Here's what a few of you had to say about some of our recent stories. To post a remark in our feedback forums, enter your comments in the text box at the end of any story (registration required). Additionally, you can jump in on the hottest discussions about our most popular blog posts through the links at the bottom of this page.
Re: Steve Jobs, Proud to Be Nonunion
By Leander Kahney
From: Susan Walter
Great article. Great response to this oversimplification of the issues.
- - -
Re: Steve Jobs, Proud to Be Nonunion
By Leander Kahney
From: Geoff
With all due respect, your article is way off base. Steve Jobs is right about the unions but the real solution is to give school principals the power to manage their teachers, much the same way the rest of the "real" world does.
My wife has been an educator for 17 years and I can tell you countless stories of teachers that will file grievances with the union if they have to stay after school for a staff meeting. How many tenured teachers blatantly disregard curriculum because they know they can't be fired? In my wife's career, she has worked for two inner-city elementary schools: One was in disarray and taken over by the state, the other was a California distinguished school.
The schools' demographics were the same; the difference was the principal at the distinguished school was able to minimize the effect of tenure. Since it was a new school at the time, she did not inherit any baggage. She recruited competent tenured teachers from other districts and the rest she hired straight out of school and evaluated them before they were tenured. She created a great team.
You want to help inner-city schools, help the principals first. This means addressing the union. Second, get the school board out of this altogether and give control of the curriculum to the principal and the teachers. Right now, school boards make that decision and there is no prerequisite to be on a school board. You have high school dropouts, ministers and others who have never set foot in a classroom deciding what these teachers have to teach! Let the schools and the teachers decide, not the school board and the publisher kickbacks.
BTW, there is a strong correlation between school boards that have former educators on them and high test scores. The inverse is true as well and is something my wife is doing her doctoral thesis on.
Vouchers, I hope, are a nonstarter. The wealthy can move away from bad schools (remember, principals can be fired a lot easier than teachers) but the poor can't, which is why the voucher argument is popular. But it dodges the issue of how to improve schools, give the principals the power to change the schools and the teachers the power to decide their own curricula. Do that and the voucher argument loses much of its luster.
- - -
Re: Steve Jobs, Proud to Be Nonunion
By Leander Kahney
From: John Mayberry
I have a different perspective than you on Steve Jobs' latest rant. As usual, he's both right and wrong at the same time.
First, let me say I worked with Steve and became intimately associated with the reality-distortion field. For three years I was in charge of architecting the electronic systems for the Apple Retail Stores. We often clashed on technical issues, and upon reflection I have both a great deal of respect for his marketing expertise and some healthy disdain for other aspects of his character.
I have three children, two in private school and one in public. The public school district is considered to be one of the finest in California, and the middle school my son attends is currently ranked second out of 1,065 in the state by Schooldigger.com.
There are a number of teachers not well-suited to the classes they are teaching, either by training or temperament even in this school. Teachers are misplaced (one with a music background teaches GATE math) and the children suffer as a result. More specifically, the system forces parents to pay for expensive tutoring (up to $90 an hour) to pick up the slack.
Obviously this is a management issue. Alas, the school and district leadership believe their options are firmly tied up in potential union lawsuits and refuse to right the wrong. It is equally clear the California Teachers Association spent $100 million combating Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to ensure it stays that way.
Education is not about technology. It is about access to information in a timely manner. Where technology can help speed that, it should be welcomed.
- - -
Re: Steve Jobs, Proud to Be Nonunion
By Leander Kahney
From: Dion Lisle
I respectfully disagree with the key point of your story, although your points about school budgets and such are true. I think Jobs is right: Unions prevent schools from being great. What value do unions add to our schools? How about promoting teachers on merit instead of seniority? Just a thought – pay for results. Not BS test results, but actually better-run schools.
We as parents bear a great deal of responsibility to be active in our kids' education. Whether you can afford a home computer or not, you can read, participate and volunteer at school as much as your personal situation allows.
Also, transfer some military funds to education. Make education the priority it should be, not lip service from politicians when an election rolls around.
- - -
Let us get to know the real you. Take a look at what our readers have been saying on some of our most popular blog posts and post up some comments of your own:
Autopia: Summer Gas May Hit $3
Comments: 72
Table of Malcontents: Dare I Compare Heroes to 7 Soldiers of Victory? I Do!
Comments: 17
27B Stroke 6: The IIPA's Wide Wide World of Copyright Crooks
Comments: 15
Cult of Mac: A Big Sign Your Take on Education Is Wrong: Rush Limbaugh Endorses It
Comments: 11
