Robert Reich sounds the alarm nationally about the fact we are bailing out Wall Street even as our education system faces drastic cuts.
Frankly I’m a little disappointed Gov. Chris Gregoire didn’t seem to really mention education while at the National Governor’s Association meeting. Or maybe she did and it just wasn’t widely reported.
Granted, infrastructure and health care funding are important, too, but why not stress to the president-elect the serious threat to “human capital,” as Reich refers to well-educated workers? If we wind up yanking a couple of billion out of K-12 and higher ed, as certainly seems possible, that’s a deferred disaster of monumental proportions.
So very true, Jon. Otherwise our youngsters will grow up to be as ignorant as Mr. Cynical or worse, Markthemuthafuckingignorantproudlyobtuseredneckwelcher.
We really don’t know if throwing money at education helps or not, because we’ve never tried it.
Cutting funding to education amounts to social suicide. We are already falling behind the rest of the developed world in terms of basic academic skills. I’d have to say, too, that the teachers unions have to consider some sort of compromise on the tenure issue. Granting a teacher tenure after one or two years of teaching is not sound policy.
We may have never tried throwing money at education but the New England states have tried it and they have some of the best test scores in the nation to show for their efforts.
Having a well educated public is important, but if there are no companies hiring them, or they are hiring cheaper workers from overseas or outsourcing jobs it doesn’t make any difference. We’ve built a culture based on the sand of endless consumption based on the notion that home equity loans and credit cards can pay for buying or leasing new cars every three years and computers and video games every other year.
There are big changes needed in our over all economic priorities and I don’t know if our society is set up to have a meaningful dialog on what these should be anymore.
proud leftist:In general teachers should have tenure so that they aren’t fired for exposing unpopular political views, or being gay, etc. Also I still wonder why you call yourself a “leftist” when you are anti-union, pro-war/pro-US empire.
Not just that; how about this?
Our. Consumption. Has. To. Go. Down.
Yours. Mine.
Just not now, while we try to spend our way out of depression.
Or, I guess, our production has to go up. But we are one of the most productive nations on earth, and when the steam runs out on the application of methods of mass production to one area after another, and when the steam runs out on the application of computer-driven efficiencies to one area after another, how can we increase production? Import more workers?
The depression era schools of NYC should be the model for today’s schools. My parents only had high school diplomas, but they had as much education and skill as any college graduate (Bachelors level)that I’ve ever met.
The main difference is that students were ‘tracked’. They didn’t try to mix the low achievers with the high achievers.
I hope that this depression is broadcast in High Definition. HD makes everything better….
5: “proud leftist:In general teachers should have tenure so that they aren’t fired for exposing unpopular political views, or being gay, etc. Also I still wonder why you call yourself a “leftist” when you are anti-union, pro-war/pro-US empire.”
I think you have me mistaken for someone else. I am pro-union, basically a pacifist and certainly against the Iraq War, and am about as anti-empire as a guy can be. As public employees, and regardless of any collective bargaining agreement, teachers have protection from being fired for political views or being gay, or the like. What I’m talking about is gaining tenure and protection against being fired for incompetence after a mere year or two on the job. That is far too little time in most cases to determine a teacher’s basic competency. Can you name another profession where tenure is obtained after only a year or two on the job?
I’m not aware of any teachers who have “tenure” after only one or two years experience. Perhaps you are simply thinking of the general public service protections against arbitrary firings?
Considering the barely disquised politicization the Bush administration did to the CIA, the FBI, the Justice Dept., and what they tried to do to the Dept. of Commerce, can you imagine what a Bush Jr. would do to a local education district if he could fire at will?
I’m sure lots of the trolls here would think it’s just fine to fire all the teachers who didn’t share their political views, and to replace them all with neo-cons (or simply incompetents, in order to deal the public schools a death blow from within). They should also consider what could happen if someone from the opposite extreme fired everyone who disagreed with their views.
The civil service protections are their for everybody’s benefit and protection – the teachers, the students, and the public at large.
@10: What I’m talking about is gaining tenure and protection against being fired for incompetence after a mere year or two on the job. That is far too little time in most cases to determine a teacher’s basic competency. Can you name another profession where tenure is obtained after only a year or two on the job?
Doctors for one. Most economists. Those on wingnut welfare (Bill Kristol, etc.) Most other civil service employees. There are more, surely.
I’m not so sure “unpopular views” is the basis of union & tenure protection. Since there is no market “discipline” then weeding out poor teachers, in the absence of protection, devolves to the personal whims of their superiors, who in turn, may also be totally incompetent or guided by personal motives.
Nearly all bad teachers wash themselves out. I mean, crikey, how could anybody put up all the BS and stay on? It’s not easy street. I suspect this ‘problem’ is highly overblown.
Plus teachers could be subjected to the pressures from dissatisfied parents who think they know more about teaching than teachers. Similarly, many ignorant people claim to know a good house painting job when they see one. Sadly, they do not.
Our. Consumption. Has. To. Go. Down.
Oh so true. When the oil starts to run out, a lot more people will get a clue here. It is also incumbent upon us to get back to useful economic activity. We cannot last much longer when our GNP consists largely of providing each other professional services, cooking hamburgers, and selling each other stuff. We used to actually make stuff, ya’ know.
The outsourcing/offshoring issue will, to a large degree, take care of itself, as the cost of stocking store shelves with everyday goods hauled in from the other side of the world becomes prohibitive. When that day comes, it sure would be nice if we had a work force here in America that knew how to do something other than flip burgers, write bad mortgages and go begging to Congress for more corporate “bailouts”.
8 I have to agree with you, Lucy. Even in the 50’s and 60’s public schools, perhaps driven by Sputnik and Disney’s promotion of the sciences, did plenty to encourage bright kids to excel and shuttled the dullards and greasers into “padded classes”. Nowadays there seems to be a tendancy to try so hard to be “fair” that some standards are lowered across the board.
Unfortunately, that fact is used by the right as an excuse to attack public education in general. They spout about “excellence” when what they’re really talking about is restricting the best opportunities, from the cradle on, to the children of some ruling class.
11
Teachers’ job security varies somewhat, of course, from school district to school district, depending on the terms of the controlling collective bargaining agreement. While “tenure” might be an imprecise term, I am not referring to the general public service protection against arbitrary termination, and my post distinguishes such protection. The problem, and I think Obama concurs, is that public schools should be able to get rid of teachers who aren’t performing–period. Our children’s educational needs trump other interests involved in the public school system. As the product of public schools and the father of a product of public schools, I think that it is foolish to deny that dead wood in the teaching ranks is a significant problem. School districts should be able to evaluate teachers in a meaningful manner and get rid of those who are not producing. Length of service should not be an obstacle to termination.
I’m holding out for the “Shorter Robert Reich” version.
One way of determining teacher success or failure is to videotape a class during a lesson and count the ‘behaviors’ of students and teachers. The more ‘behaviors’ counted, the more successful the teacher is adjudged to be under this system of evaluation.
“Now, behave, class!”
On the subject of higher education see:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2.....f-college/
ArtF sez and aside to PL: “Nowadays there seems to be a tendancy to try so hard to be “fair” that some standards are lowered across the board.”
Red herring. We have reduced the lower 70% of our population to babbling idiots by starving their standard of living and reallocating our society’s resources to the upper 30%. That we are suprised at the outcome is, well, suprising.
@16: “I think that it is foolish to deny that dead wood in the teaching ranks is a significant problem.”
I have seen no cogent case that the problem of “deadwood” in the teaching profession is any more pronounced than in other areas of social endeavor. Take doctors, for just one example. Or lawyers. How about CEO’s? Surely, if you desire to ‘reform’ teaching (and I applaud the effort) one needs to start elsewhere. That’s all I’m sayin’.
Today Seattle Public Schools announced a hiring freeze starting immediately and continuing until further notice. We all know what’s coming next. Alas.
21
I entirely agree that “dead wood” is hardly a problem limited to the teaching profession. Doctors and lawyers (which are good examples with regard to dead wood) are, for the most part, part of the private sector. Market forces, presumably, will root out the dead wood, even though we have some rather dramatic recent examples of how market forces do not work in a rational fashion. I believe that teachers should be paid better than they are. I believe in a strong teachers union. On the other hand, most of us who work in the private sector don’t keep our jobs when we don’t perform well. That is because of an old common law concept called “employment at will.” That concept is antiquated, arising from the quaint and nonsensical notion that employers and employees have equal bargaining power. To wit, if an employee can leave a job at any time for any reason, then surely fairness requires that an employer can fire an employee at anytime for any reason. Most private sector employees have to live by the at-will concept. Regardless, in any job, whether private or public sector, incompetence or failure to perform should not be rewarded with ongoing tenure, especially when our children’s future is at issue. Reforming our education system is going to require some compromise by all interest groups involved, including teachers.
GOOD G*D PEOPLE, TEACHERS CAN BE FIRED F/OR INCOMPETENCE, EVEN WITH TENURE!
It just must happen for documented and good reasons.
The problem is that administrators must do their job more thoroughly to document the incompetence, the warnings, the communications about the teacher having to change their ways ‘or else.’
Why doesn’t this happen? Because the administrators are over worked and are not trained to deal with actual management. At my college, there are over 300 faculty reporting to just 4 deans. They can’t keep up.