Tuesday, December 05, 2006

NEA Blocks Real Reform

Sadly, it's no surprise that the NEA blocks real reform to help students. Op Ed piece in the Sun Times by David White (of the Lexington Institute):
The number of high school dropouts is reaching crisis proportions. Today, nearly half of all blacks and Latinos fail to graduate.

Dropouts earn about $260,000 less over the course of their lives. They're 72 percent more likely to be unemployed. Among prisoners, 80 percent don't have a high school degree.

The National Education Association just issued a much-ballyhooed 12-point plan to eradicate this problem. But don't hold your breath. The misguided plan is more about shifting resources to the NEA's power base than doing what it takes to ensure that more students will finish school.

And it's an open secret that many public school teachers moonlight as tutors after school for some extra income, to teach what they can't or won't in the classroom.

But increasingly, tutoring is going off shore, and here, for the classic reasons---better quality at lower cost. And it is opening up the chance for some extra, skilled help to underserved students who can't afford conventional tutoring or live in more remote areas, where it has been unavailable.

Once again, concerned parents, when they can, are bypassing the public school monopoly.

Reform or lose support, web savvy parents are declaring independence.

Meanwhile, we have another story about the Chicago schools giving teachers $50 each, parcelled out from savings in procurement. But isn't that taxpayer money? Shouldn't taxpayers get their money back?

Well, we won't expect that, but as one of this blog reader's put it, when he flagged the article, it's another illustration of the tail wagging the dog---teachers, not students, come first.

The $50 might better have been spent on online tutoring.(Note---NCLB currently covers tutoring for low income children in schools which have been recognized as failing.)


Previous related posts: Open the Schoolhouse Doors, Unschooling and Do Unto Others, New Ideas, Mediocrity Rules.

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