[quote=EconProf]Let’s step back from the minutia this thread has turned into and look at the larger issues this ruling points to. Much of the national and CA media have pointed out the shakeup this will have on public sector unions.
In essence, the court pointed out what has been obvious to the broader public for a long time: that what teachers’ unions advocate and practice hurts especially the poor and minority population, the very people liberals claim to want to help. The unions protect the adults at the expense of the children. The black and Hispanic parents who see their children trapped in failing schools have been clamoring for change. They cannot afford the private schools the rich liberals opt for, but favor vouchers, home-schooling, charter schools, lotteries to get into union-free schools–anything but their union-dominated local schools.
Now it will be interesting to witness the coming war within the democratic party. How will black and Hispanic politicians react to the rising tide of awareness among their own electorate of the harmful effects of liberalism. Some courageous democrats have already spoken up and broken from the status quo. More will be forced to in the future. This will be interesting to watch.[/quote]
Econprof, I didn’t read the whole ruling but does it even mention “unions” at all?
No student of any race or nationality in this country is ever “trapped” in a low-performing public school. If a particular school falls short of the NCLB standards, all enrolled students’ parents are mailed a letter detailing the procedure on how to apply for a zone transfer to a district school which doesn’t fall short of the NCLB standards. Some of these letters even give the names of better schools in the district which have room in certain grades. In SD, if the family cannot qualify for VEEP, they are welcome to furnish their own transportation to a better public school for their children, just as they would likely do if they chose a private or charter school. These types of zone transfers are very, very common and hundreds of students even ride the city buses to their new assigned schools.
What’s going to be interesting to watch is how this idiot (LA Co) judge’s “ruling” (there are dozens of them in this state, btw) is going to get summarily shot down because it doesn’t comport with state or even Federal law (duh) and then we can get down to discussing something more productive here, such as, why does Gen Y seem to be continually whining about the so-called “poor quality” of public schools for their kids which were evidently good enough for them to attend just 8-15 yrs ago.
Anyone who has never taught public school (K-12) has absolutely no idea what the job entails on a daily basis – especially in bureaucratic CA.
I can’t tell you how grateful I am to my last kid’s teachers and counselors. Every single one of them had more than 30 years experience and it showed. When push comes to shove and at the 11th hour, these very experienced counselors can talk sense into a 17 year-old who is all over the map (as most 17 yo’s are). Many of these teachers (plus several administrators) actually graduated from the same HS they are working at today (or retired from). This is the case with all of the HS’s in the SUHSD. It is all as it should be (and I’m out several boxes of See’s candy on behalf of my recent HS graduate, lol).
I personally feel that private school (K-12) is s complete waste of money in 90% of the school attendance areas in SD County and will decimate 90% of parents’ retirement plans (all but the 5%-ers). Our excellent public schools are primarily due to all the long-tenured extremely dedicated teachers we have here. A large portion are also in community leadership positions. Of the remaining 10% of attendance areas, perhaps one of the feeder schools (Elem, MS) is worth attending when the high school is not or the high school is worth attending when one or more of the feeder schools is not. If this is the case, the attendance area is still worth living in for a family with school-age kids as they can just get a zone transfer to a better school when their child is the correct age/grade level for enrollment in the subpar school. Zone transfers aren’t that difficult to obtain, especially if the parent(s) are open to their child being placed where there is room as opposed to their personal choice.
CAR is absolutely spot on about the young, crazy, bored, unemployed moms out there (Gen Y?) who believe no teacher or curricula is good enough for their little (ADHD or still not completely potty-trained?) Johnnie or Suzie. It is TRUE than many of them possess a GED or are HS dropouts themselves. I saw a little bit of this when my kids were in elem school but the school was strict with them and made them sit in the cafeteria in the mornings grading papers (rechecked by teacher), cutting out projects for the kids and assembling art supplies for the desks, etc. They could also use the office copier under instruction from the teacher. They could NOT disrupt the classroom in any way, shape or form.
One parent was a CA credentialed teacher but was not working so she was allowed to tutor primary grades in reading and eventually got a PT paying job with the district.
All was as it should have been.
I’ve been a mom of a K-12 student for decades (seems like all my life, lol) and am so grateful for my kids’ great K-12 public educations here in SD County (CVESD and SUHSD). They graduated from CSU (youngest starts in fall 2014) and have been self-supporting since college graduation. What more could a parent ask for?
