Seems the direction is "Merit-based" enrollment, so that kids who want to learn with be surrounded by the same. Kids who don't want to learn, well, they can learn early the phrase "you want large fries with that"

Biggest failure of G.W. Bush was certainly NO Child Left Behind. Almost all blame for that goes to W (although it was Ted Kennedy idea), but Bush had almost no blame in the housing/banking crash. That we can than Bill Clinton for.

Barry's policy is that if something doesn't enchance a union, forget about it.

When will they ever learn that unless one is in the trenches teaching, he/she will never really understand why students fail. Politicians haven't got a clue as to why "Johnny can't read". They rely on the NEA which is the biggest lobby in DC. The NEA does not have the students' best interest at heart. They have been "Socialising" education for years and it is not working. Ask the teachers and the students.

Yeah, grow those public sector unions.

Progressives tout the benefits of collective and cooperative efforts in many areas. Capitalists benefit from these same cooperative efforts but object to the notion of forced collectivism.
The difference is not cooperation but compulsion.
Even forced 'education' is a bad idea made worse when hijacked by Marxist propagandists.

a 100,000 new teachers,especially inthe math and science elements is absurd in more ways that you can count. Number onethere simply isn't enough of these people that are unemployed. secondly there simply isn't enough classroms to hold this extra volume of teachers. Number 3,these are areas students are most disinterested in. In some cases,like in LA,they've done away with science classes because it doesn't sink in with minority students. And where's the jobs for math and science students after they graduate. Companies are importing math and science people,because students from other countries take these subjects seriously.

The college industry is at least 5 years behind the times on the current workforce needs.
Education themes have always been a gateway for the left to raise taxes and add useless union dues paying bureaucrats. Nodody is buying the demand for more education resources because the entire system is an abyssal failure.

Remember when smaller class sizes were the answer? that really hasn't worked in a measurable way. teacher incentives have led to teachers erasing wrong test scores and nobody seems to care about this.Social promotions have become old hat just to shove problem students through the system.

Why not take all those un- (and under-) employed folks and assign them as public school teachers? They'd be as good, and all your problems are solved!

Philadelphia is closing and merging schools, due to student enrollment dropping. ............. [building infrastructure too old and costly to repair is another 'reason']

It doesn't help that 1/2 the payroll is administrative and not classroom instruction. ....... or that the previous superintendent, making more than the mayor or governor, had to additionally be bought off to leave after numerous excuses for student failure ........ and she also tried to get a b-i-g unemployment check.

Around here, there is no shortage of teachers. There are lots of certified teachers that are not working as teachers. What it boils down to - it isn't worth it. One can barely live on the salary, the work continues at home in the evenings and weekends, and in many schools, the job just sucks. It's easier, happier, and more lucrative to work in the real world.

If the math and/or science teacher doesn't have a degree in that discipline they should not be allowed to "teach" it. I'm reminded of a very fine engineer who retired and decided to teach algebra in his spare time. He couldn't. He didn't have a teaching certificate. A lot of young people were deprived of learning from a man who had real world experience in mathematics.

We have a shortage of GOOD teachers. Given that we spend a lot more on education than any other country in this world and get a vastly inferior product, I'm not willing to spend more money on failure. Until you can offer me a better product, my money is off limits.

The biggest problem in math isn't a teacher shortage. Rather,it is the horrible curricula that educators have pushed for the past two decades. There is a reason that you see private math centers such as Kumon all over the country now. They teach math the old-fashioned way. Smart kids with smart parents go to these private centers to learn math because these time-honored methods work far better than the current curricula.

Just as not everyone will become an inspiring writer, not everyone will become a brilliant mathematician. For kids who are average in math or who have a learning disability in math, basic core teaching of math concepts is crucial. Curricula designed around the "natural discovery of mathematical truths" are hogwash for such students.

Basic math hasn't changed in 50 years. Go back to the curricula used 50 years ago and see the test scores increase.

Education is terribly mismanaged. Resources are routinely wasted doing things that produce no value. Costs of administration alone are probably more than the value produced by the enterprise. Political considerations mandate the waste of huge sums of money. Until voters back real reforms, there's little hope of improvement.

Mr. L and I often talk about our grade school classes -- always at least 30, sometimes as many as 45 -- one teacher, no aides, and we managed to get a sounder education than the poor kids are getting now, one that enabled us to succeed all the way through grad school. The children now come to school with the idea that they are right and the teacher is wrong, so it's no wonder they don't learn; teachers, on the other hand, put in their hours. It's a job for which they get union wages, not a profession of which they are proud.

As long as teachers are state employees, we need less of them. Every single government employee, federal or state, adds to the bottom line of that government budget. If the people decide that more teachers, or police, or firefighters, or dog catchers, or any other government employee is absolutely necessary, then they are going to have to find some other part of government to cut. They simply can not keep raising taxes to cover the additional costs, because we have long since passed the point of negative return. The tax rates in big government states has reached the point where people and businesses are leaving those states or deciding not to expand those businesses, which reduces government revenue.

The money thrown at NCLB was ridiculous, but holding the schools and teachers was not a waste of time. The push back from the unions and administrators showed a lot of people where the true problems in education lie.