Submitted by Zack Dyl, Jan 24, 2008 10:28

We are talking as if educational success is about pay and not the system. These teachers have little motivation because they have been "burned out" by a severly underfunded system. San Diego Unified has a dropout rate over 50% for minorities. I don't think higher pay would fix that. Follow a young motivated teacher for a few years. They will either change professions or burn out, regardless of pay. With this system you are only going to pay more to the least burned out teacher. Its no wonder the schools with the highest test scores are private and charter and have way more RESOURCES and smaller CLASS SIZES than poor performing schools. Its no wonder NCLB only improved elementary test scores because those were the only grades where class size was lowered, no more than 19 in grades 1-3. And talk to teachers, 4th grade on is where behavior problems kick in. Its about teacher to students numbers and being able to give these young people ATTENTION as they develop. Not give their teachers more money, not to test there brains out, but give them healthy, caring, attention from another human. I know the teachers union wouldn't have a "problem" with that. Is that so difficult for us to provide. I guess so. 50% drop out rate, shame on us. Humans, these kids need humans. Give them enough humans and they could learn using rocks as pencils and stones as paper.

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