Favorite Ideas For Improving Public Schools

I write a lot of sites. Some of them, people do not see any problem with training. Incredibly. Other sites, on the other hand, people are totally given up hope: the public schools are bad, and always will.

As for me, I'm in the middle. I see many problems, but I'm trying to find ways to solve them. Now, all experts agree that the elections in November will lead to significant changes in Congress. I encourage people to start thinking now about what kinds of changes they would like to support.

Here are my proposals for eight great education (from an article just published):

1) to support and strengthen charter schools, vouchers, homeschooling, and all types of private schools because of the diversity and competition is a sure way to get an improvement.

2) All teachers must major in the subjects they teach. As nurses have a degree in nursing, biology teachers should have a degree in Biology. (At present, many teachers are not trained to teach the subjects said they know very little. Ridiculous

3) Teachers are not required to join a union. The power of the NEA is a major problem for reform. This forced union fees used to elect political allies, almost always Democrats. (Activity incessant political NEA must be curbed, especially if taxes are applied, many teachers pay for policies they oppose. How can it be legal?)

4) Repeal interrupt or reduce the race to the top. This has always been a gimmick, the federal government, in education locally. We want to go in the opposite direction. There is no mention in the Constitution the federal role in education. States should be encouraged to innovate and compete with each other, not to make absurd suitors who have done no damage so far.

5) Cut the Ministry of Education in half. And then do it again. This material should never have been created (it was a gift of recovery of the Democrats on the NEA). Similarly, halving the role of schools of education. These places take two years to provide two months of data.

6) Support for the accreditation of other fast track. If people want intelligent and educated leave other areas to become teachers, all you really need several months of classroom training. Take these people and put them to work as soon as possible.

7) Try to remove all the subtleties and tricks developed by progressive educators in the last 100 years, for example, Sight-word, New Math / mathematics reform, constructivism, self-esteem, multiculturalism, blur of any kind, Group learning more. Instead, there must be a renewed emphasis on basic knowledge and basic skills for proficiency in both.

8) Make schools safe. School boards and principals should be held accountable for the elimination of violence in schools. (There is a lot more violence in public schools than most people realize, and it seems to be tacitly accepted zero tolerance seems to be a cynical ploy to distract people from the real issue that children are committing acts of adults .. would be jailed for a pill in a handbag is not the problem. assault is the problem. INTENTIONAL physical damage is the problem.)

At least here is a list to target. Suppose that half of these items were genuine. All four. The power of education will be much smaller. We'll see a real improvement. But the first step is a much more committed.