I'll say..I educate my kids at home so they look like smartasses in class.....
Don't take this personally, because I do like you and agree with you on most issues. We simply disagree on this topic.
You are essentially parroting teachers union talking points.....lemme guess you're a teacher? Of course you are!
Ask yourself - Who will take better care of your money- you or some random stranger?
How about your home? You or some random stranger?
your car? You or a random stranger?
Of course the answer to all of these questions is YOU. Unless you are a misfit, odds are you will always take better care of the things you love than some random stranger. Duh!!
But your children? It's better if a stranger takes care of them? : C'mon!
As for why I oppose the teachers unions- they exist for one purpose, to enrich their membership. They do not serve their students, they serve themselves. PERIOD. All Public sector unions are abhorrent and inherently wrong. Even FDR knew it.
The reason we disagree is your errors.
I am not a union member and have not been in many years. They screw the teachers when the school boards get finished.
I fully support homeschooling. My daughter-in-law homeschooled my granddaughter for 1st grade because the school was not meeting her needs. My daughter-in-law was also my all-time favorite student as I was her high school American government teacher.
What I do not support is unfounded statements like yours regarding testing. Yes, homeschool students should do better, but there is simply no definitive way to prove that. The individualized attention is invaluable and should result in much greater accomplishments. However, you have to prove that statement is true and that cannot be done.
As to unions, I don't think you understand a teacher's unions purpose. They exist to represent teachers in collective bargaining agreements with the employers and also see to the working conditions that teachers have in their employment. Of course they do not serve the students. Why should they? Do you think the Teamster's unions cares about the repair and maintenance of the trucks driven by their members? That would be ridiculous!
I also think you overestimate the influence or "power" of these unions. In most states, the school board writes up a contract and says "Sign here!" and that is the extent of the negotiation. The union's choice is to say "OK" or work without a contract. I might ask what you think happens. Strikes are illegal and the penalty is loss of your teaching certificates, which means you can no longer work in that state, nor any other that has a reciprocity agreement.
The problem with most critics of the public schools is that they have no clue as to how things really work in the schools.
Right now, I am a substitute teacher with 21 years experience. No district will hire me as a teacher because I make too much money. They can hire a 22 year-old out of college and pay them about 40% of what they would pay me, so I am basically unemployable in my own field.
Why do you have to *know how things work* in order to recognize they are FAILING? Nobody gives a shit *how things work*...the fact is, whatever they're doing doesn't work.
And for the past 50 years, arrogant, smug pieces of shit in academia and in our schools grades 1-12 have been telling parents to let THEM dictate what's important, that unless you get the stamp of fucking approval from some commie shithole school, you aren't equipped to *teach* or even to *think*.
Fuck that. Those schools should be shut down and the entrenched pigs in them should be flogged in the public square.
This ^^^^ is emoting, not reasoning.
