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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (68788)	12/26/1999 11:02:00 PM
From: greenspirit	Respond to of 108807

Ok, I'll give it a shot off the top of my head. 1. Why is it one teacher can show outstanding results year after year, and get paid the same or less than his/her peer when that peer performed poorly? The structure. 2. Why is it a principle can't give a monetary award or bonus to an outstanding performer. The structure. 3. Why is it (in most states) to become a principle you must first have been a teacher for 3 or more years? The structure. 4. Why is it a principle can't hire an outstanding instructor from the private sector, who may not have the proper certificates or degrees required. Even when they have a desparate need for the skills? The structure. 5. Why is the school day inconvenient for many working parents? The structure. 6. Why is the school schedule arbitrated by unions without any input from the customers? The structure. 7. Why are very few schools offering on site day care after school hours for the convenience of working parents? The structure. 8. Why are uniforms prevented from being used as a deterrent to violence and to raise standards when anectodal evidence shows it may be effective? The stucture. 9. Why are there less than a handful of gender based schools in the nation, when anectodal evidence suggests that girls get a better education in an all girl environment? The Structure. 10. Why is funding controlled by a school board, public official or government bureaucrat instead of the local principle? The structure. 11. Why have I never seen a customer survey card, or other such customer feedback mechanism in which the school actually took inputs from the parents? A business undoubtedly would. The structure. 12. Why were "whole language" reading methods forced on the entire system of education, when phonics had such a high literacy rate? The structure. 13. Why do we have less class days than most other leading industrialized nations? The structure. 14. In my area we have three administrators for a population of 200K people, each earnings greater than 100K per year. Why? Structure. 15. Why does the education department spend huge amounts of money running it's own bureaucracy? The structure. 16. Why are so many documents still done by hand in the schools system when businesses have long ago computerized them and instituted ERP systems of management? The structure. 17. Why can't you donate a computer to a school without going through a long paperwork process? The structure. 18. Why were kids socially promoted in grades when they didn't attain the required knowledge level? The structure. 19. Why are janitors paid HUGE sums of money in the Washington D.C. schools system? (as highlighted by 60 minutes). The structure. 20. And finally, why do we have such a HUGE illiteracy rate? The structure.

To: epicure who wrote (68788)	12/27/1999 1:43:00 AM
From: Michael M	Respond to of 108807

No idea whether CA schools rank 49th in funding. The link in this post reports "41". Relative ranking meaningless, in my opinion (unless you are a union guy trying to sweeten the next deal). Kind of like an overpaid athlete claiming he's been "dissed" because someone else if getting even more money. TS. greatschools.net M

To: epicure who wrote (68788)	12/27/1999 4:28:00 AM
From: nihil	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

The local school board is fine as long as its discretion in setting taxes is high enough. There are many farm districts almost without children who could easily afford great schools, but the farmers are so strapped (and so old) that you can't get it off the ground. My farm is in a county that has only one factory in it --- a broom factory (that competes with the products of Yugoslavia, for God's sake). My neighbor who had 20 acres lived all his life on soybeans and the proceeds of his son's 100 % disability from WWII. He had two retarded grandchildren who got no special education. The family made a little money cutting down and selling the wood from some of my disabled trees, and policing hickory nuts off my land for sale. (What the hell. I didn't need them, and had no hogs running loose. I was not about to vote to increase their property taxes. Local taxation is no basis for financing schools. Needs and property are usually inversely correlated.