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> > I highly doubt that this day will ever come, unless every single parent in the whole country suddenly becomes amazingly rich. In most cases, the vouchers do not cover the full cost of tuition, books, uniforms (if applicable), and other fees at private schools. I know there are a lot of caring, loving parents out there, but many of them simply cannot and/or will not find the extra money to put their children in private schools.
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> Just a side note, but why do people have children if they can't afford to raise them? That makes me so angry!
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> > Unions do serve a purpose. Without them, employees have much slimmer chances of bargaining for pay raises and other perks. I think most of us know how little teachers are paid, in comparison to the amount of work they do.
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> Well, the teacher's union is out of control, as Mark (I think) pointed out...Even parents are too frightened to complain to teachers or school board members about problems their children are having because of the union's influence.
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> .
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> > Why do people always see education as a big competition? The point is to learn, not to be better than others.
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> Well, I was talking about school against school competition. And competition between students is irrelevant - what's important is that students are forced to compete against standards. Teachers must make it clear what the expect from students so they can earn an A, and then the students must strive to attain that level of excellence.
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I'm trying to stay out of this, but you know me.
Even after several years of retirement, I still belong to the National Education Association. It is actually a professional association, but serves the purpose of a union. I know only too well that without the NEA, teacher's salaries would not be above the poverty level. My salary was so low that for a time, my kids qualified for reduced price lunches. I know a computer systems analyist who makes more in a week than I did the first year I taught. He grosses $5000 a week while I taught all year for $3350. Sure, that was 1959-60 and there has been a lot of inflation since then, but not *that* much. By the time I retired, my annual salary had eeked all the way up almost to $30,000 a year. A good nerd can make that in six weeks.

One more thought: Higher salaries attract better teachers.
Howard