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Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Want To Be A Teacher, Think Again

Speaking of public sector layoffs, the United States has become no place for teachers. According to research done by the Hamilton Project, our nation has lost more than 200,000 teaching jobs – and perhaps as many as 300,000 – since 2009. These layoffs are occurring at the state-level – where cash-strapped states don't have enough money to fund education budgets, and Republican governors are pushing for tax cuts for the rich rather than investments in the future. No nation has ever achieved prosperity by investing in more billionaires than more teachers.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol, typical seiu press release. I know a number of teachers in wicomico who ought to join those 200,000 - 300,00 and it would have no impact on the students other than maybe the opportunity to give them a better education.

Anonymous said...

Let's be careful here - are you talking about the number of teachers, the quality of teachers or the amount of money that is put in to everything that is called education? There are a number of indirect costs that provide no correlated gains to educational quality results.

Anonymous said...

And people wonder why the students are doing so poorly.

Anonymous said...

First, they said they need smaller class sizes. Then they said they need new books and schools. Now, they blame everyone but themselves for the American student falling behind the rest of the world. If you can't get fired for lack of results, where's the motivation to improve? There's a reason the Dems/Unions are against Charter schools. No dues aka campaign donations!

Anonymous said...

The parents are the problem. Teach the little brats how to respect others and listen and the whole problem goes away. Smaller class sizes do help, just look at Worcester's test scores compared to counties with dowble the class sizes. Also let's keep in mind that the same system you are complaining about is the system that guess what?????????? It's training the teachers as well.

Anonymous said...

950-Look at the class size average in the US. Has gone down the last 25 years. Test scores? They've gone down to. Keep playing the blame game. Results are results, no matter how it's spun. Our system is falling behind despite fulfilling union demands.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of spin...the results you all are pointing to are not valid. In America, with mandated mainstreaming of all "challenged" students their test scores are added into with everyone else thus the score will be lower than say China. There they test at a young age, and if your are not of "academic" stuff then you are sent to a trade school, and they can learn to be useful and contribute to society. Here they just fail and get passed on, to later become one of the entitlement class.

Anonymous said...

Over time, this situation won't get any better. You think healthcare and nursing is a great field to get into? Sure, if you can afford to devote your entire life to studying and busting your ass for a 4.0 GPA (which may or may not land you in a nursing program, especially around here when schools are more ept to pulling names out of a hat) and not having to worry about incurring debt, bills, and other adult responsibilities just to survive another day. Many nursing professionals will tell you that they would rather work as a nurse than as an instructor. Why? Money talks. Not to mention the need for small class sizes, the availability of educational/instructional supplies etc. As long as there are a number of unemployed teachers (especially in healthcare and/or nursing), there will be a shortage of nurses actively working in the field. And so the wait continues for myself and so many others who are in the same position I'm in...smh.

Anonymous said...

106-Use any method of comparison. Science and math degrees, engineering degrees, masters/doctorates, and I do include the abysmal record of our public schools. It is a completely valid question, has the kowtowing to the union demands made a positive difference? By no measurable metric, can you say it has. Why should public employees also be part of the entitlement class through tenure?

Anonymous said...

Love it, or hate it, the U.S. public school system is THE ONLY public institution we have to keep the U.S. going. Without it, the majority of you reading this would not be able to secure a job or support your family. If the public education system goes down, so does the rest of the U.S. So let's stop dumping on it and work to support and improve it.