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The bureaucrats that allocate the billions in education spending have decided to concentrate on special education, education for the disadvantaged, and closing the "achievement gap" between white students and minority students. The results of these efforts have been dreadful. The facts are:
- In 2007, the federal government spent $71.7 billion on elementary and secondary education programs. These funds were spent by 13 federal departments and multiple agencies. The Department of Education spent $39.2 billion on K""12 education. The largest programs in the Department of Education's elementary and secondary budget were "Education for the disadvantaged" ($14.8 billion) and "Special education" ($11.5 billion).
- While spending per pupil has more than doubled, reading scores have remained relatively flat.
- The achievement gap persists, with black and Hispanic children still lagging behind their white peers despite decades of federal aid targeted at equalizing opportunities for all students. Similarly, in 2005""2006, the national high school graduation rate for white students (80.6 percent) remained significantly higher than the graduation rates of black students (59.1 percent) and Hispanic students (61.4 percent).
- In many cities, spending per student exceeds $10,000 per year, yet graduation rates are below 50%. In Detroit, per-student spending is $11,100 per year, yet only 25% of Detroit's students are graduating from high school.
- According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 52% of public education expenditures are spent on instruction. This percentage has been slowly decreasing over recent decades.
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Instead of encouraging excellence in our most gifted children, government bureaucrats spend billions experimenting with the latest educational fads and trying to make sure all students are treated equal. This socialist teaching methodology has accomplished mass mediocrity. The devastating combination of mediocre teaching methods, weak curriculum, disinterested or non-existent parental involvement, lazy unmotivated pupils, and greedy self serving teachers' unions has led to the poor excuse for a public education system.
More Perfect Union
"I don't represent the children. I represent the teachers."
Al Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers
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Mr. Hand: What is this fascination with truancy? What is it that gets inside of your heads? There are some teachers at this school who look the other way at truants. It's a little game you both play. They pretend they don't see you, and you pretend you don't ditch! Now, in the end, who pays the price? YOU!
Jeff Spicoli: [Desmond re-enters; Spicoli follows with bagel stuffed into crotch; with open shirt, barefoot, holding Vans] Wait a minute, there's no birthday party for me here! Hello, Mr. Hand.
Mr. Hand: What's the reason for your truancy?
Jeff Spicoli: Just couldn't make it on time.
Mr. Hand: You couldn't, or you wouldn't?
Jeff Spicoli: See, there was a full crowd at the food lines.
Mr. Hand: Food will be eaten on YOUR time. Why are you continuously late for this class, Mr. Spicoli? Why do you shamelessly waste my time like this?
Jeff Spicoli: [long pause, but then with complete truth in his answer] I don't know.
Mr. Hand: [Mr. Hand goes to blackboard and writes the words 'I Don't Know', then underlines them]
[reciting]
Mr. Hand: I like that. 'I Don't Know.' That's nice.
[imitating]
Mr. Hand: 'Mr. Hand, will I pass this class?' Gee, Mr. Spicoli, I don't know! You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to leave your words right up here for all my classes to enjoy, giving you full credit of course, Mr. Spicoli.
Jeff Spicoli: All right!
How many wasted, brain dead Spicolis are we pumping out of our public school system into society? Too many. One of the major reasons for this result is non-caring tenured teachers, protected by powerful teachers' unions. We could use teachers who cared as much as Mr. Hand. It has been 28 years since I was in high school. I had mostly mediocre teachers, but two teachers left a permanent impression on me. Charlie McLaughlin's and Thomas McGrath's enthusiasm for learning, knowledge of the subject matter, and concern for the students generated a passion for learning in me. Being inspired by a teacher is what every student needs to get to the next level.
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Jeff Spicoli: This is U.S. History, I see the globe right there.
The average salary of public school teachers is approximately $53,000. The average salary of public school teachers in California leads the nation at $65,000. This gives the term pay for performance a new meaning. A full 32% of all public school students in California don't graduate high school. The California public school system doesn't even prepare the average student well enough to read a newspaper or fill out an employment application at McDonalds. Based on information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the following facts can be gleaned:
- The average public school teacher was paid 36% more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker.
- Full-time public school teachers work on average 36.5 hours per week during weeks that they are working. By comparison, white-collar workers (excluding sales) work 39.4 hours, and professional specialty and technical workers work 39.0 hours per week. Private school teachers work 38.3 hours per week.
- Compared with public school teachers, editors and reporters earn 24% less; architects, 11% less; psychologists, 9% less; chemists, 5% less; mechanical engineers, 6% less; and economists, 1% less.
- Public school teachers are paid 61% more per hour than private school teachers, on average nationwide.
- The Detroit metropolitan area has the highest average public school teacher pay among metropolitan areas for which data are available, at $47.28 per hour, followed by the San Francisco metropolitan area at $46.70 per hour, and the New York metropolitan area at $45.79 per hour.
With the highest average salary per teacher, Detroit must be turning out the best and brightest. Does a 75% high school dropout rate merit the highest salaries in the country? The district has 15,000 workers, an annual budget of $1.2 billion, and only graduates 25% of the 94,000 students it matriculates through its horrific system. Well done. I'm sure they will get big union negotiated raises this year. There is absolutely no evidence that average teacher pay is related to high school graduation rates. Due to their strong teachers' unions, salaries, benefits and tenure are fought for, while the interests of the students are disregarded.
"A lot of people who have been hired as teachers are basically not competent."
Al Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers
Excellent motivated teachers produce excellent motivated students. Incompetent, unmotivated, burnt out, tenured teachers produce dropouts and functionally illiterate students. Tenure allows bad teachers to stay employed for decades. It is virtually impossible to get fired. In ten years, only about 47 out of 100,000 teachers were actually terminated from New Jersey's schools. Newark's school district successfully fired about one out of every 3,000 tenured teachers annually. Graduation statistics indicate that Newark's graduation rate was a fabulous 30.6%. New York City's Chancellor has revealed that in that city, only ten out of 55,000 tenured teachers were terminated in the 2006-2007 school year. According to the New York Daily News, at any given time in New York City an average of 700 teachers are being paid not to teach (they instead report to "rubber rooms") while the district goes through the hoops (imposed by the union contract and by law) needed to pursue discipline or termination. A city teacher in New York that ends up being fired will have spent an average of 19 months in the disciplinary process. The Daily News reported that the New York City school district spends more than $65 million annually paying teachers accused of wrongdoing, in addition to the cost of hiring substitutes.
