** "with children fidgeting in their seats" - evidently he didn't "engage" the children in the lesson very well !
*** "who he said cares more about pensions" - so no one should care when the State fails to make good on the decades old promise of a reliable pension ?
**** "consistently good grades" - as assigned by whom and on what basis ??
PS
Having been educated by such a poor public system how did our Governor rise to his current station ? Does he think it was all accomplished exclusively by his own efforts and his public school education played little if any part?
Christie is working mightily to slash the cost of educating NJ children by slashing the salaries and benefits of the biggest line item in school budgets, personnel. Quality of education has nothing to do with it. Just make parents think that they are choosing a better deal for their kids.
ReplyDeleteI see a bleak future. Teachers will not be professionals, but rather a college-educated workforce that makes a brief stop in public service as "teachers." As three-year public service workers (perhaps to achieve partial amnesty on their school loans)they will not expect tenure, will be paid less and have no opportunity to vest in the pension. As many of them will be young, the healthcare pool for the state benefits plan will save many dollars. And, most of all, all teachers will be young and capable of sprinkling that technology fairy dust on kids. You know, the dust that makes ALL kids eager to learn, computer literate, and excited about school.
Parents will be ecstatic. Their kids will have lots of free technology bells and whistles and they will have FUN, right? Parents will escape the work of sending kids to school ready to learn and supervising homework (the kids will be anxious to do homework utilizing their new technologies).
The State can transfer the whole education headache to private and non-profit charter schools and then make them bid for "public" education contracts thus further guaranteeing the lowest costs. The State can pocket a windfall of cash without raising taxes.
Companies that sell "canned" curricula and tests will thrive on the public dollar. Buy stock in them.
This is a big win for the free market enthusiasts, politicians and others who have "theirs" and can pay out of pocket to send their kids to better schools. It is also a big win for those who strive to divert that huge education budget line to other purposes.