Obama Takes On The Teachers' Union

Presidents who have never taught should keep their noses out. George Bush's no child left behind is a great disaster. It sounds good like this, but do a day in a classroom then preach.
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Not a teacher but I am a union girl in the education field and have seen how badly "merit" pay tends to work. Does not reward the best teachers at all.

Good.
The public school systems are horrid. Teachers don't care anymore. Half the time they show up when the students do and run out the door faster than the kids at 3. When I went to school, teachers were there at 6 am, and quite a few stayed till 5-6 pm.
I have worked with those in their twenties and they can't even do basic math or read properly.
Thank goodness for private schooling when my son was of school age, that is where he went. (now he is finishing off school via an online schooling...we pulled him out of a public school in his 12th year because the teachers were idiots, yes idiots. They had him taking classes he did in 8th grade, same books, same tests. He was bored to death. Took a year and a half off, and now he is on the honor roll each quarter and even taking college classes because he had already did almost all the 12th grade required classes in 9th grade..when we moved to a different state and was taken out of private schooling)
Make these teachers actually start to work for the money instead of babysit.

Well then, Carol, Obama should have the right to put his nose in it since he use to teach.

Teachers should be paid on performance. See my article on this: Click Here

Teachers can't do it all. Parents need to be more involved.

I would rather Teachers be paid on Performance, ingenuity, and productivity. Too many teachers that actually try to do the best they can, and help the students today, are hampered by the Unions and some School Bords, although a good number of School Bords actually support good teachers, the Unions restrict the most.
Promote the better Teachers, and get rid of those that don't want to be there. Good Teachers will promote better students and learning.

Merit pay for teaching is an interesting concept. In the corporate world, merit pay is typically tied to earnings or job role. What would teacher merit pay be tied to - grades? and who gives out the grades? or should we use state standardized test as the basis of merit and have our children learn nothing but what we see on a standardized test? Don't get me wrong - I hate LAUSD, hate the teachers union, and I think good teachers deserve appropriate reward and the bad ones - well, there should at least be a way to fire them! (It's almost impossible here in LA). Education is in a crisis, but I think it will take a lot more than merit pay to solve it. Obama should also concentrate on the economy and stop jumping from place to place. You can't solve it all at once.

I agree with Dan. Pay for the performance, get rid of the bad ones.

I hope they get something accomplished!

Lisa as a president it is his job to look at all the problems and not just one or two. I have to say (and it pains me...lol) that Dan is spot on concerning this subject. Too many teachers are out there that dont care. Get them out and lets get new teachers in there that truly want to be there to teach.

My mother in law teaches in college and one of her biggest irritants is that there are students ages 18 19 and 20 that cant even do basic math after graduating High School. Yet somehow they all say they made a's and B's in in math during H.S. How?

Carol D....it's attitudes like yours that undermined NCLB [no child left behind]. Mandatory testing and acountability are threats to the monolith known as teacher's unions. You state that unless someone has "never taught should keep their noses out." Along with our noses our choice in the form of vouchers: keep out. our opinions on cirriculum: keep out, our cries for reform: keep out......but keep shoveling mountains of money into the system.
This is all crapola....and leads one to subscribe to the thought I read somewhere : "in the long-term this country has more to fear from teacher's unions than we do from Islamic terrorists."

I think that if the school helped or payed for the teachers to take classes in the summer time that would help. and We need the pay them better if they do this

I homeschool my two youngest. I wish I had homeschooled by high school senior!

He is not really he is letting the Vouchers that work so well in DC get shelved. There are even 2 underprivilaged kids on vouchers going to school where his 2 are going. I guess they are going to get kicked to the curb.

Let’s be honest within one contract cycle of the introduction of the pay for performance 80-90 % of all union teachers will be receiving a part of all the incentive moneys allowed, especially if it is Federal dollars. Within 2 contract cycles all teachers will be receiving the performance pay. It is the purpose of the unions to ensure that all of their members get equal pay for the same job description.