What is ironic is a special on Agassi’s school in Las Vegas champions his school and its effectivness. Meanwhile he supports the Dems who are totally agains school choice, magnet schools, schools with high standards, schools that make the parents responsible…all the things that make his school so successful, he supports the people who want to destroy his methods.
And the Republicans who have wanted and demand those type of schools, are regarded as “mean spirited”, un-caring, etc.

right2bright

r2b, there’s a significant fact missing. Agassi’s school isn’t open to any applicant. It is targeted to “at-risk” children, a determination subject to the school administrators’ whims opinions. Agassi is a good guy, doing what he believes is a good deed, but I see it as an expensive showcase for how one wealthy American can treat some poor folks well. If your kid wins the lottery, he gets a high-priced education paid for by a tennis player. It isn’t about school choice, and I’d wait a few more years to see how “involved” parents remain with how that school operates, once it passes the celebrity phase of existence.

Meanwhile, the real problem isn’t how much money is thrown at education. The real problem is that what is being taught isn’t preparing students to be competent, productive, civic-minded, independent citizens who love and support their country.

There are yet some decent public schools. Any parent who loves their child and cares for their future needs to be absolutely certain such is the case before letting that school have their kids. Any expense demanded by home/private schooling is worth the return on investment otherwise.

I wonder how many students of this anti-American rat brought that renouncement letter home, asked their parents to sign it, and got it signed without even a reading of its contents. I guarantee that’s what he was hoping for, and that as many as a third of them were signed. The question remains what he was hoping to accomplish, what lesson he was planning to teach. Did he wish to then claim to his students that their parents really didn’t love this country, so why should they? Did he plan to actually send any of them to the President?

The most ironic thing is that a careful reading of the Declaration of Independence in today’s political environment wouldn’t drive a real American to renounce anything, rather to consider how close it is to time for a renewed revolution for Liberty.

Parsley said she doesn’t believe Brooks has any political agenda to advance.

They should both be fires.

After careful consideration of the facts of our current situation, I have decided to announce to everyone that I am no longer a citizen of the United States, but an ascended and omnipotent member of the Q collective.

MB4 on September 17, 2007 at 4:37 PM

Jean-Luc finds your games annoying Q, you scurrilous bastard.

LOL!

What a small thinker.

Those who can, do, those who can’t, teach, or try to anyway.

After careful consideration of the facts of our current situation, I have decided to announce to everyone that I am no longer a citizen of the United States, but an ascended and omnipotent member of the Q collective.

Too bad.

If I were a parent who received one of these letters from my child asking me to renounce my citzenship, I’d return it with a note that said: “You first.”

Then I notify ICE that a non-citizen, non-legal, non-resident alien, might be teaching in a public school.

I have to agree with Bryan about the public schools in my district. Other than “dumbed down” textbooks (from when I was in school), I can’t see very much evidence of liberal dogma. The textbook publishers, as far as I can tell, writen for the “lowest common denominator” and compete like any other business for government dollars.

Imagine that, our kids being educated by the publisher that was lowest bidder.

One is a former teacher. The starting pay here is 9 dollars an hour, but she’s here anyway since she can’t get a better paying job anywhere else. She would have been better off staying at her old job.

Esthier on September 17, 2007 at 1:44 PM

That’s actually a big problem for teachers trying to change careers. Many employers don’t count teaching as being particularly useful “professional experience,” or an education degree as having equal value to most other 4-year degrees. Even trying to transition into other kinds of teaching, like corporate training, is very difficult for teachers, who are subtly viewed as second-class citizens in the professional world because they have never had to be out in the “real world” like other applicants have.

I was a teacher, and I made a successful professional transition. But it was only because I had enough foresight to get my master’s degree in something other than Education. Plus, the field I transitioned to is tangentially related to education, so being a former teacher was a boon rather than a detriment. If I had tried to move in any other direction, I know I would have had a much harder time.

Anyway, transitioning back to teaching is a problem, too. For example, if I were to try to go back to teaching some day, I’d have to go back to a fourth-year teacher’s pay rate, though I’ve been a professional in a field related to education for about 15 years now. Schools would not recognize that professional experience when placing me on the pay ladder, so I’d have to take a severe–really severe–pay cut to do it. That’s probably why hardly anyone who leaves teaching ever goes back to the classroom. It’s a problem that I’m convinced is contributing to the shortage of teachers in some areas. School districts really need to start recognizing other professional experience on the pay scale if they want to attract people from other professions. Who would leave a job as a veteran working scientist or lab tech–even if they were tired of the job and wanted to “give something back” by teaching and inspiring the next generation of scientists–to go teach high school chemistry if they had to go back to rookie pay to do it? Doesn’t work.

Bryan on September 17, 2007 at 11:04 AM

Exactly. “I’m sorry if you didn’t understand…”

pullingmyhairout on September 17, 2007 at 12:28 PM

Yeah, I can’t relate. The teachers in metro areas make good money, and have a retirement plan the Senate is jealous of. Get a Masters in education (which takes less effort than driving a truck for a year) and you jump into administration. Get a PhD in education (calling it that is an insult to PhDs everywhere), and your pay leaps, and you can become a Principal or district administrator, and then the real money comes.

I’ll never for the teachers strike in Downers Grove, Illinois, where some intrepid reporter noted that over 110 people in the district made more than $100,000 per year.

On strike.

His daughter reportedly told him the letter was an assignment, and she’d be in trouble if he didn’t sign it.

“How many did sign it, maybe without reading or understanding it?” Hill said.

On Wednesday, Hill said he requested his daughter be put in another history class, which was done immediately.

This guy caught it, but the parents who don’t care or don’t pay attention aren’t likely to, nor will they pull their kids from this liberal propagandist’s (but I repeat myself) class.

I hope talk radio and people like O’Reilly get ahold of this story and run with it. It’s an absolute disgrace, and what’s worse is that the “teacher” who’s responsible isn’t even getting reprimanded for it.

Where it really starts to suck is after 20 years of teaching, those same teachers are only making around 55K.

pullingmyhairout on September 17, 2007 at 12:28 PM

And at that point I agree. It’s a good job for a few years when you’re straight out of college, after that, ideally, you should be able to find a better paying job.

Even still though, I currently supervise a team of about 13 people.

One is a former teacher. The starting pay here is 9 dollars an hour, but she’s here anyway since she can’t get a better paying job anywhere else. She would have been better off staying at her old job.

Did I miss it or what? Where is Chico?

jeanie on September 17, 2007 at 12:49 PM

northern kalifornia…

There’s just not much upward mobility in teaching, unfortunately. That’s why most teach for the love of it, not the money.

pullingmyhairout on September 17, 2007 at 12:28 PM

Or why many take the money that comes with administration.

Combining state and federal budgets comes out to over 500 billion dollars a year we spend on education. I want my money back. Many HS graduates can’t even tell you what 50% of 100 is. Many have no idea what two countries border the US. But they can tell you how bad America is and how “hateful” Christians are, and how wonderful islam is.

Teachers have ZERO authority, many are products of liberal colleges and universities and come not to teach but to indoctrinate. We’re now seeing the years of hard work by leftist indoctrinators at our schools coming to fruition. It ain’t pretty. It will take decades to undo the harm they’ve caused.

darwin on September 17, 2007 at 10:46 AM

Lenin would be proud at the results our Education system has achieved…

Esthier on September 17, 2007 at 11:53 AM

There are several local school districts in my area. Staring salaries for 1st year teachers range from $37K to $39K. That’s with no experience. There are also yearly stipends available if you teach ESL or special education. that’s pretty good for fresh out of school.

Where it really starts to suck is after 20 years of teaching, those same teachers are only making around 55K.

There’s just not much upward mobility in teaching, unfortunately. That’s why most teach for the love of it, not the money.

Amazing, simpy amazing. Even with the facts, even with their own succeeding, they won’t admit how wrong they are. Instead they keep undermining, and undereducating.

And no one suffers more than the poor…the democrats, the birth place of “un-education”.