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The NEA's New Year's Resolutions
January 02, 2004Over at Thomas B. Fordham, Justin Torres has an interesting take on the NEA's New Year's Resolutions. Here's a sampling:
The NEA believes [...] that vouchers are bad. So is for-profit education. The NEA can deal with standardized tests so long as they are used only to "improve the quality of education and instruction"--that is, so long as they have no consequences for anybody. Holding its nose, the NEA believes that charter schools can be "agents for positive change" in reforming education IF they have attached to them 22 different strings concerning their governance, financing, and regulation. Of course, the NEA further believes that charter schools should only road-test ideas to be used in regular district schools and should under no circumstances become "an avenue for parental choice." Home schooling is also out, but "when home schooling occurs"--which sounds like the unexpected onset of a terminal illness--the NEA believes that parents attempting to instruct their little ones around the kitchen table should be forced to get state teaching licenses and their curricula should be approved by the state education agency.The message is clear: parents should not have any choices. Poor parents have scant alternatives to failing public schools: vouchers (which are extremely scarce) and homeschooling. Both of these are no-nos according to the NEA. Some places have charter schools, but no, they aren't to be used as an avenue of parental choice. In other words, the status quo is to be maintained.
As an unqualified, uncertified homeschooler, I'd like to see the NEA demand all K-12 instructors hold Mechanical Engineering & Special Education degrees along with professional engineer and optician licenses and 10-15 years of experience in those fields. That's for me and my wife combined - our home school faculty. We also have a 2/3 teacher/student ratio - I'd like that required too.
Folks, the union is a joke. Homeschool academic performance statistics clearly show teacher certification (or higher education attained)has little to do with K-12 scores on standardized testing vs. public or private school students. www.hslda.org/docs/study/ray1997/07.asp Crying "but they aren't certified" just doesn't wash. Either the NEA has to promote a new measurement standard for the students or the teachers...or maybe both to make a case here. Homeschoolers are beating the "professionals" on their own accepted measurement standards. And oh yeah, for a heck of a lot less funding.
Eric Holcombe January 29, 2004 11:11 AMgg
stropinela June 25, 2004 08:03 PM