America the brave. America the just.
Living the American Dream has been the goal of immigrants for the past two hundred years. They come to America for the chance at a new life. The chance to live freely has been enough to risk everything you have; including your life. The American is said to be dying, as other countries shoot past us on the economic and social ladder. Countries that were developing fifty years ago are now just as influential as America.
As the rest of the world is progress and surpassing us, we are scrambling to keep up and not to fumble in the face of global progression. We cannot provide because we are not suited for the job. America has large holes in its workforce. This is forcing companies to look overseas for worker who help only their economy. This is not an article of bringing jobs back to America or revolutionizing the economy. This is about how we aren’t grooming our youth to do these things. If you want to fix America you have to start with the people who are most likely to change America from what it is to what it could be. These people are the youth of America.
People have come to the misleading conclusion that more money means better test scores for students. Money is needed to provide an environment but it doesn’t make students learn any better nor does it directly improve test scores. No Child Left Behind vowed to get all states proficient in Math and Reading. No state, as a whole, comes anywhere close to this. The money is there but why aren’t kids learning? The answer is not the amount of money but to where and who it’s going to.
Teachers are awarded a status known as “Tenure” after they “teach” for two to three years. I put teach in quotes for the teacher must be in the classroom and still be breathing to receive this status. Tenure is defined as the status granted to an employee, usually after a probationary period, indicating that the position or employment is permanent. The ability to fire a teacher for not doing their job has been revoked. The process to get rid of a teacher that has tenure is long and drawn out. It can take years to get rid of them if they can at all.
No person should ever have 100% job security. Doctors don’t, Lawyers don’t, politicians don’t, and not even the President does. More doctors lose their medical licensees than teachers who lose their teaching credentials. Doesn’t this just mean that America has fantastic teachers? No this means that America is unwilling to change view on what a teacher is. Teachers Unions (the biggest obstacle against firing a tenure teacher) look at teachers all the same. To them, a teacher is a teacher is a teacher. No one is better or worse than another. This is anything as a truth as we all know, some can teach others cannot.
Tenure keeps that bad bad. Tenure relieves the pressure of actually having to perform to keep your job. As long as your there, you are good. If America eliminated the bottom 6-10% of teachers and replaced them with teachers in the middle, Average, mediocre teachers, our education system would skyrocket to the top. Support the removal of tenure as good teachers have nothing to fear. What was once keeping scholars safe is now killing the institution it once sought to protect.