Teacher income is determined by their level of education and years on the job. There is no consideration for success in the classroom.
As an English literacy coach, it is my job to assist teachers in improving their instruction in the classroom. Since there are only two coaches for all of my school, I have helped teachers in all core subjects and electives.
I have found teachers to fall into these categories: teachers who are highly motivated and effective, teachers who work very hard and are not effective, and teachers who pretend to work hard and are not effective.
Your kids, most teachers and their counselors know what category the teachers fall in. Normally, the ineffective and not motivated teachers do not know of their failings. Such is the power of self-delusion.
The school I work at is going through cutbacks due to a reduction in federal funding. What this means is that a large number of highly motivated and effective new teachers I have worked with will be gone.
It also means that teachers who are ineffective will remain. This causes an overall degradation of student instruction.
Until public education does away with tenure and a system that emphasizes seniority over competency, schools will never be as effective as they should be in teaching kids. Thousands of students will suffer.
Teacher unions fear that the elimination of tenure will reduce their power to effectively protect teachers. It will reduce their power to protect ineffective teachers.
At one point, I worked as a manager in a union shop run by the Teamsters. They did a good job of protecting their union members from unfair termination. They did not, however, prevent the removal of bad employees who deserved termination.
We must all work to eliminate tenure for our kids’ sake.
Mr. Hurban writes: "Your kids, most teachers and their counselors know what category the teachers fall in."
I am wary of the integrity of this assertion.
You assert the inability of a teacher to teach because of "time." Can you provide the readers with any specifics as to why this may be true?
Also, you assert this same teacher is unable to "explain" the content of her subject. Really?
I'm not here to defend incompetent teachers, because I am more concerned with derelict parents. Remember, roughly 50% of all children in our public schools receive either free lunches or lunches at a reduced cost to them. These same children are permitted to squander money on non-essentials because ineffective parents use sundry entitlements to support other pathologies for themselves and their children.
The parent psychology goes something like this: If I can take advantage of half-a-dozen entitlement programs, I can own 4 dogs, subscribe to television, add another cell phone to the family account, have my next child attend HeadStart, and use my W.I.C. credits at SaveMart.
Um, no offense to the good teachers of the world but going by all indicators the current generation overall isn't very bright and part of the blame goes to teachers who aren't exactly the brightest bulbs in the drawer. For one, how do you explain the pathetic average college level civic exam scores? What about all the poor spelling & grammar? Unless you are blind the evidence is all around you.
Nice way to insult the people who put their lives on the line for the rest of us. I actually agree about run amok pensions but calling police & firefighters morons is well, moronic.
You seem to have some of the same anger issues as debbdaves & doorsc, you might want to write an apology. If not, hopefully if your proprty or life is ever in danger the police or firefighters you obviously despise will fail to get to you in time.
Any moron can carry a gun or a hose but to teach a child that takes education and money.