Michael, here is an little article about the teachers who are being hired from overseas:
School officials in Chicago will formally launch the Global Educators Outreach program today. The "Chicago Tribune" reports that under the six-year federal program, school officials will receive 100 temporary work visas to recruit math, science and foreign language teachers from overseas to fill critical shortages. Chicago is the only public school district in the nation to team up with the U-S Labor Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to attempt to fill vacancies with foreign teachers. Chicago Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas says a shortage of qualified teachers is being felt all over the country.
- Dec 20 5:17 AM EST
search.news.yahoo.com
One of the things you do when you argue is use anecdotal evidence--like the fact that you know teachers who like teaching, and your investigation of your local school district--and make very broad assumptions from it. It is not a very effective arguing style.
While it is true that a lot of people enjoy teaching, and the money is not the very most important reason people become teachers, it is also a fact that in an economy like ours where housing is becoming rapidly more expensive and other jobs for college graduates pay a lot more, there is a shortage of teachers. So we have the choice of paying them more, or letting "foreigners", as you say, teach our children.
California may not spend as much money as Washington state does per pupil. Proposition 13 pretty much wiped out an excellent public education system here, and now it is dependent upon teachers buying materials for their classes, and people like X generously volunteering their time in the classroom. San Francisco has very, very beat up district headquarters, and there are no $5,000 desks anywhere. I am not saying these excesses do not occasionally happen in education, but your argument is like arguing the military is no good because of one spending scandal.
The fact is that increased spending for public education is outside of your political beliefs, period, and I suspect that the children would have to be in tents being taught by Osama bin Laden and his associates before you admitted that perhaps there was a tiny funding problem. |
