Many of our California schools are no longer giving “F’s—every one passes. Our teachers will soon have NO test of their skills—graduate from college and get your teaching credential—no need to see if you can teach. Especially since UCLA and other schools are, in part, giving grades based on economic condition and race—not class work.
Then you have the hate America classes, even in math kids are taught that numbers do not matter. With Common Core, two plus two CAN equal five.
Our professional sport teams have become political operations, hating some Americans for the color of their skins—then giving money to kill black babies. Confused.
Excellence is no longer the goal—politically correct, woke and hate are the guidelines—just hate the right people.
By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 2/11/21
Mediocrity is the current, correct description for California’s — and the rest of the nation’s — public schools.
There are some exceptions, but one has to look hard to find really good public schools.
America once had a reputation for having excellent public schools.
Recent — and not so recent — developments have destroyed that reputation.
One has to look no farther that Lowell High School in San Francisco. Lowell has had a long history of admitting talented students.
That history will change beginning with the 2021-2022 school year. Admission to Lowell will be by lottery, not talent.
To the egalitarian mind, Lowell is becoming more “democratic.” The reality is that Lowell will no longer enjoy the prestige of admitting gifted students.
Lowell is not alone. In other cities, high school admissions for talented students will be by lottery, not academic achievement.
In a traditional public-school system, teachers are compensated on the basis of years of service and the number of university credits earned beyond the bachelor’s degree.
In most school districts, teachers earn tenure after a two-year or three-year period.
Once a teacher has tenure, he (or she) cannot be fired.
Incompetent teachers are often put in “rubber rooms.” In a rubber room, a teacher does not teach but sits in a special room for the entire school day. Such a teacher, receives full compensation as if he were actually teaching.
The time has come to change the way teachers are compensated.
Instead of this two-part formula (years of teaching plus the number of units beyond the bachelor’s degree), teachers should be compensated like professional baseball players (or players in other professional sports).
Teachers should be offered two-year or three-year contracts. A teacher who performs well, can get his contract renewed. A teacher who performs badly can be dismissed.
The sports-compensation model may seem, to some teachers, unfair. But what is unfair about a system that rewards excellence and disposes of mediocre talent?
In general, the public school system is ruining American public education. The United States, which has to compete with talented workers in Germany, Japan, Israel, South Korea, and China.
If San Francisco’s Lowell High School (and similar schools elsewhere) go to a system of lottery-based admissions, the parents of gifted students will move out of San Francisco or send their children to private or parochial schools in San Francisco.
Continuing — and spreading — the current public-school, egalitarian system in America, can only mean that the United States will become a society of individuals who cannot compete with individuals living in those nations that give priority to talented students.
