Gains in school achievement are at risk from budget ax; Really?

A decade of academic advancement due to class-size reduction, tougher curriculum, higher standards, testing, accountability and other reforms could be stalled — even reversed — by the necessity to cut spending.

Great job Jack!

Is this guy for real?  Over the past few decades education in California is gone in the toilet.  It is my opinion that this is primarily caused by the policy of the CTA to put teachers pay, benefits and security before ensuring the students of California are receiving a quality well rounded curriculum to prepare them to compete in our University system.  And what tougher curriculum?  Social Studies? Physical Education? What happened to simple Mathematics, Science and English?

I have many acquaintances that are California teachers and day after day I hear about the rules that teachers follow to ensure that they are not over worked.  These include having “release” days, allowing them to prepare for the rest of the quarter, while a substitute teacher fills in there spot at the rate of ~$120.  What ever happened to putting in the extra time after school?  Most salaried people are payed to get the job done, no matter how long it takes.  Furthermore many school districts, one day a week, have a scheduled minimum day to give the teachers time to have meetings, what happend to after school?  Most schools get out before 3PM, that leaves 2 more hours to have meetings!

Another area of extreme time wasting is standardized testing, teachers have to spend large amounts of class time to coach and train  the students on how to take the the standardized test, during this time they are really not learning anything other than how to get better scores on the test so that school to have an appearance of progress.  The standardized test rarely tests the student knowledge but often test the students ability to take a test, never allowing the student to show what they can really accomplish and ultimately discouraging the student forever due to the feeling of failure.

Don’t get me wrong, I think being a teacher is a very difficult job in many ways and the profession in general is under payed for the value they could be adding to society.  But with more pay comes more responsibility.  That means extra hours to have meetings and plan for the quarter that do not reduce the time students and teacher interact.  That means extra time spend with the students that require addition help or do not have the luxury of the quiet study environment at home.

I think the people of California are tired of hearing how hard it is to be a teacher as well as always hearing about the things preventing them from accomplishing there job.  The job is the teach the students of California, no matter what it takes.  If we had one of the best school systems in America I doubt the school budget would be in contention.

Gains in school achievement are at risk from budget ax - Los Angeles Times