| Hedda, that is so true. Our education system should be based on two pillars: teachers and students. In the current system, the most important people are held hostage by interest groups fighting for control and financial windfalls that have little to do with education.
Students AND teachers should be able to select a system where they can blossom. Right now, in the Ubnited States, school choice DOES exist, but it is restricted to the people who can afford to send their children to schools outside the monopoly of public schools or afford to work for a smaller paycheck. To climb of this hole, we need a level playing field and a system that rewards some form of competition among various systems.
I believe that most families greatly underestimate the deep malaise that exists in the public education system, as well as the incredible difficulty of replacing the millions of teachers who will retire in the next decade. While more money for the "system" is hardly the correct answer, more money and choices for good teachers is part of the solution. |