Why can't we do a better job? Well, let's see what is required to do a good job of getting educated students. There's the number of dollars allocated per pupil. There's the quality of the teachers. There's the quality of the supervision. There's the quality of the students (rarely mentioned). And, there's the quality of the parents.
Let's examine these various factors:
Money ... Our high schools get more money per student than almost any other system in any country you might care to compare us with.
Teachers ... They fall on a normal distribution curve as do most of us. There are some great teachers, some real losers, and a great many in between.
Supervision ... Same situation as with the teachers. However, supervisors do seem to be getting a bit worse. They are being denied the experience needed to develop a great supervisor. Mayor Bloomberg is pushing bright kids through "Leadership Academies" and then, though they have not had a day in a classroom, he makes them principals.
Parents ... Parents are parents. They're like your neighbors. Some are brilliant. Some are stupid. But, they do have a right to express themselves. That's democracy. However, when there's no parent, or a parent habituated to drugs or alcohol, the rating for "parent" goes below zero.
Student ... Here is where most of the educational burden rests. Students can actually do well even with subpar teachers. Ditto subpar supervisors. But, subpar parents are a pretty good prescription for failure.
But, who gets virtually all the blame? The teachers and their unions. I don't mean to imply that the unions have contributed much to the educations system. But, there are so many other things wrong with the system that concentrating on the unions is a bit besides the point.
The late Sen. Moynihan pointed to the problems with educating our youth years and years ago. But, no one pursued the avenues he pointed out so clearly. We're never going to raise educational indices, if we fail to focus on students born into unfortunate circumstances.
But, of course, that seems to be too politically incorrect. And, so it is that politicians not only on the right, but also -- under the leadership of Obama -- on the left have begun dumping on the teachers. What irony. There is no more steadfast defender of liberal principals than the teacher. I would venture to guess that 95% are Democrats. And, yet, here they are being skewered by their own people. It reminds me a bit of the novel, "Darkness at Noon," where the hero, after being sentence by a communist kangaroo court, goes to his death in reasonably good spirits. He sees that communism is not yet perfect. He knows he's innocent. m But, it doesn't matter. He is confident that the communism he so loves is evolving and that it soon it will be perfect.
