Massive Teacher Layoffs in Texas - Perry Says State Not to Blame

I already know of six coaches that were let go of this week in Spring Isd. Spring is actually lowering the amount of coaches in the district, taking days away, and lowering their stipends by 25%. There will be a lot more coaches let go.

 

Raising a family in Minnesota rather than Texas is looking like a better idea.

 

Thanks Obama.

 

My mother is die hard teabagger loony. She's also a teacher.

When she complains about this I have weird dichotomy of "I'm sorry" and "Christ, you're dumb" flash through my head.

 

It's funny, but in an oddly perturbing sort of way. Like if I saw a kid repeatedly getting shocked trying to grab some cookies (Simpsons reference): I'd laugh the first couple times, and then wonder wtf is wrong with him.

 

Hmmmm. It must be spring. Frankly, even in the worst of times I'd rather have my Texas warm fuzzies than the Minnesota cold pricklies.:grin:

 

The destruction of the state monopolistic school system is a beautiful sight to behold.

 

Yea!!!!!!!!!! My oldest son gets to suffer through larger class sizes and fewer services when he starts kindergarten in the fall! What a beautiful thing!!!!!!

 

Unfortunately, the system is not monopolistic in that there are private and charter schools. However, I am sympathetic to your unhappiness with the current system that provides an uneven level of K-12 education.

There are the ultra-rich school districts that give their students computers and school administrators make more than the President of the United States. There are other school districts that are so poor the teachers have to buy their own chalk and most of the teaching supplies for the kids.

Texas already is broken down into school regions. Why not take the next step and consolidate the whole system to equalize tax dollars spent on all the children of Texas? Regions would be allocated a proportional amount of money based on their enrollment numbers (but in such a way that the per student expenditure remains equal and constant). Teachers would make x, principals 1.5x, administrators 2x, regional administrators, 3x and top watchdog commissioners 4x (or some sort of scale)

Once a child is enrolled, he or she must remain in that school for the entire school year unless the parent(s) move to another state or another city more than 30 miles away. My purpose in this is to provide more teaching stability for the individual students.

Pay for teachers must be increased to a more livable wage, but raises must be based on performance and tenure. Someone a lot smarter than me will have to figure out a formula because ghetto-assigned teachers will not have "performance" results on a par with more stable neighborhoods / parents. Just as an aside, back in 80s I had an opportunity to give a summer job interview to a Spring Branch teacher of the year. I was stunned to discover she could barely write a coherent paragraph. I know we need standards, but the academics will have to puzzle that one out. I'm just talking broad points of problem resolution here.

 

You are correct. I think teachers at "ghetto" schools should automatically get a huge bonus. This would attract teachers, and we want the best teachers teaching the most challenging classes.

 

That made me laugh...:grin:

 

NO .... teachers that are very good at their job should get bonuses.... the rest of them should find a new line of work..... it would crush teacher unions as we know them.

 

You should have put this in your fixing our problems thread.

 

That was for fixing national problems, and this is a Texas problem. Had there been more interest in the other thread, I might have considered a "Fixing Our Texas Problems" thread.

 

Perhaps teachers could be rotated one a one-year, two-year or three-year basis. I can easily see where a teacher would burn out due to year after year of frustration trying to teach hard-to-reach children. Also, the more settled children should have an equal opportunity to get the best teachers without having to flex economic or political muscle.

 

Could you provide links or some additional information? I've heard this offhand from time to time but never really heard the full story.

 

Have any of you heard of the plan to essentially have the State's community colleges to take over the high schools? One version is to have cc teachers come into the high schools in such numbers that cc degrees will be completed at the same time hs students now graduate. In some cases hs students will attend on cc campuses. This is occurring now, but would be massively increased. I have serious questions about these ideas. In Texas it is no secret that K-12 has largely failed with a few exceptions. To stick the cc system, which is one of the best in the US, with the task of "clean up" seems unfair.

 

Maybe, but if schools are working together and trying develop a culture then keeping the team that works in place would be a good thing. Breaking up the team and having new teachers learn all the techniques of reaching those students would be a step backwards. If it doesn't work I'm all for rotating, but once it starts working, I'd like to see the team stay in place.