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One of the most objectionable qualities of a government monopoly on education is its protection of teachers which makes it well-nigh impossible to fire them.
In a free market, workers that don’t function lose their job. The risk of being fired ensures that people do their job well. In a system so infested with regulation, lobbyists and union rules as is the case in the United States, however, teachers can easily stay in front of a classroom for many years, regardless of their performance.
On his Fox Business show last February 18, John Stossel complained about the situation, stating that it is part of the reason why education is so expensive in the United States while test scores remain low. “When your job and salary is pretty much guaranteed,” he said, “why work harder?”
The many steps that schools have to go through in order to fire a teacher are so extensive that many principles don’t bother. “Sometimes they just transfer the worst teachers to other schools,” said Stossel. Administrators call it “the dance of the lemons” or “passing the trash.” Funny—”except it could be your kid who has that teacher.”
Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert of Newsweek agree and they report that, “In most states, after two or three years, teachers are given lifetime tenure,” courtesy of the unions. “In no other socially significant profession are the workers so insulated from accountability.”
Consequently, “teaching in public schools has not always attracted the best and the brightest.” Most schoolteachers are recruited from the bottom third of college-bound high school students. With public schools often the only option available to low-income families, children with the greatest interest in social advancement are stuck with the least inspiring of teachers. “Over time, inner-city schools, in particular, succumbed to a defeatist mindset.”
School superintendents and unions have been blaming everyone but themselves in recent decades. First, it was the parents, or the absence of parents, that accounted for students’ poor test scores. Next, society “with all its distractions and pathologies” got the blame. Finally, the kids themselves were the problem. Regardless of academic performance, the thinking went, public schools had to keep going through the motions to promote social equality and hope the students graduated. Except that just sixty percent of African Americans and Hispanics finish high school.
Teaching isn’t easy but students deserve the best education available to them. Allowing teachers to stay in their job when they don’t succeed at it is quite probably the single greatest problem with American education today.
“Allowing teachers to stay in their job when they don’t succeed at it is quite probably the single greatest problem with American education today.”
I don’t have a lot of experience with this problem since my son goes to a Montessori independent (private) school and so far has always encountered very good teachers. It seems hard to say how much of a problem bad teachers really are compared to the other problems (administration, parents etc.). Are there any hard figures? No doubt they are presently protected by the rules. However, the government enforced monopoly could turn on them someday. Other countries with socialist education systems function better although of course some do worse. The safest way is as you suggest is a completely private education system which will ensure quality education, regardless of what the major problems are.
However, regardless of the total number of bad teachers, when they occur it can be devastating to a child’s education. I’ve said this before but it is difficult to teach someone to think when you can’t do it yourself.
This is the worst in Detroit, corruption and terrible teachers combined! A classic example of a bloated bureaucracy. There is a movement towards privatizing schools because the results are so terrible. Things must be at their worst when democrats are considering privatization!