New Poll: 28% of Public School Teachers Sought Alternatives for Their Own Children.

[Harry Mathews]

8-19-14 The Report Card

 By Bill Korach www.thereportcard.org

 

Education Next, a non-profit organization conducts an annual opinion poll of 5000 teachers and parents about public school. A key finding was that 28% of teachers have considered alternatives to public school for their own children. 20% of teachers actually do send their children to private school.

 

The survey pointed out that the general public is unhappy with the quality of their teachers. The general public gives 1 of every 5 teachers a “D” or “F” grade while teachers feel a bit more generous, grading 1 of 10 teachers with a “D” or “F.” Of course, far fewer than 10 percent of teachers are relieved of their jobs for poor performance.

 

The researchers used this finding to segue into the hot topic of tenure. Researchers found 50 percent of the general public opposed teacher tenure while 32 percent favored it. Furthermore, 60 percent of the public liked the idea of tying tenure to teacher performance. Only 9 percent of the general public that indicated it liked tenure also opposed using student test data to determine it. Among teachers, 60 percent favored tenure and only 31 percent liked tying it to student achievement.

 

The general public has long believed that public schools are not serving their students. Now it seems that even a significant number of teachers believe that public school are failing their own children. It is not hard to understand why the public dislikes tenure. With parents giving 20% of teachers failing marks why should those poor teachers have lifetime job security and lavish retirement benefits?

http://education-curriculum-reform-government-schools.org/w/2014/08...