Submitted by Larry Littlefield, Jan 9, 2008 09:59

That's a question to ask the teachers. Along with would you continue to teach at this school if you had the opportunity to teach elsewhere?

With so many factors going into education, and the difficulty of measuring something qualitative with numbers, any rating system is going to be objective. And any system that tries to hold a monopoly accountable is destined to fail.

What we need are three public school systems, with equal funding per child in a given situation, with different labor contracts and different managements, with one overseen by an appointee of the Mayor, one by an appointee of the City Council, and one by an appointee of the City Council. Every child would be zoned for one school in each of the districts at every level. Teachers would be permitted to move between districts with no loss of seniority. And a reasonable level of public funding should be provided to moderate cost private and parochial schools as well.

Then see where the teachers and children go. That is the only grading system that will ever be objective.

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