Fixing Our Education System - Conclusion

I'm excited about getting comments from time to time on my blog. It is encouraging that more people are now reading it. I will address the most recent comment on my first blog on education and summarize what our education system would look like under this transformation. This will be written as if I were explaining my education reform in a speech as a candidate for president of the United States. Enjoy:

Ladies and Gentlemen I propose to you that we allow all parents who have children attending school the right to choose where they would like to send their child to school. In whatever state you live in, you can now send your child to any school in that state. I propose a voucher system that represents an amount of money that will follow your child where he or she attend. The amount of that voucher will be based upon the average spent last year per child in that county plus the growth of inflation each year. If you want to send your children to a christian school of some sort, so be it. If you would rather send him or her to our now privately ran but publicly funded schools, so be it. Where you want them to go, they go.

The voucher will represent a specific amount of money that the school you choose can exchange for money from the government. The school can choose to charge whatever they feel is needed to properly run their school. If they can impress parents and run it for less than the voucher is worth, they can keep the excess money to make improvements or choose to give it back to YOU, the parent, as an incentive to keep your child there. At any time, if you feel that the school is not living up to its responsibility of educating your child, feel free to move your child to another school of your choosing. This will bring about the same competition to our education system that is already thriving and successful in making our economy the envy of the world- even during downturns like we are currently having. This competition will breed achievement. If your school's owner hires a principal that believes using advanced technology to teach your child to learn then so be it. If the principal prefers a student centered school system that uses group learning and active learning, so be it. If you would rather go to a more traditional teaching school that is mostly teacher-centered with discussion and lecture, so be it. It is your choice. In fact most schools will use different strategies for different subjects depending on what has been found to be the most successful strategy.

For you students that prefer the technical path as opposed to the universal path, I have tremendous news for you. With this added competition, owners of schools will begin to set up schools that specialize in technical studies. No longer will each school have a sub-par technical path with shop classes that get sub-standard supplies to use in the education of your child. Schools will specialize in this area and students from all surrounding areas will attend that school bringing in large amounts of cash flow, supporting many different fields of learning, and the best teachers of all crafts to one spot to maximize the potential of developing those skills needed for the workplace. No longer will college or technical college be required by most businesses looking for these skills as students leaving high school will be schooled beyond their years in those fields as they all have had the best teachers and best resources to learn from. With businesses demanding their services due to seeing the fruits of their work in high school, your child will be able to go straight into a high paying job immediately upon graduation.

Schools will now adapt to the needs of the economy whether that means more subject matter with technological skills that are needed to prepare students for today's economy or some other skill that is in large demand from our society. No longer will teacher unions and government officials in Washington or your state capital make these tough decisions requiring lots of information that no government employee can possibly obtain. Instead the free market will make changes as the principals and owners will have the freedom to do what they believe is best for the student. This of course will be based on what employers are telling them. Principles will now be incentivized to travel to companies and asking what employers are looking for in a child's education. Change and adaptation will be done much quicker now that the market of millions of people's needs will bring about this change instead of a group of government paid employees in some room trying to figure out what changes to make in our education system.

I will close with this. Athletes who would love to play for the best coaches and best schools for their sports. No longer are you forced to attend a school that does not care about a particular sport and keep coaches around that continue to fail their athletes in not helping them reach their full potential. You can choose where to attend school and thus what coach and system to play in. Imagine the resources athletes that will now be available to you who are committed to playing at the best schools. Those schools will invest into the best equitment to get you to come there so they can receive that voucher.

Teachers, I have wonderful news. You will no longer be paid based upon experience and education alone. Your pay will be merit paid. Principals that need to improve the history, English, math, science, or any other department in order to improve the quality of their education to impress parents to bring their students there, will pay you what they need in order to get you to teach for them. If you work hard and are a successful teacher, the better schools with the more students going and thus receiving the most funding, will now pay you what you demand mixed with how much they really want you. Attention math teachers and science teachers, you will be paid more than the physical education and history teachers in that your job qualifications are harder and in lower supply. This way we will never have a shortage of teachers in tough areas of study that few decide to study in college. As these areas will now pay more, more students will receive those degrees. Coaches, you will be paid what the school has to pay you to get you to come there. No longer will a school board be voting what they think you should be paid. Those people who have the most information for what that school needs to impress the parents and students will be making those kinds of decisions. Thus the best hardest working coaches, teachers, and principles will be paid the best.

Ladies and gentlemen, elect me as President, and I will put you and your child first, not the government officials and teacher unions. Thankyou, and God bless you and God bless or students.

JESS