Arne Duncan: Americans Are Fighting the Wrong Education Battles

Success in academics begins at home. It's up to the parents to motivate their kids and more money is no substitute for parental involvement. The top state in education does not spend the most per pupil. An intrusive government equates to too little responsibility for students and their parents.

This, coming from the man who did jack S**t as the CEO for Chicago schools for years. I worked for CPS for his entire tenure, and cannot think of one positive thing that he did. He has no education degrees, has never been a teacher, has never worked IN a public school, and has no idea what he is doing. Then again, he was picked by a man who had no qualifications for president.................LOL

Don't beleve crap from Arne Duncan's mouth.. He was Superintendent of the Chicago Public schools system, before his buddy Barak made his national education leade for 8 years. The Chicago Public schools have a graduation rate of 30 % So much for Arne and the Chcago Teachers Assoc. being able to teach and graduate students. It's no wonder Chicago is a cesspool of idiots and corrupt as heck.

Want to solve the problem of schools that don't educate? Bad teachers with tenure? Too much government involvement in education? Simple. Stop this "school district" nonsense and the way the feds give out funds. It should be thus: the fed aide follows the student, and the student can go to ANY school they choose to attend. The parents will put the children into the high performing schools, the "bad" schools will close, and the teachers that need to go will go. Pass a law that no governing body, city, state, or feds, can pass any mandates regarding what is taught in school unless they provide the funds to the schools to teach it.

What portion of learning is student responsibility? If students go to school with negative attitudes towards learning, disrespectful attitude towards those who are teaching them, how will they learn? When did teachers in the US become so disrespected by both parents and students that some students do not at all care to learn from them. Something wrong has happened to American culture in its attitude towards learning and its educators. How can you learn from teachers whom you hate and despise? Please tell me about this.

Arne- There is war being waged on teachers. Teachers have less power than the administrators, the parents, the 'textbook' industry and the States. I do not respect Duncan because he is starting in the wrong place and provides fodder to all the neighsayers that just shout its the Teachers Union have no clue how involved teaching is and the restrictions placed on the teachers themselves. Teachers do need reforms but not until the system is cleaned up first.
Teachers are not responsible for being stripped of their power to hold a child back when they fail. Teachers are not responsible for adjusting the grade scales. In LAUSD students are given a report card with a mark of 1-4. No more ABCDF. To get an A when I went to school you had to get above a 90%. Now that is 83%. And if you score higher than 85% you are labeled 'gifted'. Teachers are not responsible for the lack of a National Standard. Testing for all these children doesn't mean anything if everyone's goalposts are different. Teachers are not responsible for the millions and millions of dollars taken out of the classroom and dumped into the companies that make the tests up. McGraw Hill who owns S&P, who just helped the economy collapse by giving A+ ratings to junk assets makes a good portion of children's text books and teaching supplies. They have more ins with State officials than the teachers. Teachers are not responsible for the high costs of the pensions systems- that is the States who mismanage the funds.

I agree we are not fighting the right battles. We should focus on rewarding good teachers and eliminating bad ones. If we get rid of bad teachers and move their students to good teachers classes, the quality would more than offset the quantity.

My wife went to school where the average class size was almost 70 students. When she went to college, she skated through the first two years of required classes because she already passed them in high school. That was because her school fired bad teachers immediately.

School welfare system can't fix ... what is broken at home. Troubled parents will have troubled kids ... Colleges can't train educators to compensate for the collapse of the family structure ... unless you pay teachers six figure salaries.

How long would anyone in the private sector stay employed with the equivalent job performance of the public (monopoly) educators?

" I maintain that cutting from our schools and basing their funding on snapshot assessments like standardized tests are not only ineffective, but they're unethical as well. All children, no matter their race, religion or economic status, have a right to a quality education, and the way to achieve that is to fully invest in our public schools - in their resources, their staff, their professional development opportunities, and their support programs."

Such absolute dribble. Excuses and enablement. Teachers for the last 20+ years have not suffered from lack of wages, time-off or benefits. You could pour trillions into the NEA and schools and you will still fail in the end. If there is not accountability for administrator, teachers and students.....America's great decline at the hands of liberal teachers and the NEA will continue.

CZAR - Arne will create the mechanisms to lower the bar and slow the smarter kids down and everyone will be happy because more diplomas will be handed out. But then trying to work in multinational companies where they DO NOT slow the smarter foreign kids down will end is disappointment and joblessness. Its the family culture at home and the USA has killed that and the NEA has been the angel of death going door to door.

Funny. NJ made this "investment" a decade ago. Their at-risk schools now have $25,000 per pupil to spend. After a decade, guess what? That's right in spite of substantial increases in property tax and income tax for the families outside these districts, no real significant change in outcomes inside of these districts.

Good writers don't need to have a degree in English. An education degree is also not a MUST qualification for a good teacher. Common sense and compassion are far more important. Standardized tests are needed to #$%$ both students and teachers.

It would seem to be poor problem solving to cut funding to schools that aren't performing well. It's not that it makes no sense at all, but if students aren't performing well, don't we truly doom them when we further limit their school by reducing funds further? Money isn't the whole answer, but still, giving less to those who need more doesn't really make a lot of sense either. I also believe parents need to be factored into this equation. The success of any child is due to both the education system and parenting.

Idiot!

Arne Duncan is failing to improve schools an education in the US. Why would any accept anything he says?

I believe that a top down approach is needed. Administration ( Superintendents, Principals, Vice Principals, Deans, Program Coordinators, etc.) needs to change first. They are who decides who stays and who goes as far as teachers being hired and retained. They have failed- for decades. There is plenty of willing talent out there but being a teacher today is more like the movie Office Space than most would like to admit. Administrators are paid fairly well. They usually use the Teachers Unions as a jumping point to get more money for themselves screwing the teachers in the process. Administrators today need to have the capability to be able to teach themselves AND be able to perform the work as an organizational leader. There are many good teachers out there who cannot lead a group of adults and there many administrators who are good at running an organizing but forget who they are there to serve. Public Education is important. This easy to see. Go out to a restaurant and look for children who have their head tucked down in Iphone. Ever see a family sitting around a table not talking to each other because thy are all looking at their phone or gameboy? Public Education defeats the singular culture. It forces kids to deal with one another. With someone other than a parent. With the structure of an organization and rules. An athlete can be a marathon runner or a football player- but they will have vastly different experiences and understanding of 'sport'. Holding teachers accountable is needed and supported by teachers- but for the last decade plus mismangement has come from the top. Teachers did not just magically appear. And with the recession teachers have no place to go work. When teachers are fired, the whole state doesn't have a district with a job opening. In LAUSD right now pink slips are going out to everyone with 10 years of experience or less. And that is after the massive cuts of last few years. Class sizes shot up. But the millions and millions poured into mandating testing continues. Funny because what they are tested on they haven't been taught yet. The testing in November comes for some concept to be learned in April. Some say abolish the Dept of Education- that is a little extreme, but Arne needs to be fired- he is not setting a vision, leading the way or keeping his head above water.There is so much to say yet a lack of a proper forum or venue. Politics wins again, your children are pawns to the #$%$ D's. Shame on both.

Why make this simple problem so hard? Solution: Test kids at beginning of the year. Test them at the end oy the year. School budget and teacher salary based on improvement in the two scores. Actually pay for the amount of work done on the only parameter that counts. You have to pass a test to become engineer, lawyer, nurse, doctor,etc.etc.etc.

Massachusetts has the advantage of a well-educated and intelligent adult population. These people tend to have children who are also capable. Michigan adults have a much lower average IQ and have children who reflect that fact.

The problem with educational thought is that we pretend that all students can and should go to college, and we judge all educational results on that. Only 1/5 to 1/4 of jobs really require a college degree. We should look at how society and the economy actually are and try to produce a workforce that is prepared for that reality. Otherwise we're wasting our money.

If you care about the future of freedom in the USA then you ought not let the government run schools to educate children. That's like hiring the fox guard the chickens.