Another Attempt to Chip Away at Personal Responsibility

                                                          by Lee Benedict
 
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s thought process really must be questioned  To start the 2010 legislative session, he told us that he will introduce legislation that will link teacher pay to “performance” (i.e., how well kids do on standardized tests).  This is perhaps the most outlandish proposal to come from Atlanta…ever, and I fear that other governors may get the same bright idea.
I will be the first to state that each and every person can do something a little better, and, what I have to say does not pertain to every student, parent, and school.  But Governor, you do realize that parents and yes, even students, are part of the educational process too?  .  Teachers this, teachers that, teachers teachers teachers.  It’s the teachers’ fault that students do not do well on many half-baked multiple choice tests that do not measure what a student learns, because a Martian can visit from Jupiter and bubble in some circles and receive a passing score.  My 80 multiple choice versus 20 essay and short-answer assessments argument is for another time.  When students come to class prepared and willing to learn, or at least with close to appropriate behavior and respect for teachers and staff, and parents take an active interest in their cherubs’ education, then we will see test scores improve.Not enough books and resources but new sporting venues and school police forces is the teachers’ doing, right Governor?  Unconstitutional federal mandates forced upon states and governors too wimpy to say “no” is also at the teachers’ behest, correct Governor?  When you were in veterinary school, who was responsible for learning the material; Sonny, or the teachers?  I s'pose students showing up whenever they damn well please is the fault of their teachers, no?  Gangs?  Those teachers.  Utter and complete lack of respect and responsibility on the part of the kids?  Those teachers yet again.  You know, the teachers...the ones who spend maybe 50 minutes a day with their students (elementary and middle school teachers spend much more time with their students) as I do.  Administrators' hands being tied by bureaucrats who insist on implementing political correctness by ordering everyone to be cognizant of the demographics of those suspended and expelled, thereby holding some students to a standard, while it's optional for others?  It's the teachers' fault.
 
Look, all children can learn, be it at different paces and pieces.  Those who try, do well for the most part.  This salary plus commission for teachers crap is yet another attempt by the government to discourage and remove personal responsibility from our young people.  And guess what, the longer this has gone on, the worse some areas have become, which means that more bureaucrats (government agents) infiltrate the schools.
People must pay taxes to support government schools, and if they do not pay up, their homes can/will be taken from them.  People are told where their children must go to school, and if they don’t approve of what the school offers, tough!  Pay the government anyway, then they must pay another school to educate their child.  Some form of vouchers anyone?  Competition and holding entities accountable trumps government monopoly.  Vouchers may very well force the higher-ups to spray what stinks so that ALL schools in EVERY DISTRICT can once again return to education, as opposed to a place for "parents" to send their kids for 8 hours.  For the record, Sonny Perdue is finishing his second 4-year term and cannot seek reelection this year due to term limits.  He is a Republican now after spending his entire life and legislative career as a Democrat.
Just as a little FYI, in 1958’s The Naked Communist, numbers 15-17 respectively of the 45 Declared Goals for Communism to take over America are, "Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.  Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.  Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.”  Sound at all familiar?  Let me put #20 in there too: "Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions."
Now, how do we link governors’ pay to performance?