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Politics / Re: Chicago Teacher's Union contract demands...
« Last post by cordex on Today at 11:29:53 AM »I would really like to see some real journalist ask the head of the Teacher's Union how the hell they justify asking for anything more given their current performance. Let them justify the pathetic education they are providing.No, no, no, that's not how any of this works. If students do well, it's all because how awesome teachers are. If students do poorly, teachers just can't help it because parents suck.
I'm only being half sarcastic. Excessive credit taking aside, teachers and other school staff have a relatively small impact on the performance of their students. They can't significantly impact the amount of support and emphasis on education that happens at home, and without that support they are just not capable of moving the needle on the vast majority of kids. In areas with a culture that values education, teachers will perform well. In an area with a culture that does not value education, teachers will perform poorly.
It's pretty similar to police, actually. In areas with cultures that are self-governing and respect the law, Barney Fife can control a town with minimal effort and few issues. In other areas ...
In both cases, the ones doing well will hold out their success as a reason to give them more money, and the ones doing poorly will blame their failures on lack of money.