Fixing Education in the United States: A Five Step Approach.
Step one: Evaluate
all children using an unbiased third party and assign them a combined score
based upon teach-ability, behavior, and intelligence. This score will
enable parents with more difficult students due to disability to receive a
larger voucher, and if a student shows promise in a given area such as
mathematics or science, the parent can receive a larger voucher for this as
well. Of course, some kind of due process will have to be included in
this assessment so parents can either ask for retesting or appeal their child's
score based upon other equally accurate criteria.
Step two: Give every child a
waiver that approximates as closely as possible the total expenditures of the
state per pupil. The amount paid will
reflect the total amount that the taxpayers shell out for their yearly
education currently.
Step three: We independently
license teachers to be service providers similar to engineers, lawyers, and
doctors. States set up the education
requirements for a teaching license so that anyone who can pass the licensing
exam and has a degree in the appropriate area can teach. That way, chemists can teach chemistry part
time, engineers can teach math, etc. and many professionals can give back to
the community.
Step four: Establish a tier
based quota on the total number of students a teacher can accept based on the
criteria reached in # 1 and require teaching assistants if that number is exceeded.
That way an excellent teacher who works with very difficult students with
autism will earn as much as a teacher of 25 students who have typical learning
capacity. If students are behaviorally
challenging due to disability, then their vouchers conceivably can be large
enough to pay for an aide for the teacher so long as the student's teach-ability
sub-score is equally high. Teachers who specialize in difficult subject
areas will get more money as well because the students doing well in more
challenging fields will receive a larger voucher.
Step five: Award an annual grade to each teacher based upon
objective test criteria or measurable metrics met, as well as parent
satisfaction and publish this number. This
will be analogous to scores given to restaurants for following health
regulations. Teachers will have the
opportunity to use a due process step at their own expense to either appeal
their score or introduce independent objective criteria justifying a higher
grade.
Teachers will be true independent professionals. In this scenario, teachers can rent church
basements, use old storefronts or anything else for space. They can buy all their own equipment or share
it as doctor's associations do. If
Teachers directly received the $9,000.00 plus dollars, the average state
expends educating a student then they will easily be able to earn $100-200K per
year. The only real restraint on this will
be their individual performance. The
market will rule.
Parents can also contain costs or earn money. If parents wanted their kids in
extracurricular activities, they can ether join leagues similar to Pop Warner
or other clubs and pay for it out of their own pocket. If a parent becomes licensed, and teaches
their own kids, then they can get the reimbursement /waiver directly. Parents can still home school, but they will
have to be licensed educators to receive reimbursement.
This is
a win-win plan. Imagine a world without
capital expenditures for huge schools, teacher's unions, and administration
heavy budgets. Teachers will earn wages
similar to other professionals and if they are good, they will earn both parent
and student respect. (Many have that
now, but it will inherently increase due to the close relationship the teachers
will form with their students.) The best
part is that Students will be the real winners, because teachers will share
equal interest in their success. Students
will have the status of clients and teachers will treat them as such. Teachers will have the status of real
professionals. Parents and students will
fight to get the best ones.
