Obama wants longer school year, teachers want shorter work week

[dead0man]

Students want more hot teachers that put out

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[opebo]

In the Police Theocracy, hot teachers that put out are sent to prison

[Beet]

So is this Arne Petersoen Duncan plan going to work out better than than Renaissance 2010?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I agree with the President

[opebo]

As a teacher, I'm for minimizing teaching.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

As a teacher, I'm for minimizing teaching.

You're a lazy?

[opebo]

As a teacher, I'm for minimizing teaching.

You're a lazy?

Of course.  I'm offended you would think otherwise.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

As a teacher, I'm for minimizing teaching.

You're a lazy?

Of course.  I'm offended you would think otherwise.

Oh I  knew it.........just being doubly certain.

[Torie]

What we really need are teachers who did not get a teaching certificate with a C average from a third rate college, and the ability to hire the best, and fire the vast phalanxes of betas.  That is what we need. The rest is noise.

[opebo]

What we really need are teachers who did not get a teaching certificate with a C average from a third rate college, and the ability to hire the best, and fire the vast phalanxes of betas.  That is what we need. The rest is noise.

So you're proposing tripling the budget?

[MODU]

I saw this last week.  It isn't the number of hours in class that students need, it's a new approach to education itself.  By the time students hit high school, they shouldn't still be in English, Science, History, Math, etc classes.  They need to be in courses that combine the material together in order to bring the learning process to a whole new level.  Introduce business classes that combine English (writing) and Math (accounting) togehter, for example.  And replace the generic teacher with retired professionals who have worked in the various industries.  This would produce business-ready new hires for those who wish to by-pass college and go right into the workforce.  And for those going to college, they will be better able to handle the advanced level of learning by already being exposed to cross-topic discussions.

[ilikeverin]

Actually, four-day school-weeks make a lot of sense; in school districts where it's been done, it has significantly decreased costs and energy usage while also decreasing sick days and absenteeism.  As does extending the school year.  There is no reason they can't both be done at the same time.

[Lief 🗽]

What we really need are teachers who did not get a teaching certificate with a C average from a third rate college, and the ability to hire the best, and fire the vast phalanxes of betas.  That is what we need. The rest is noise.

I'm not entirely sure how you accomplish that without drastically increasing teacher salaries.

[Torie]

What we really need are teachers who did not get a teaching certificate with a C average from a third rate college, and the ability to hire the best, and fire the vast phalanxes of betas.  That is what we need. The rest is noise.

So you're proposing tripling the budget?

Opebo, I don't think it would be that expensive, since it would be a merit system with career track salaries for the best and the brightest. And then we could and should fire a host of administrators working in downtown offices shorting out their pencils from their pens. Finally getting rid of the teachers' unions would help, as well as this class size mantra that has no correlation with educational performance. Vouchers would concentrate the mind wonderfully of these monopolistic institutions (and that is what it effectively is for the poors, leavened a bit now, but only a bit, by charter schools). However, if given all of that, it costs more money, so be it. It is our duty to educate the young, and educate them well, even those in zip codes that I would never live in, or in same cases, even drive through.

[opebo]

What we really need are teachers who did not get a teaching certificate with a C average from a third rate college, and the ability to hire the best, and fire the vast phalanxes of betas.  That is what we need. The rest is noise.

So you're proposing tripling the budget?

Opebo, I don't think it would be that expensive, since it would be a merit system with career track salaries for the best and the brightest.

You'ld still need roughly the same number of teachers, you'ld just have to pay them at least double.  Teachers nowadays make a pittance - in Missouri they start at an absurd wage - something like $25,000/year.

And then we could and should fire a host of administrators working in downtown offices shorting out their pencils from their pens. Finally getting rid of the teachers' unions would help, as well as this class size mantra that has no correlation with educational performance. Vouchers would concentrate the mind wonderfully of these monopolistic institutions (and that is what it effectively is for the poors, leavened a bit now, but only a bit, by charter schools). However, if given all of that, it costs more money, so be it. It is our duty to educate the young, and educate them well, even those in zip codes that I would never live in, or in same cases, even drive through.

These 'reforms' you mention are utterly inconsequential.  What makes people uneducable in those zip codes you so disdain is not the disfunction of the government educational system (which is in fact rather amazingly effective and even noble, considering what it is battling) but the capitalist oppression under which the residents labour.

[Jacobtm]

So you're proposing tripling the budget?

Starting teachers at higher salaries is certainly appropriate if we demand higher preformance from them. However, firing lots of terrible teachers would save a great deal of money as well. In the end, if we wanted better teachers and a system where we could actually fire ones who underpreformed, I suppose it would cost more, but getting rid of all the dead weight would help keep costs down.

[Torie]

What we really need are teachers who did not get a teaching certificate with a C average from a third rate college, and the ability to hire the best, and fire the vast phalanxes of betas.  That is what we need. The rest is noise.

So you're proposing tripling the budget?

Opebo, I don't think it would be that expensive, since it would be a merit system with career track salaries for the best and the brightest.

You'ld still need roughly the same number of teachers, you'ld just have to pay them at least double.  Teachers nowadays make a pittance - in Missouri they start at an absurd wage - something like $25,000/year.

And then we could and should fire a host of administrators working in downtown offices shorting out their pencils from their pens. Finally getting rid of the teachers' unions would help, as well as this class size mantra that has no correlation with educational performance. Vouchers would concentrate the mind wonderfully of these monopolistic institutions (and that is what it effectively is for the poors, leavened a bit now, but only a bit, by charter schools). However, if given all of that, it costs more money, so be it. It is our duty to educate the young, and educate them well, even those in zip codes that I would never live in, or in same cases, even drive through.

These 'reforms' you mention are utterly inconsequential.  What makes people uneducable in those zip codes you so disdain is not the disfunction of the government educational system (which is in fact rather amazingly effective and even noble, considering what it is battling) but the capitalist oppression under which the residents labour.

You sound just like my nephew Opebo. Now what I can't figure out, is whether he is channeling you, or you him, or each other, be it simultaneously or serially. I mean it is all about the evils of capitalism and the market system 24/7. My nephew's latest is to forgive all debt, and just start over.   But Milton Friedman whispers to me sometimes at night from his new venue, that  one is free to choose, and to be of stout heart, and brave, in the face of the Marxist onslaught.

[opebo]

... firing lots of terrible teachers would save a great deal of money as well.

No, you'ld have to replace them.  No savings there.

You sound just like my nephew Opebo. Now what I can't figure out, is whether he is channeling you, or you him, or each other, be it simultaneously or serially. I mean it is all about the evils of capitalism and the market system 24/7. My nephew's latest is to forgive all debt, and just start over.

Well, you should be glad the lad is honest.  If I were he I'd be telling you exactly whatever you wanted to hear. 

But Milton Friedman whispers to me sometimes at night from his new venue, that one one if free to choose, and to be of stout heart, and brave, in the face of the Marxist onslaught.

Well, you see, there's no such 'onslaught' - just a few powerless people (youths, poors, college professors) talking that way.  The actual onslaught is from your side - all the real power and violence is on the side of capital, the upper class.  But I do like that choice of words - 'onslaught'.  I think it is a very effective description of what is being done and has always been done to the working class.

[k-onmmunist]

Obama is wrong. As usual.

[Ban my account ffs!]

A neighboring school district here has a 4 day school week... the students get Monday off.  But they go to school for 8 hours per day the other days.

It was to save money.

[Jacobtm]

... firing lots of terrible teachers would save a great deal of money as well.

No, you'ld have to replace them.  No savings there.

Firing a teacher who's been working for 30 years, earning a cushy salary and doing a bad job and replacing them with a young teacher would lead to savings. Keeping the whole system more fluid, so that we don't have so many bad teachers working until retirement/earning high salaries would also save money.

[LBJFan]

After World War I, you could say that the U.S. established itself as a Super Power. Now, 90 years later, perhaps we still are, but the title as a super power is in Jeopardy. Countries like China (Big surprise), Finland, and Estonia have children with higher Math and Science scores than us. India has more honor students than we have students. Standards are higher than 90 years ago. The bar has been raised. Other countries have year round school, and it works. In order for our children to compete in the 21st century, I believe year round school is vital to our success. As a senior in High School, the only thing that really sucks is having to get up so early. Other than that, I love it.

[Lunar]

I surprisingly agree with Opebo in his cynicism that you could do this Torie without raising the educational budget significantly in order to attract the best talent.  Measuring teacher talent is of course an incredibly difficult statistic to generate too.

How many fighter planes would we need to abort to save America's educational system?

[Stampever]

We don't need longer school years.  What we need are better teachers.  We need more funding to hire better qualified teachers that are able to engage the students and turn them on to the material being taught.  Most of my teachers were boring and came across as not being interested in their own lesson plans.  If that changes, our performance levels will change.

[opebo]

Firing a teacher who's been working for 30 years, earning a cushy salary and doing a bad job and replacing them with a young teacher would lead to savings. Keeping the whole system more fluid, so that we don't have so many bad teachers working until retirement/earning high salaries would also save money.

Hah, perhaps so, but if you aren't offering any job security or any prospect of long-term employment/retirement to these young teachers you probably can't expect much in the way of commitment/performance.