The taxpayers are asked each year to pay significant amounts
of their income to fund education. This includes funding for
administration, schools, salaries, technology, books, etc.
As a result, millions of dollars flow into a “system” in
Tennessee that every year has ranked near the bottom in the
country in terms of student achievement.
The state has recently passed programs attempting to hold
schools and teachers accountable through evaluations and
benchmarking against objective standards and standardized
test results. The teachers apparently are against these
measures, even though recent reports show significant
positive achievement results are being made. They say it’s
too hard, the students don’t like it, and it’s not like it
used to be. Change is always difficult, as is learning new
ways of doing things. Teachers certainly should understand
this better than most.
Taxpayers have no choice but to pay their school taxes, but
this is not free money for the school system. Ultimately
they are accountable to the taxpayers who demand and deserve
some reasonable return for their money — namely, educated
students. It’s time for the teachers to get real, realize
the sacrifices taxpayers make to fund education and quit all
the “pity me” stuff. It’s their job, and it is time for them
to grow up, quit whining and do their job.