Originally Posted by Jim in CT
we’re having decent dialogue here. there’s something to be said for better pay attracting better teachers, but again, i point you to catholic schools, where teachers are almost literally paid in dirt, yet those schools get world
class teachers. teaching is a calling, if
you offer too many perks ( great benefits, insane time off) you get people
who go into teaching for that reason, and that’s not good.I went to a Catholic HS and agree the teachers were good. I wouldn't necessarily say they were better than the ones in my Freshman year HS. But I think the difference comes down to the students choice. I saw the HS kicked kids out (prob. deservedly) while the public HS would be stuck w/those kids after a suspension.
i’ve seen this from every angle. and i'm willing to bet you believe that i want what’s best for all kids, not just my kids.I agree with that. We should want all kids to be successful in whatever they do. i’ve been a student in public and catholic school, i’ve taught in public and catholic school, i’ve been a parent of
kids in public and catholic school. Money has very little to do with it, and another truth is this, liberals
do a terrible, terrible job of spending that money. way too much money is diverted away from things that actually help
kids learn, way too much money goes to salary and benefits, which does almost nothing for students.
here’s the fix. make teacher retirement and healthcare benefits exactly equal to the average of what’s available to white collar professionals in the private sector. that will save a ton. use that savings to hire more teachers, which reduces class size, because that IS correlated with student performance. But I don't think they are paid as well as other white collar professionals - that is the gist of my argument. Also, there is no sane argument against school
choice. My argument against vouchers (you didn't say vouchers) is that it skims off the cream of the cropAnd since all that really matters is what’s going on at home, we need to do more to encourage strong, stable, close nuclear families, because that is by far, the biggest driver of student performance, nothing else even comes close. the older i get, the
more certain i am that this is almost all that matters. without it, almost nothing else works.
i do appreciate the challenging questions, and the respect with which you asked them.
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