I teach in post secondary education, in other words college. It appalls me that students are leaving public and private schools unprepared for higher education. I have been in this discussion before and I still stand firm on my beliefs that that education under the Clinton and Bush's administrations have done more to hurt state education programs. "No child left behind" is a ruse and until we get education out from under federal control and back into the control of the states, our children will continue to miss the opportunities of learning the basic "ABC's." I teach at a four year community college. Over 40% of our students have to take remedial math, reading, and writing before they can take basic college level courses.
Several of our local school board members and 15 teachers were fired and were threatened with criminal charges for "fixing" the scores on federal mandatory performance tests so students' scores would meet state and federal standards. Public school teacher spend more time giving practice tests that actually teaching.
I agree. Our school systems have gone to hell and the states are mandated by the feds by threats to make cuts of federal support.
We also have have the ivy tower teachers who never look past a text book or computer screen at what is happening in the real world. That is another problem.
And before anyone even thinks it or says it, I do not belong to a union. I have not had a raise or promotion in six years and neither have my fellow educators. I am retiring in 2013 rather than 2015, because I am not under the state teacher's retirement plan, but a plan called ORP (other retirement plan) because the university system I work for has cut their contribution to my retirement back almost 3% over the last two years to force me and others not under teacher retirement to join TRP.
Excuse me, but now I am going to return to building three new classes for Spring semester. I am doing it on my own time, because of my work load, meaningless meetings, and recruiting students does not leave me any work time to prepare for the next semester. I also, worry about getting my ass shot off by an irate student because I cannot carry in the classroom.
