It's nearly impossible to fire bad teachers, let alone marginal ones

To the editor,

My good friend Leo Sandy spent a 1,000 words describing his fantasy dream school. How about the taxpayers and college tuition payers describing theirs.

— The dream school would end the runaway, non stop, COST of education often a twice the rate on inflation, sometimes even more for two decades.

— The dream school would produce SMARTER KIDS. No matter what comparison with other countries America is always well down the list from the top of performing countries despite the highest spending per student of any country on earth.

— The dream school would be far more PRODUCTIVE ( as measured by more students educated at less cost). Ideas from teachers or management that contribute to ever improved ratios of cost would be recognized and highly REWARDED.

— The dream school would have education delivered by non unionized teachers/professors in a nurtured environment where the relentless, measured and monitored pursuit of excellence never ends both for students and TEACHERS.

— The dream school, absent unions, would financially reward teaching excellence for it's real and true value. The least effective 20-percent of teachers in any school would be notified they had one year to change that status or be removed from service for cause.

The dream school would be a place where the students interests would indeed be put BEFORE all others. Most importantly that of the teachers/professors. Unionization of labor no matter where it exists is fundamentally and forever at odds with management. Whether it be a factory or a school where turning out the best product at the lowest possible cost is the primary objective. Efficient and productive delivery of education conflicts head on with labor unions primary goal of increasing membership to collect higher dues and escalating salaries and benefits into perpetuity. The unions primary goal IS NOT smarter kids taught as cost effectively as possible. In fact often is the antithesis of that objective.

Costs of education are out of control at every level from K through college. Innovation in education is non existent, productivity is nil, intelligence of graduates is ( at best) flat, and other counties are spurting ahead on the world stage where the jobs wars are already being fought. Education's reaction? Teacher protests in Wisconsin illustrate both the response and the problem perfectly. Three, fully tax payer funded pensions are not enough and teacher wage and benefit packages averaging $100,000.00 are not enough either. Education has become not about what is BEST for the KIDS, but what is best for teachers/professors.

Macro education is completely dominated by union rules and regulations. It is near impossible to get rid of lousy teachers let alone marginal ones that may teach for 40 years. A mere three teachers per ten thousand are terminated for cause. Clear evidence of the regulatory nightmare to rid a school of a bad teacher. The same union vigor and legal intensity to protect teachers nationwide from dismissal simultaneously guarantees the "dummying down " of the collective body of teaching excellence to deliver the absolute very best education that any kid can be exposed to. The cost of "dummying down" on the kids? Astronomical. The cost of" dummying down" for America? A loss of respect for not being the brightest and best plus the loss of economic prosperity that come with that accomplishment.

The latest proof of utter failure? Last weeks headline "just 12-percent of high school graduates are proficient in American history".

Tony Boutin

Gilford