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Education

By Don Heavrin

In an article in the August 21, 2006 Jefferson Review, Bob Williams talked about whether Warren Buffet’s $30 billion contribution to The Gate’s Foundation would improve education. Mr. Williams’s article was informative, but unfortunately silent on the crucial issue. Mr. Williams states the educational system, " . . . does not respond to parents, students and teachers, but to politicians, interest groups and union officials." What Union? Is he afraid to say the Teachers’ Unions have ruined the educational system in the United States? It has, and it will continue to ruin the system until somebody steps up and says, ‘Enough!’ As desirable as that alternative is, it is highly unlikely to occur. Incompetents will always find a way to perpetuate themselves. Therefore, the issue becomes: more buildings, more lighting, more equipment, more books, but never better teachers. In order for a system of public education to survive, schools have to be set up so the principal of the school can hire and fire his/her staff.

The business about high school students not being prepared for college is amusing. There is an endless cycle in the college equation. First, the colleges raise their tuition every year and then loan the money to students so they can go to school. Even with the student loans, colleges still need a certain number of students in order to pay the faculty and their endless building programs, therefore, standards are constantly being lowered.

In a recent graduate-level class, I noticed that, at end of the semester, we had to rate our teacher. Our teacher was tenured, so the rating meant nothing except it determined whether she would receive a raise for the coming year. Happily, my teacher was extraordinarily competent, and I was pleased to say so. The glitch in the system is that the ratings are not published. Therefore, if there is ever going to be a difference, college teachers need to have their scores published across the board, in the newspaper, and in the student handbook every year.

Even though the college-rating system is conducted on an anonymous basis, at the public school level, it is against the Union rules for the students to rate the teachers, anonymously or otherwise. That, standing alone, should tell you something about the quality of the people who are teaching school.

Also, teachers have created a monopoly. In order to teach in public schools, it makes no difference that you have won a Nobel Prize in physics; you cannot teach a science class unless you have been certified. What this does is keep out competent teachers, while it promotes incompetence at a breath-taking level.

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