Teachers in America have no goals. If goals are set, the union steps in and stops the process. In rare occasions, like Michelle Rhee in Washington DC, where she, the top school honcho there negotiated an agreement to have goals and pay bonuses for performance, the union is upset because she fired over 200 teachers who failed to meet goals. Her tenure was officially over on 10-13-10 when the new mayor fired her. Shame on Washington DC.
Most of you have never heard of Tom Donilon . He is the new head of the National Security Administration. What got him that job? He was the vice president for law and polity for Fannie Mae during the company’s accounting scandals. What are the goals for Fannie, Freddie, the FHA, Amtrak, and the post office?
There are clearly no goals. When they need money because they lose money, they just ask you for your tax dollars. Or, the government borrows it from China. Or the government prints it. How would you like to be an employee at any of those places? You have one goal, and one goal only, don’t make waves.
What would happen at those places if the top man or woman got a profit goal? And, that goal was broken down from top to bottom. Everyone getting a piece of the goal. If you didn’t meet your portion of the goal, you got no raise, a warning, and ultimately a firing. Would the culture be different? Would union issues get resolved? Would the excuses go away?
If the entire educational system were given measurements and no excuses accepted would student performance improve? If we stopped the teachers’ union from producing bad students like bad automobiles, would we move up from 26th in the world in testing?
For the first time in a long time it seems we are trying to make politicians accountable for performance. Incumbents are in trouble. Bringing home pork doesn’t get it done anymore.
When do we ratchet up the pressure to the aforementioned organizations? Who in their right mind would put a man in charge of national security if that man had played a big role in destroying the economy? Only a man with no goals.
If you kids and/or grand kids are in school and you want them educated, educated well enough to compete in a global economy, you had better get serious about the problem. The people in office aren’t going to do anything. The union is going to block every effort. The crusaders, like Michelle Rhee will be fired for trying. Chris Christie will be vilified by the media for taking on the union. Nothing will change. Uneducated and undereducated kids will not get good jobs. They pay the price for letting this continue.
