U.S. schools rank 26th in the WORLD in performance. How would YOU fix U.S. Education??!!

how about better criteria for teachers to be allowed to teach? liberal arts is the easiest of college courses and too many choose the easy major to glide thru college. then they get jobs in teaching where they have no real talent. its just a job. teachers need to have enthusiasm and enjoy what they are doing to inspire children to learn. boring classes,boring teachers,boring schools don't allow kids to learn.

That's why they have Liberal professors ! Keep the public dumbed down easier to them voting for hand outs. If they got too smart they might realize someone like RP should have been president ! ; )

there ya go.

gotta get the federal government out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Primarily.

The DoE has EXPLODED in size and responsibility...it should have no hand in regulating education, and should, I believe, be focused mainly on offering individual grants, scholarships, and loans.

Tie teachers pay to performance and not to years of service.
Get rid of teachers that do not perform.
Eliminate tenure.

Education should absolutely be our top priority. Emphasis on Math and Science, tech schools for retraining and re-tooling to meet the needs of this new century, lowering the staggering costs of college, fixing our crumbling schools, employing the best and the brightest for teaching.

Abolish the bankrupting, brainwashing federal department of education.

1. The federal performance regulations lead teachers to train kids to score tests, rather than to really understand and learn.
2. Among many things, the federal level brainwashing points on Keynesian economics and the bankster debt cartel are disgusting. It teaches kids to be debt slaves for the crony elites.

Education should be left to the parents and the teachers. No government needed.

ABSOLUTELY

Like with any other business: Competition and choice for parents.
www.parentsknowbest.com

Seems like those charter schools just keep out-performing our government schools every day, doesn't it? Maybe that's why there's such a hue and cry about not having vouchers for parents, the powers that be don't want out kids "educated" instead of dumbed down and indoctrinated.

get rid of Dept of education. Make students accountable... no more enabling, if Jimmy fails because he's a POS then he needs to pay the consequences. it is NOT the teachers fault!!! If a kid messes up, then disapline needs to be enforced and appropriate consequences.

Do what the worlds best school systems do. END PRIVATE SCHOOLS. Thats right, the best school systems in the world have no, none, zero private schools. Everyone goes through the public school system. That way EVERYONE has a foot in the system and there is no way Rich people will sit back and allow their kids to get a sub par education. They will demand smaller class sizes, better educated and paid teachers. Thats why the best school systems in the world outlaw private schools. Finland, and S. Korea have no private schools and Canada has very few, but only .001% of their kids go to them. If you really want to make our schools system the best in the world GET RID OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

The successful states would either lead the way, and the other states would follow. We call that concept, "completion" in the capitalistic society.

We need to be more open to cultural diversity, require teachers to be better educated & advanced in technology, teach more about current affairs & go back to basics on health, include correct historical facts & new technology...not to mention old school discipline & physical exercise.

It was number 1 before this dingbat helped to get school prayer kicked out!

Keep It Simple, Stupid! Return to private education within free markets. The brainwashers will have a difficult time competing with Truth.

1. Stop using public schools as mechanisms of social change and go back to teaching subjects not concepts.
2.Stop disproportionately funding special programs over programs for the average student.
3. Demand proof of legal residency and give full accounting to taxpayers on how money is used.
4. Implement either "pay for play" or make extracurricular programs truly outside of school.
5. Stop relying on trendy gimmicks to fix schools.
6. Pay teachers enough to retain the most effective individuals and set standards high enough to keep marginal ones out of the schools.
7. Use True Testing Standards, where students are taught at the start of the year and then tested at the end to measure their real growth.
8. Demand that administrators come from an education background. I am sick of seeing budgets cut because they are abstract figures on the spreadsheet of some outside hire.
9. Require ALL administration personnel to teach one full week in a classroom every year in order to keep their certification.
10. Shut down the Education Dept at national and state levels and let school districts decide what is needed. As it is, both these systems take more revenue from the system than they give back in services.

You are certainly on target with your recommendations! Either you have done your research well, or you have actually taught in the classroom.

I am still in the classroom. And frankly if your district hasn't already broached the subject, be wary of "Bring Your Own Technology".

I like your suggestions and agree with you.

As a teacher I would say that holding schools accountable is a good start.

As a former teacher I would say that also holding parents and students accountable should immediately follow that "good start."

You know just this week I called parents of students who are failing. Do you know how many didn't have working numbers? Seven out of eleven. They changed numbers and didn't even bother to let the school know. I sent home progress reports using my own money. Did I get any calls back for meetings? Nope, not one. Teachers can only do so much. And school is only as important to the child as the parent makes it. Parents who fight with teachers and who excuse every absence to the point that the child is home more than they are in class do nobody any favors. Ironically these are often the same parents who complain about public education. We are teachers, not magicians.

I do so understand! I once heard a principal give her opinion that if a student was failing to function on level in a teacher's classroom then it was that teacher's fault! I though of the many students that had so many strikes against them that it might well be impossible for them to "suddenly" start learning on level. I confess I also considered all the money I had spent to purchase supplies and teaching materials, plus the hours and hours I spent of my own time in prep work and grading.

I decided that the principal had taken sheer ignorance to a new height I had never witnessed!

I'm glad you are still in the classroom teaching students! After sixteen years, I simply gave up. I was having to spend so much time on issues not actually related to teaching that I began to feel like a glorified baby sitter rather than the super teacher I tried to be. It wore me out, plus my husband got terminal cancer, so I just left the classroom.

After he passed away, I did work in the GED area; I really enjoyed that. But now I am totally retired and doing volunteer work. I am totally enjoying that!

Hang in there; You are appreciated!

We lose more good teachers every year. I'm a department head and it has taken all I can do to retain my teachers. One poor lady, who has two young kids, has been trapped in ARD's that last six or seven hour!.Parents seem to think the entire world should bend to their whims. And parents of SpEd kids seem to think no expense is too great for their kids. This particular teacher had a disable student who could not read, write, pay attention or even find his way to class on his own gifted on her by counselors who place kids based on spots available, not appropriateness or common sense. I've been on both sides of the table in ARD's and I know parents can ask for assistance, but what has evolved in the past few years is a sense that even when other average students are disadvantaged or endangered, the SpEd student's needs come first. That's wrong. And if that was the intent of the ADA then that is a bad law.

I think it is because we really do care about the children who can't learn easily, and the children who could learn if it weren't for home circumstances that we allow this to happen! Because we DO care about them.

But the fact is that the average and above average students are the ones who will keep our economy strong--if we educated them properly. Unfortunately, we apparently aren't doing that anymore.

Years ago when I burned out, I decided that American parents were the greatest danger to our educational system. And it was predominately the parents of low-performing students, whatever the reason for failure to learn, that caused me the most grief.

This group seems to be enlarging every year. I sometimes wish it were mandatory to take child-rearing courses before before being allowed to have children! We have to get a license to even legally drive a car! Surely our most precious national resource deserves a little more monitoring.

If it weren't for the wonderful parents that desperately want, even demand, their children be successful and work with the teachers to make it so, I expect the dedicated teachers would burn out even more quickly.

Thanks for letting me vent. I left the system about fifteen years ago and have never really talked about how discouraged I felt during that time. This has done me good.

I had a rough childhood but I was able to learn and was a straight A student all through out school. I worked hard, I always did my homework, I stayed to myself and was respectful of my teachers. Having said all this, I had some horrible, hateful teachers. Yes I am sure a lot of the problem is home life and parenting, but there are some teachers out there who should of never been allowed to step foot into a class room ever!

Hey! You don't have to tell me about horrible teachers. I taught alongside many. Why they ever wanted to be teachers, I don't know. Maybe to have days in the summer off! lol Some of them never did a lick of work at home or on weekend concerning planning, grading etc.

Yes, the homelife of many children can mess them up to the point of making learning difficult. I had a hard homelife also. The difference is that my parents didn't let me use that for misbehaving, and they NEVER came to the school and blamed low grades on the teacher.

The truth is, a determined student can learn under an awful teacher also. And it is usually only one year in their public schooling. I don't want the bad teachers there either, but school is a reflection of the real world and will continue to be so.

Back in my day, you misbehaved in school you got paddled and then when you got home you got a switch taken to your back side (mom never used a belt because we hid all of them). You never wanted your parents to get a call from the school. Today kids act a fool and get little if any punishment. Teachers have gotten a bad rep. because ever other day their on the news having had sex with a student or some such nonsense.

You were brave! You dared hide the belts.

I simply cringe when I hear the unbelieveable reports of things teachers do.

I think the Unions by raising the pay and benefits of the teaching profession have caused a different breed to move into the profession. When a teacher was teaching because of dedication, not money, I think better people were teaching.

I know we all need money to live, but the helping professions should never be paid so much that people choose those careers because of the money.

To be a good teacher, you have to be dedicated, because, yes, many of the parents and children now tend to blame anyone but themselves.

In a way, it is a hard world out there! I don't envy the challenges our youth today face!

I worked as a nurse for 15 years and I saw many enter the nursing field for nothing more than a paycheck. They showed little concern for their patients and even acted annoyed when they had to do any kind of work that caused them to leave their desk. I saw nurses who would sleep on the job, and did not check up on their patients, I saw nurses flush medication because they did not feel like handing it out, I even saw nurses taking their patients pain medication. They did not care that their patient was in severe pain because they had been given a fake pill, while the nurse popped the real narcotic. It did not bother them to let their nurses aides abuse/neglect patients. If a patient had to sleep in a wet bed all night, oh well. When disease was passed from patient to patient by nurses who did not wash their hands, it bothered them none. I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.

I do get the picture. It is discouraging and frustrating isn't it. Negligent nurses can cause more immediate damage, but bad teachers certainly cause long term damage.

I think perhaps many in our society lost their moorings when God was taken out of most our institutions and many began viewing themselves and as just higher animals. There was much more involved in the sliding down of morals and work ethic, but that might have been the root.

I just don't know!

I have to agree, God should be #1. People are not like they were when I was a kid. They don't seem as caring or as concerned about their fellow humans, or even animals for that matter. Greed and Corruption seem to have become most popular. I come across so many people now a days who seem to not care how rude or hateful they are to others, just as long as they are wearing the finest clothes and driving big cars they park at their big houses. They don't seem to understand that material possessions are not whats most important in life.

I have noticed much the same thing. So many just have no depth. And shallow parents have little to give their children. And really, what can be done when such a large segment of society have bought into the "me, me, me" craze? I feel sorry for them, but it is sometimes difficult for me to give them the respect I know God wants me to give every human.

Well, I think He does want that. There are many places in the Bible where He didn't didn't give some people respect, tho.

I know you feel the same when I say I wouldn't take any amount of money for my raising. We were poor, but were taught values. I have many faults and problems, but I know I am "real." It only takes a very short conversation to discover if an other is real. Have you noticed that? If they are not real, you can be sure there won't be a connection with them. Is it ugly to say those people bore me?

My childhood was rough and i grew up with abuse/addiction. I have a mother who has been selfish and greedy all her life. She is a major hoarder. What gets me is she has bought all this stuff over the years and let it all turn to crap by neglect and all her indoor dogs peeing and pooping everywhere.

My father(esp.) and mother were physically and verbally abusing to each other. It was horrible, but at least they weren't that way (very much) to us children.

But you and I make good examples of the fact that children have a choice to be or NOT TO BE the same as their parents.

We chose sanity!

Your right children do have a choice. I can honestly say I was not like my mother mostly.