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Bring Fenty Back
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Special Report
Education’s Medicaid Problem
More bad news for privileged public employee teachers.
These days, there is plenty of wrangling over the future of America’s woeful traditional public schools. Inside the Beltway, congressional Republicans, Senate Democrats, and President Barack Obama are in a stalemate over the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Obama will also have to defend his school reform legacy against any one of the Republican presidential aspirants who becomes the nominee (who, in turn, will have to distance himself from the school reform mantle of George W. Bush, upon whose efforts Obama has built his own).
In statehouses throughout the country, school reform outfits such as StudentsFirst — the one million member organization started in 2010 by legendary (or infamous) former Washington, D.C. school chancellor Michelle Rhee — are sparring with affiliates of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers over expanding school choice, and overhauling the system of teacher compensation that has imposed a $1.1 trillion burden on taxpayers.
There are the emerging cadres of Parent Power activists who are pushing against traditional school districts for the passage of Parent Trigger laws, which allow a majority of parents to petition for the overhaul of failing schools, and the end of zoned school policies that restrict school choice. Families in the Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood are already tangling with the AFT local there (which has all but called the parents dupes for “pro-charter heavy hitters”). Meanwhile school reformers will battle with teachers’ unions at the polls over efforts to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (who successfully abolished collective bargaining and forced dues payments by teachers to the two unions), and roll back reforms in states such as Idaho.
But the next front in the battle over schools will involve the most-unlikely of players: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. As with the traditional teacher compensation and defined-benefit civil service pensions, it is the high cost of decades of dealmaking — this time between states and the federal government — that will put teachers’ unions and other defenders of traditional public education on the defensive.
Thanks to economic malaise that is now in its fifth year, the job losses and lack of new employment activity that has accompanied it, and a 15 percent increase in dependents between 2008 and 2010, Medicaid is the fastest-growing cost center in state budgets. States’ Medicaid expenditures (excluding federal matching subsidies) increased by 10 percent between the 2008-2009 and 2010-2011 fiscal years, according to an analysis of data from the National Association of State Budget Officers by education news magazine Dropout Nation. That’s nearly ten times the increase in overall state spending during that period. (State tax collections, on the other hand, declined by two percent during that same period.)
Federal stimulus dollars have offset some of those costs. But those dollars are no longer available. So states now have to bear the full brunt of their mandated share of Medicaid spending. An even more costs are coming. The Affordable Health Care Act will increase Medicaid roles by as much as 32 percent in one year (and, if the experience of failed experiments in Tennessee and Massachusetts are any guide, even more than that). Add in the retirements of Baby Boomers (who, along with the developmentally disabled, account for 70 percent of all Medicaid expenditures) and suddenly, Medicaid will weigh more heavily than ever on state budgets (and, ultimately, the taxpayers who finance them).
States have spent the past three years coming up with gimmicks, from restricting the number of new beneficiaries to cutting reimbursements. Still, 18 states spent more on Medicaid than they originally budgeted during the 2010-2011 fiscal year, and six states — California, Georgia, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, and North Carolina —were running over budget this fiscal year.
Even more cost-cutting efforts are on the way. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott is already proposing to reduce the state’s $21 billion Medicaid budget by $1.7 billion, largely through reducing reimbursements to participating hospitals and doctors.
But as seen in California, where hospitals and pharmacists have successfully sought a temporary injunction against the Golden State’s efforts to hold back $623 million in reimbursements, Medicaid cuts aren’t going over well with the healthcare industrial complexes that have become dependent on them. Nor do governors or legislators want to tangle with either retiring Baby Boomers (who will soon take advantage of Medicaid benefits — and are an important voting bloc to boot) or with families of children and adults with Down syndrome (whose plights make for the kind of campaign fodder that ends political careers).
So states are scouring for other areas to cut costs — and ring up revenue. California’s legislators found $5 billion in future annual revenues late last year when they passed a law abolishing local redevelopment agencies, which have become far more notorious for using property taxes for subsidizing money-losing convention center and shopping center schemes than for fulfilling their original purpose of promoting economic development. But few states can easily find such dollars in a fell swoop — and taxpayers are no longer willing to pay higher taxes.
The Medicaid costs come on top of other burdens with which states must wrangle. States scrambled to shore up $95 billion budget shortfalls for this fiscal year — and given the underestimates in Medicaid growth, may end up having to make additional cuts during the fiscal year. They must come up with enough budget cuts (or efficiencies) to address at least $40 billion in shortfalls that will likely appear in their 2012-2013 budgets. Add in the long-term burdens of civil servant pensions and unfunded retiree healthcare costs
Facing such struggles, cost-cutting governors and legislators are now targeting education spending, one of the few cost centers that have been largely spared from cost-cutting.
Thanks to decades of deal-making between NEA and AFT affiliates, state governments, and school districts, school spending has increased by a five-fold while the number of teachers and bureaucrats have increased by a factor of three; school spending increased by 16 percent between 2000 and 2007 alone. Even during the economic malaise, most states sheltered education from the cost-cutting applied to other line-items. The Obama administration also helped by providing $95 billion in federal stimulus spending and another $10 billion ladled to states and school districts as part of the Edujobs plan for staving off expected teacher layoffs that weren’t ever coming to pass.
But states are now realizing the full cost of the array of degree- and seniority-based pay scales, defined-benefit pensions, almost-free healthcare, and near-lifetime employment that has made teaching the most-lucrative profession (and most-insulated from hiring and firing) within the public sector. The average state spent 34 cents on benefits for every dollar of teacher salary in 2008-2009 versus 28 cents six years ago. These burdens, along the unlikelihood of future federal bailouts, and the realization that traditional teacher compensation ineffective at rewarding high-quality teachers and spurring student achievement, have led budget-cutting governors and legislatures to team up with school reformers on requiring teachers to pay more toward their healthcare costs, move towards alternatives such as performance-based pay, abolish collective bargaining, and make it tougher for laggard teachers to keep their jobs.
Some states are looking to increase education spending; Florida’s Gov. Scott, looking to shelter his fellow Republicans in the legislature from some of his more-unpopular moves, is proposing to restore $1 billion in previous spending. But given the growing number of Medicaid dependents, it is more likely that those proposals will fall by the wayside. Spending cuts — along with the overhauls of teacher compensation and performance management — will be the norm.
About the Author
RiShawn Biddle the editor of Dropout Nation , is co-author of A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCLB Era. He can be followed at Twitter.com/dropoutnation.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (40) | Leave a comment
More Articles by RiShawn Biddle
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Kenny| 1.11.12 @ 6:59AM
A very insightful article on the relationship of an increase in Medicaid spending with more pressure to reduce school spending.
oldfart| 1.11.12 @ 7:39AM
And look at what we are getting for this expenditure of PUBLIC funds - our children are taught WHAT to think - not HOW to think.
Tina B| 1.11.12 @ 8:54AM
Amen, oldfartacus,
According to John Taylor Gatto this is what our schools were designed to do. A nation of thinkers would only mean trouble for the financial and political powers that be (since around the mid 19th century). As long as we don't let our students know that the American revolution was started and won by young men who hadn't been traditionally 'schooled' at all, but who could certainly think for themselves. Hence, "Give me liberty or give me death."
Today, I firmly believe we are indoctrinating, and mindnumbing our kids. We are dumbing them down so that they will more easily be led to the slaughter, whether it be to the production/consumption economy or to Socialism or even to Communism. They are being robbed of any spirituality or family tradition of the kind that made America home of the free and the brave.
The schools are doing the job of the state, to feed the American children the propaganda they will need to function in this "new world order." The admin, the incoming teachers and the culture, all drinkin' the Kool-Aid.
We now have homeschooling, some fine charter schooling, and if we keep up the good fight, we may even have school choice, for the kind of healthy competition that schools and teachers need to grow and improve their facilities.
Compulsory public schooling has to go, but we must carefully cultivate whatever replacements are available to really educate, not indoctrinate, to teach children to spend their lives learning, all day every day. Families must take back the responsibility of educating their children in the finest way possible. The gift of learning is for everyone, not just for those in the upper quartile in the public school, and those born into families rich and powerful enough to send them to the best of the private schools and academies.
By structuring our schools as we have, according to the early Prussian models of institutional instruction, we have robbed kids of the joys of learning for themselves, side by side with adults and parents who want to share their expertise.
I tried to make my classsroom fun, exciting, relevant, spiritual and full of humor and light. I taught children math, not math to children, and I did it with love. I also taught Life 101 when necessary. When fights occured or I found students in tears, for whatever reason, we stopped math and dealt with life.
This is not what was wanted of me in the last year. They wanted me to raise testscores, teach to the Standards, use the Learning Focus System, LFS lesson plans and LFS strategies, logging 25 grades every nine weeks, keep updated word walls, make colorful Learning Maps, (and be sure and point to them every 10 minutes directing the child's attention to said map) and then update them two or three times per week, write unit plans, cross-curricular unit plans, attend bi-monthly learning community (subject area) meetings, join in parent conferences at 130 parents' conveniences, attend inservice workshops and complete homework for some of them, be aware that an admin can enter with an Ipad to document your compliance, or lack 0f it . . . whew, I'm tired just typing this.
Bring education out of the government funded and PAC supported arenas and the power to choose their child's method of learning back to the families who really care about their kids. Defund the DOEs, limit the Unions and remake America great, or don't.
MXLord327| 1.11.12 @ 4:54PM
Excellent post Tina B, it sounds like this country could use a lot more teachers like yourself - unencumbered by the federal/union bureaucracy of course.
Trinacria| 1.11.12 @ 6:52PM
"It sounds like this country could use a lot more teachers like yourself."
Yes, yes - quite, particularly those versed in grammar and the proper use of reflexive pronouns. Thank you for illustrating this urgent and woefully unmet need! Yourself has done an excellent job.
Zak Klemmer | 1.14.12 @ 8:52PM
Public education is a rotting corpse that receives periodic intravenous transfusions of taxpayers’ money. Brainwashing academy’s for the preservation of the Omnipotent State.
Tony in Central PA| 1.11.12 @ 8:55AM
In my community, per capita student costs adjusted for inflation rose over 70% in the last three decades. Almost every time there is a request for increased education funding, it seems to get approval for the full amount of the request.
The time for this is over. Education can no longer be insultated from economic reality.
Redstateboy| 1.11.12 @ 9:35AM
and what kind of product are you getting for all that increase in spending Tony?
Tony in Central PA| 1.11.12 @ 12:03PM
I can't say there's been any measurable improvement in academic performance. Some of the school spending is technology for the sake of technology.
There's also been a lot of family / societal deterioration over the past three decades that can't be blamed on the schools. Drugs are as bad as ever. STD's are more prevalent. Again, this is more society than school and schools can't really make up for broken families.
TrueBlue | 1.11.12 @ 7:19PM
All the money goes to increase teacher salaries, and pay the local Board of Education goons.
Redstateboy| 1.11.12 @ 9:33AM
I have been repeating it everywhere and as often as I can.. HusseinCare is going to be a disaster!
My State (Tennessee) cost of the increase of HusseinCare will be 142 Million dollars added to our State budget Every Year for 7 straight years!! and we get off lucky!!!!! State's like the People's Republics of CA & NY? Their additional state budget costs will be in the Billions!!! and when I cite these facts to a Liber-ul Obamabot their response is to ridicule me for employing the name: "Hussein".. As for the substance of the facts presented.. there's no intelligent answer. This is why you'll never read a Liber-uls response to these facts.. cause facts to a Liber-ul are a nuisance.
ELO| 1.11.12 @ 9:40AM
The big area to make headcount cuts in education is in administration. Look at any major public school system and you will find that administrative personnel numbers have increased far faster than teaching personnel. Often they are former teachers who have been encouraged to leave teaching due to their lack of interest in actually performing as teachers, which means this pile of dead wood is the most protected by seniority rules.
Blackwatch| 1.11.12 @ 11:35AM
The superintendent of my local elementary and middle school district has a salary of $151,000 plus benefits.
The average teacher pay is closer to $50k including benefits.
The money problem is not with the classroom teacher--its with the administration and the Teachers Unions.
We need to follow the Wisconsin model and bust up the money nexus between the political class and the Teachers Unions.
Then start weeding out the adminstration free loaders.
Tim Martin| 1.11.12 @ 12:16PM
OK . . . one superintendent = $151,000. That is the cost of three teachers. If the two schools have 100 teachers, which is probably a low number, then the cost of the teachers is around $5,000,000.00. Say we cut the superintendents salary by 5%.This would save the taxpayers (you know, the people who pay the bills) $7,600.00. If the teachers take a pay cut of 5% the savings will be $250,000.00. I am not a math teacher but it seems to me the real savings is in teacher salaries or am I missing something?
TrueBlue | 1.11.12 @ 7:21PM
Cut them both, problem solved. :)
Trinacria| 1.11.12 @ 8:16PM
Amen, brother. Can we stop with the canonization-of-the-poor-martyred-teachers who-give-so-much-and-receive-so-little routine? You have part time jobs (sorry, 8 months a year isn't full time) with full benefits; if you think this is unfair, then do something else (surely you were aware of the compensation prospects when you decided to major in education). And do we really believe a marginal teacher earning $50K a year is going to suddenly become Ann Sullivan at $58K? If so, she was sand bagging in the first place - hardly the type of character I want in someone who's responsible for shaping little minds (I know, we're not addressing the issue of attracting higher quality teachers - but let's remember we're still talking about part time jobs and there's a ceiling on what's reasonable compensation for part time work). Take a look at the countries with the highest performing students and see what they're paying teachers - guess what- it's nowhere near what we're already paying them here. So quit bitching and do your (part time) job.
Tim Martin| 1.11.12 @ 12:07PM
Really ! The teacher to student ratio has been increasing for many years now. The city I live in has lost 20 per cent of its student population and has cut the teaching staff by maybe 3-5 % at best. When i was kid we had 25 to 30 students per class and learned just fine. Of course, we concentrated on the basics (you know. . .the stuff which really means something and can help you get a job). Now our kids learn all about evil corporations, the plight of polar bears, diversity, how bad the US is and other 'liberal' rot. I do not blame the teachers for the low performance. Parents shoulder a large responsibility for the declining results. My parents made sure my homework was done and done right. As to the bloated administration staff in any given district, that may be so but the bulk of the costs are still the teachers salaries and very generous benefits. I spent my whole life in unions and know full well how the slackers just get a free ride. I have to assume the teachers who truly are professionals have to be beside themselves when they see how bad some of their co-workers are. God help this country!
VonMisesJr| 1.11.12 @ 10:08AM
Putting numbers to public employee compensation makes it real. In my liberal state, a teacher and cop can marry and begin their working career at 25. In their last years of employment they each earn about $100K each.
At 55, both retire and receive $55K each for the rest of their lives, or $110K for not working.
In addition, they receive health care (for now) of $20K per year free. If one is a teacher and another a cop, they probably keep both plans and taxpayers pay $40K for their benefits in perpetuity.
This is without any significant contribution to their pensions and benefits. In the private sector, we have a 401K that we contribute the retirement savings, and flex benefits that perhaps cost the employer up to $10K.
Mr. Biddle is spot on. Within a decade the seniors, public employees and poor will all be fighting for the same dollars the private sector cannot afford now. This is how socialism ends. Everyone shares until it all collapses. Then everyone gets soup.
Pat| 1.11.12 @ 2:31PM
VonMises Jr.
Enjoyed your comments and suspect every "socialist worker" is secretly worried over your “this is how socialism ends” prediction. In Europe, we see the American Red State vs. Blue State mindset in action. Those frugal, hard-working Germans of the EU Red States are presently, according to recent polls, disgusted with those frivolous, lazy Greeks of the EU Blue States. Government disability payments to Greek pedophiles are their latest complaint – and, true or not about subsidizing pedophiles, the perception among Germans holding the purse strings is what counts.
Here in the States, the Conservative pundit Mark Steyn wonders how the up and coming young folks of Hispanic persuasion will feel about financing the old age of a predominantly white, Anglo bulge of retired Baby Boomers. Will these young Hispanic workers, centered mainly in the West, toe the line and cheerfully give up their hard earned dollars so old geezers living in Florida can enjoy their Golden Years? Maybe yes, maybe no.
The only folks drinking Starbucks and sleeping the sleep of the innocent are our politicians. The whole point of pitting one group of citizens against another is to expand their power and indirectly increase their personal wealth. Rioting in the streets may be the end result but our politicians will come out on top – that’s how socialism ends; the government grabs more power in order to “protect us”, the populace eats more soup. Make mine clam chowder.
VonMisesJr| 1.11.12 @ 3:12PM
Kudos, Pat.
They have nothing to worry about. The politicians will be behind gates and protected by armed guards. And if they have their way, they will have our guns so the fractured and divided groups are only a threat to each other.
I like crab soup, but I may have to switch to bean.
VMJr.
Tired Taxpayer PRM| 1.11.12 @ 1:02PM
In my son’s suburban grade school, literally half of the adults on the payroll are not teachers. I know this because I looked over the welcome flyer they sent home with him and I counted. He received a crappy education. The only reason he can read is because I taught him. He never understood why I insisted that he learn his multiplication tables since his teachers never mentioned them.
In the Catholic grade school I went to in Detroit in the 50’s (even in the 50’s the public schools in Detroit were bad), there were eight grades and eight teachers. The 8th grade teacher was the principal. There was the parish priest who was in charge and a part-time janitor who did the repairs. That was all of the adults in the building. Most of the cleaning (including snow shoveling) was done by students and parents. We received a good education even though there were 50 of us in each class.
I believe that the public school model is flawed and needs to be abolished. Fire them all, close the schools, sell the buildings and let each parent decide upon their own child’s education. This way, the involved parents will force the schools to do a good job. If the schools fail to educate the parents will remove their children and the school will close.
I know that some parents won’t care and will neglect their children’s education. How is that different from the non-education their children are receiving today?
I know that some parents will claim not be able to afford to send their children to school. The churches, charities and business people will take care of them. If a child or two falls through the cracks, so be it. It will still be better than what we have today.
Who ever thought it was a good idea for the government to run the schools anyway? Can anyone name anything the government has run successfully in the last 50 years? Anyone? Why should schools be any different?
nopaulina| 1.11.12 @ 2:20PM
Merit pay will end up with the younest, most maleable, and most radical teachers getting the firest pay. Those just out of college who enthusiatically jump on every new seating arrangement, teaching style, and lesson idea are loved by administrators,. They also don't worry about annoying issues like discipline that tend to draw parents in to administrator's offices. The older, wiser, experienced (and conservative, both politcally and professionally) teachers will be the lowest-paid, as well as getting the worst schedules and the discipline problems, as they do now.
nopaulina| 1.11.12 @ 2:22PM
Excuse errors. I do know better. I shouldn't listen to Rush while I type.
Oldefarte| 1.11.12 @ 3:15PM
Teachers in general are not the problem, but rather their labor unions are so. Democrats politically prostitute themselves to illegal immigration which causes undue numbers of the children of same to overburden the public school system both numbers and cost-wise. Eliminate the illegal immigration problem and the labor union representation of teacher problem, and the public school system will thrive and benefit!!!!
Tina B| 1.11.12 @ 3:39PM
Not necessarily, Oldefarte,
And did you change the spelling of your monicker or are you a different person from oldfart, above?
The public school will never benefit until the Government, National and State, get out of the schooling business, and the families take back the education of their children, by choosing the facility or method of learning made available to them, or doing the job themselves. Families love children, but many teachers just do their job, which doesn't necessarily mean they love, or even like, the kids they attempt to "teach."
cicero| 1.11.12 @ 4:21PM
Tired Taxpayer : I remember well the days of the Detroit Archdiocese schools from the 50s. Your recollections match mine. The Catholic Church made a huge mistake when it gave up its mission to educate the children, care for the elderly and the sick, and feed the poor. They threw those tasks to the state, or sold their hospitals to the highest bidders. Now, the Church is largely irrelvant, and the missions they ceeded to others are soulless and , in the case of the state run schools, incompetent.
We are presently staring into the face of a bankrupt public sector. The taxpayers, tired as they are, must refuse to throw any more money at these failed institutions. Only after the collapse will there be a chance for improvement. Perhaps we can take a page from the book of ACORN. Allow (or cause) the system to be overwhelmed - in this case with self generated debt. Detroit and its public schools are about one month away from recognizing the fact that it is in fact overwhelmed by its debt. At that point, the State will have the ability to step in, abrogate all of the insane contracts, and sstart to rebuild.
There will be much anguished wailing about the loss of democracy. However, the alternative is to strip money from others, who have no say in the matter, to pay for their institutions. Something like taxation without representation.
Trinacria| 1.11.12 @ 7:03PM
What?!!! You mean that rising Medicaid costs and declining tax revenues has an adverse impact on education budgets??? Shazam!
I particularly appreciated this remarkable example of journalistic insight: "We are presently staring into the face of a bankrupt public sector."
By golly, welcome to the party, sport - you're a little late, but hell, what's a decade or two?
Thanks, RiShawn, for another RiDiculously uninformative statement of the obvious. I'm embarrassed for you.
TrueBlue | 1.11.12 @ 7:34PM
Mr. Biddle, the $1.1 trillion is counting various retirement checks and over a period of time, not yearly correct? Either way, any chance you could post your source on that budget deficit number?
Not disagreeing with you, just easier to convince some people I know when I can point it out. Tried looking but all I was able to find is average yearly salaries, compensation, and total number of teachers in primary/secondary schools totally $165 Billion and change yearly. Still a considerable amount, but nowhere near your numbers.
TrueBlue | 1.11.12 @ 7:35PM
That should be "totalling" ...
POST American| 1.11.12 @ 11:55PM
----Great piece!
BTW, speaking of education
"When education is put away, and
training is substituted ---civilization
is OVER."
-C S Lewis
One and all MUST check out
Charlotte Isserbyt's 'The Dumbing Down
of America' volume now online.
She was director of ed. policy under
Reagan and was a first hand witness of
the Knee-Oh CON Globalist 'Soviet-ization'
of the entire American educational establish-
ment in the name of 'dumb down' and
'fitting in'.
Purpose made people if you will.
Indispensible.
AGAIN
the 4 decades on, systematic, U.S. taxpayer
underwritten TREASON, er, we meant
'transfer' of American technology, industry
and economy to the Globalist created
RED China ---IS---- the core issue of ALLLL
time.
---------------HUAC/ Nuremberg 2012----------------
Tina B| 1.14.12 @ 10:52AM
Another BINGO for you, P.
I am on video #5 of the wonderful interview with Charlotte Isserbyt, whom my son found accidentally while researching the fake anthropogenic global warming data.
I remembered what you said and I just came back to your post to see if it was Charlotte you referred to. I agree with you, all TAS readers need to read/see her ideas based on the comprehensive data she has acculmulated from deep dark caverns over the years.
As an ex-educator, why haven't I heard these two names before, Gatto and Isserbyt??? Gee, let me guess. . .
Do your research people, if you're disgusted with American education now, just wait. Or do something. At least let's get some facts, and they are not out there waving to be found, we must dig. Dig?
Tina B| 1.12.12 @ 9:28AM
Every so often, PA, you make perfect sense. The C.S. Lewis quote is spot on.
And I am reading a similar book by Gatto, "Dumbing Us Down." All of his (Gatto) books are making me do a 180 on US Schooling. I could not have handled knowing this while I was on the inside, 6 months ago.
I marched to a different drummer then, as many of my closest friends in teaching still do. I felt the pressure to change my ways, see post above. I couldn't give up my mission and it was in conflict with the mission of the schools. My mission was from God, to teach the child. The schools' mission was to teach the curriculum. Only. The curriculum the 'school system' has chosen, only. It wasn't working for the lowest skilled students, because it had no relevance to the students' lives. No context. Just year after year of a disconnected, disjointed thing called the curriculum.
Hank Woods| 1.12.12 @ 12:43PM
I think one point should be clarified, particularly about Mr. Biddle's comment that music is not particularly important. In a recent speech at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, Condoleeza Rice stated that music and the arts were not extra-curricular. She argued that her education in music was vital to her career--although her career in education and politics had little to do with music. She stated that learning to perform in public was an important part of education. I bring this up to indicate that not all people who disagree with Mr. Biddle are left-wing, teacher union "types."
ProfBob| 1.14.12 @ 3:31AM
As one who has taught in ghetto and barrio schools, and has taught teacher education classes at the university level, as well as having a doctorate in philosophy of education, I have two main thoughts.
1. While we have many outstanding teachers at every level, we have some very poor ones also. We do get so many of our teachers from the lowest quartile, compared to Finland where they come from the top quartile. This is due to a number of things: low salaries, low esteem from the community, and often impossible teaching conditions in schools.
2. The countries that outrank us internationally in educational achievement have homogeneous populations with educated parents who expect and will work for success for their children. In Los Angeles, where I often taught, there are 600 languages among the students and they have to be taught in their own language. At Hollywood High School, where I once taught, we had 20 languages. Additionally there was a pressure from parents to get the students working as soon as possible to help provide for their large families. The situation is actually better in the high schools than in the middle schools because many students drop out before high school.
The solutions to the mass education of immigrants whose parents have not been used to education is not as simple as most seem to believe.
Tina B| 1.14.12 @ 11:22AM
ProfBob,
What is family life like in Finland, I wonder. I grew up in parochial schools in SoCal. My European parents supported and monitored my education (to the extent that they could, I was pretty sneaky).
The fact that you said it is better in high schools than middle because many students (make that non-traditional learners, according to the jargon) drop out by then, tells me you mean that the kids left in the classroom who want to be there are more teachable, at least in the classroom setting. And they are far less distracted now that the distractors have left. Well, duh.
Give me thirty Algebra 1 Honors students in one room at one time who are delighted with life in the classroom and want to learn Algebra, for whatever reason, and watch me help them conquer both the algebra and the bloody 'State Assesment' at the proclaimed time and in the proclaimed setting.
Now we wake up to the reality of compulsory standardized public education and happy feet in dreamland disappears. In truth, I can teach algebra to almost anyone, young or old, brilliant or dull, English speaking or not. If you group them properly. Not lump them all together by age, grade and a test score taken on Thursday, April 12th from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. in a silent room full of anxious and nervous people, young and old, teacher/proctor and student alike.
And to think all of our and their lives may depend on this test score. Ye gads, the system is finally broken.
Good teachers are leaving in droves because good teaching isn't what is wanted or expected. The new words are "Best Teaching Practices." And they include what Charlotte Iserbyt and JohnTaylor Gatto are sounding the alarm about. Check 'em out on youtube.
The reality is that the drive out of school and into the working world is not such a terrible thing. Many of the students who stay in school, and still don't learn anything real, and relevant, just enter colleges straight into remediation courses to try to learn it all again. And some of them will never learn what they need to live a life of significance. Schools are not designed to do that today.
Hello, families, are you listening?
Donald G. Brow | 1.14.12 @ 1:38PM
Once again we have here another irrelevant, usless, and sarcastic, attack on teachers and public education. It is becoming clear that the Republican party, and this author hates ALL teachers, all teachers everywhere.. ...ALL teachers, ALL of us, are ALL lazy, privileged, laggard, horrible people who feed off taxpayer money, every single one of us everywhere. right? ALL of us need to be Fired laid off, and kicked to the gutter.....
There are many teachers who labor every day under relentless public attack, vilification, and disdain to teach children because we love kids and want to give them a future and pass along the best we have to coming generations. We teach because we love young people, not for the meager pay, lavish free health-care (are you kidding me?) or cushy secure job status (tell that one to the 1000s of teachers fired after Katrina so that GWBush and the Feds could dismantle the New Orleans public schools & privatize the entire system into oblivion).
I am a teacher, and I teach because I love kids and I want to give them a future and help shape their lives in positive, nurturing ways; not for the money, not for the free health-care, not for the cushy job security. I guess that makes Me a lazy, laggard, parasitical slob who feeds off taxpayer money.....Right Mr Biddle?
Zak Klemmer | 1.14.12 @ 9:15PM
Mr. Brow the system is corrupted and was long before you started teaching. I had several great teachers in Los Angeles in the 1960's. They inspired my and am better for it.
POST American| 1.14.12 @ 9:56PM
"Training remember is ALLL Pavolivian.
Education, TRUE education is, well,
spiritual. Understand folks, even in the
IVY leagues, less than 6 percent of the
Phds are ever given any access to the
REAL archives. That's for a chosen few.
Very few. The rest are the 'mushrooms'
kept in the dark and fed garbage, junk science
and antique technology."
You IVY league MAs and Phds
reading this, go to the mirror,
make eye contact, and whisper
-----------SCHMUCK------------
three times slowly.
NOW you know WHY your culture
is degraded and utterly without dimension
-----WHY people even move away from
the chip dip when you approach at parties
Zak Klemmer | 1.14.12 @ 10:46PM
"Inside American Education" by Dr. Thomas Sowell- facts for your enlightenment.