The only realistic solution is to do away with all teaching unions and start doing merit raises only. People in the private sector are fired for things that teachers do every day. Why should we be held to a lower standard than anyone else?
Unions had their place in the industrialization of our country, but hold no value now. Now they only use their power for greed, in my experience.
We are working without a contract now (holding out for even MORE money, if you can believe it). If we strike, I will be the first scab to cross the line to do my job.
What I think will happen is that all schools will gradually shift to charter schools. Teachers and kids will shift into those schools, and if the school is good, there will be a waiting list, with both kids and teachers wanting to get in.
Right now, I believe schools are drowning in "extras." It's not just a principal and 20 teachers anymore - its a principal, three assistants principals, 3 secretaries, 20 teachers aides, a learning coach, a PR person, a grant writer, a hall monitor, and 12 police officers. Get rid of everyone but a cop and the pricipal and the teachers, and then don't let the kids get away with anything. If we went back to the "disrupt my class and you're out of here" attitude, we could get the kids back on par.
Just as I don't believe in big govt, I don't believe big schools are any more efficient or effective. It gets to be so that no one personally KNOWS these kids anymore. They don't know about their home problems, they don't know the kid's parents, they just become clueless. It's so impersonal - and it's a big part of the problem.
I teach at a HUGE University where we have a 33% graduation rate within 6 years. That's friggin pathetic. Many of those kids should never have been let in. We have all these peripheral admins walking around, scratching their heads, trying to figure out how to make kids that will never be successful in college successful. Costs have skyrocketed so that all these tutors and babysitters and coaches can "work" with the kids. We need to make a high school diploma MEAN SOMETHING, and then do the same with a college diploma.
