Five Free Things to Improve Our Schools

Waiting for Superman is the new documentary about the failure of American public schools. Once the envy of the world, the American education system has declined to an embarrassing ranking of 26th. The documentary examines many things, but from what I have read places the blame mostly on teacher unions. I disagree. They are part of the problem, but down on the list. More money isn't the answer either. We have continually thrown money at the problem with per pupil spending rising exponentially, while test scores plummet. The answer is someplace else.

Here are five things that would improve learning in the schools, and none of them cost a dime.

1) BAN CELL PHONES IN THE CLASSROOM. How did we survive without them for all those years? Parental pressure keeps schools from requiring cell phones to be checked at the door. But simply banning their use in the classroom doesn't work. Teachers spend a good part of their teaching time looking under desks and behind books as students continue to text away rather than pay attention to the teacher, not to mention the teacher's time in enforcing the rules.

2) UNIFORMS. Leave the butt cracks and bouncing boobs for the malt shop. Schools with uniforms routinely outperform schools without uniforms. Today's students can't respect education if they can't respect themselves enough to leave the gangsta rap droopy drawers in the drawer back home. And just so you know, "dress codes" work for about the first three days of school.

3) HIRE TEACHERS, NOT COACHES. Maybe it's just a coincidence that the beginning of the slide in American education occurred about the same time as men moved into the primary education field in a big way. School hiring should be based on what teachers can teach and how well they can teach it...not what they can coach. How many social studies teachers have been hired because they can coach wrestling? Coaching staff should be handled independently of the teaching staff.

4) END MAINSTREAMING. Another example where courts have interfered in the education process. While some challenged students actually benefit from mainstreaming, many of them do not. The purpose is to make the parents feel better. Teachers are using an inordinate amount of time at the expense of the other students taking care of mainstream issues. All students should be placed in a learning environment best suited to individual needs within reason. Challenged students should be placed where they can actually learn something, no matter how disconcerting it is to Mom and Dad.

5) LIMIT ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF. Bureaucracies beget more bureaucracy. Schools are no exceptions. Lately there has been a piling on. Administrative personnel tend to get bigger raises at the expense of teaching staff....over and over and over again. No teacher should be laid off in order to provide an administrator with a 5-10% raise, not in this day and age. The cost of administrative staffs should be limited to a certain percentage of a school system's budget, and no raises should be given to these folks at all if teachers are being laid off.

Add increased discipline to the mix; allow teachers to once again flunk students; prohibit administrators from unilaterally changing grades; expel students who either physically or verbally abuse teachers….you will see the school systems shape up real fast.

But you and I know none of the above will ever happen. Meanwhile, let's just blame the teachers.