This is best case scenario type of thinking. Its the same line of thought that has been spouted out about things like Welfare, "If they get rid of it then people will have to get a job". The thing is that things aren't black and white but amazingly multiple shades of gray. Do I think teachers are underpaid? Even taking myself out of the equation absolutely because our days don't stop at the last bell. Most teachers can leave at my site at 3:40 a full hour after the kids but many of them stay until 5 or 6 just grading papers and prepping for the next day. I can't tell you how many times I have to work over the weekends, holidays, days off, even over long breaks. I would love to fill out an hourly timesheet instead of working salary because I would at minimum double my salary.
The thing is that things aren't much better at many private schools where students are paying to be there. Our public school scores at even the lowest school is on par with the private schools in the area. Yet nothing has been done there to oust teachers or they don't come around us and try to recruit which is what you see in private sectors. Schools cannot be privatized or turned with the business model because even if they get them past unions and past contractual constructs what you'd find is the more affluent areas who could pay and attract the "better" teachers would snipe all of the teachers in the surrounding areas leaving huge gaps in the educational system. 40 miles south of me, the area of Pleasanton is way more affluent, the median income is twice what it is in my school site's city. The teachers make 70K on average with the same amount of service I have. The difference? Is it the teachers? No. I've met them, I've worked with them and a ton of them aren't worth ____. What happens is they are blessed with the fact that the students' parents are spending time with their kids, teaching them to read, write, doing homework with them and they come to school amazingly prepared. That isn't seen in my area or most lower performing areas. I have kids in my 8th grade class that have a reading level of a 2nd grader. Now I have to span over those six years of gaps to prepare them for tests. My buddy who teaches in Orinda (another area that is so wealthy that lawyers accompany to parent/teacher conferences) has students that read at a 12th grade level in the 8th grade.
As much as I'd love to say its teachers, its not. We can only work with the clay we are given and for the most part we make gains but not the kind that we'd need to in order to level the field. It starts at home. It has to. The kids who are read to, whose parents take interest in their student's educations are the ones who succeed. The others unfortunately have to work for it and have to want it themselves because at home they have nothing. Unfortunately in some areas that isn't the case. Its easy for some to do when they can spend the time but many of my students see me more than they see their own parents. Mom works two or three jobs and you have 13 year olds babysitting two or three younger siblings. That is the status quo in my school where no one is there to help them out...
The system is broken that is true but making it a business won't do anything but exasserbate the issue. What this country needs is parents to step up because when they do we notice, we see it and we can do our jobs. When they don't then we have no choice but to babysit and teach those who want to learn. In a class of 30 you have at least 5 or 6 that you are simply trying to keep quiet so the others can learn and when you meet or call their parents, they just don't care.
