at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge affected the mess they have there today.Quote:
The cloak of media invisibility is slowly beginning to lift from Barack Obama's most important administrative leadership experience, helming an expensive educational reform effort in Chicago that failed to produce any measurable academic gains, according to the project's own final report.
You might be interested in Mike Rowe's (of Dirty Jobs fame) effort to re-ignite interests in the trades.
He recently wrote an open letter to Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, offering his assistance in renewing interest in the trades. At a time when unemployment is extremely high, there is a shortage of tradesmen; plumbers, electricians, pipe fitters, welders, etc...
In the letter, Rowe claims he wrote a similar letter to candidate Obama, in 2008, but never heard back. Apparently, Romney's staff has already established a relationship and is going to consult with Rowe, on this issue, in the future.
If you think Rowe is just some "celebutard" like Sean Penn or George Clooney, I suggest you watch Rowe's 20 minute presentation on TED.com. He obviously has a passion for the true laborers and tradesmen in our society. His MikeRoweWORKS organization is dedicated to celebrating the trades and renewing interest, among the young, in choosing a career in the trades.
The video is entertaining so, if you like Mike Rowe's storytelling style, you'll get a kick out of it whether you agree with his point or not.
So, is there any support, in this forum, for the striking Chicago teachers?
The highest paid teachers, in the country, get their panties in a wad and go on strike because -- in a sucky economy -- their proposed raise was cut from 30% to 16% and they'll finally be subject to performance evaluations?
No sympathy here. If I were Godfather, I'd fire them all and hire new ones...I'm sure there are more than a few unemployed teachers, around the country, that would flock to Chicago for $76K a year (before benefits).
:tu
Good stuff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Rowe's letter
Thanks for sourcing the numbers, cg.
If Romney would actually get our schools to teach trades I would definitely vote for him. It's a system that works great for Germany where you have both academic and vocational tracks in secondary schools so that almost all students get something of value from their time spent there. A nice side effect is the academic track can be made more rigorous also. I hate the attitude in America that truck-driving, plumbing, construction, electrical, etc. should be beneath going to school and getting a desk job, so of course people get pissed if their kid isn't being taught to go to college.
Too bad Obama didn't follow Germany's lead on healthcare.
Holy shit, we agree on something?
There is an enormous shortage of skilled tradesmen and has been for years. This is a residue both of the effeminization of the culture and the decline of the unions. Yeah, the unions probably dug their own graves, but they ran their own apprenticeship programs and nobody replaced them. There's no payback in businesses doing their own training because it's more cost-effective to let someone else do the training and then go poach.
Solid blue-collar work pays six figures if you work hard enough. That's certainly better than getting a degree in English, or anthropology, or womyn's studies, and then moving back to your old bedroom at your parents' house.
Plus, good-paying blue-collar jobs line up well with the zeitgeist of Mexican-American culture and place that group two generations away from social equality and being able to run the country.