<p>I agree,</p>
<p>I have made friends with teachers I adore, and have met teachers I think are a waste of the skin they wear. But as much as I am bothered by teachers unions, I know why they exist.</p>
<p>Teachers are underpaid for what they do - grossly underpaid. I can’t understand why the government insists on massive pay raises for their own ranks (claiming they can’t attract talent) but then treat teachers as if they are doing it for the “love of their art.”</p>
<p>My daughter’s first decent English teacher left the profession after the district decided to consolidate schools and increase class size in the high school to state maximum (33 per class). She estimated that it left her with 10 minutes per week per child for instruction and no time to help those who were behind catch up because PS classes are filled by grade level, not ability level. </p>
<p>If teachers were paid more, it would make it easier to weed out the ones that jam up the system because more people with skills could be compensated at the same level as their current jobs.</p>
<p>But it’s not just teachers - it’s lousy school boards, inept state education rules, etc. It’s parents who take no ownership in their children’s behavior. It’s a complex problem driven primarily by people who - themselves - were raised in the same lousy environment hence a vicious circle.</p>
<p>Waiting for Superman is extraordinary only because a single individual with a vision created a charter school that worked. Many don’t.</p>
<p>Perhaps the nation could fix the problem if it would stop using one-size-fits all descriptions. Not all teachers are bad, not all parents are bad, not all students from poor environments are lazy and unmotivated, not all rich students are well behaved and/or smart, not all unions are bad, and not all charter schools are good (most are worse than their nearby district run equivalents.)</p>