I believe there may be two ways we can fix primary education in America. This piece will address one of them. Before I begin I should say I believe this would be the most difficult to enact and probably the least effective.
Putting it bluntly, we have to regain control of schools and remove that control from the teachers unions. I have always believed that public employees should not have the right to strike as there is no profit and loss motive in public employment. When public employees strike they are holding the public hostage. This is even more true when teachers go on strike. Therefore, I propose that every state enact legislation that makes it illegal for teachers to strike. This should be enforced with stiff fines for both the union and individual members who refuse to work. It should also involve jail time for union leaders and individual members. ( I should mention that I was a public employee for over 20 years, I have a daughter who is a school teacher and I believe teaching is the noblest of professions.) Basically what I'm saying is that teachers should lose all rights to collective bargaining.
Once the unions are out of the way merit pay can be instituted and tenure rights will be taken off the table. Teachers will have to preform to keep their jobs and good teachers will be compensated for the good work they do. Teachers will be rated by parents, students, administrators, and their peers. Mediocrity will no longer be the accepted standard in public schools. The teachers that are left will regain the respect they so richly deserve.
Administration budgets and administrators must be drastically slashed. Way too much money is spent on people and things that have nothing to do with the quality of education our children receive. The money that is saved should be spent on excellent teachers, books, and bringing in guest lecturers from different walks of life in order to integrate education with the real world and make sure students get to view subjects from alternative perspectives.
We must insist that education concentrate on the basics. Reading, writing, math, science, history and civics should be required through all 12 grades. Standards and expectations in these areas should be set at a high level. Secondary students should also have access to a wide variety of electives to include music, art, languages, business and shop classes. All other subjects that currently take up valuable time should be taken out of the public school system and turned back over to families, churches and other institutions.
The political correctness that has invaded our schools and the text books used must be removed. Facts are facts and they should never be altered to conform to what is acceptable by today's standards. Physical education should be required for all students at least through 9th or 10th grade. Boys need to be encouraged and allowed to be boys so they grow up to be men. The current trend towards drugging boys because they're a little overactive needs to cease and desist. We must return to a system of grading, winners and losers etc. The idea that no one should ever fail or be made to feel bad has disastrous effects later on in life and results in the schools turning out students that have no concept of competition and what it takes to succeed.
Strict moral, behavioral, dress, and other standards need to be set and enforced in every school. I do not believe that this can happen in a vacuum there needs to be a basis for those morals therefore, the Judeo/Christian ideas that this country was founded on need to be reintroduced into public education. (You should know I'm not a member of the Christian right. If you think this is not possible due to the U.S. Constitution I will be address what the first ten words of the Bill of Rights really mean in a later piece.) The decline of our public schools and society as a whole can be directly correlated to the removal of religious ideas from our schools and the public square.
The ideas presented above are just a short overview of what I think needs to be done. I believe it would be next to impossible to implement these ideas given today's political climate. How can a candidate for Governor, State Legislator, or School Board run on a platform that says I'm going to do everything in my power to destroy the teachers unions when the teachers unions are amongst the Democrats largest contributors? Can we really hope to put enough originalist judges in the court system to actually interpret the Constitution the way it was intended by the founders? These are the hurdles we must jump over for this repair to work.
Part 2 will follow in a few days.
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