How America can improve primary and secondary schools
The United States of America is one country. But within our nation there are thousands of school districts and school boards, many academically contemptible, almost all sports addled, and independent to the detriment of the country. Here’s how to begin improving our primary and secondary schools:
- Replace the Common Core Standards with a true national curriculum with national standards and national standardized tests. Needed: a majority vote, and possibly a constitutional amendment establishing a new section on education for the U.S. Constitution.
- Require that home schooling be conducted by instructors with state certification and skill levels commensurate with that found in academically sound public schools, and that home schooled students use the national curriculum.
- Consolidate school districts. No more than one per county. Needed: a majority vote.
- Eliminate brutal contact sports, starting with football, soccer, rugby, and hockey. Needed: commonsense and a majority vote.
- Conduct primary and secondary school 11 months of the year, breaking for an extended vacation only in August. Needed: a majority vote.
- Evaluate teachers partly on the basis of value added criteria and data. Needed: enabling legislation, and school boards and administrators with backbone.
- Require that tenure be granted in terms of ten years, and that renewals of tenure require a thorough review with public input. Needed: a majority vote.
- Build energy efficient schools. Retrofit existing BTU wasting educational buildings to save energy. Stop letting pipes burst in cold weather. Make a super effort to prove that superinsulation is not an obscene concept. Needed: smarter school boards and more responsible administrators.
- Remove police officers from the campus. Needed: less fearful and authoritarian school boards, teachers, and parents.
- Stop the witch hunts for drugs. Needed: less fearful and authoritarian school boards, educators, parents, and an end to big grants for local anti-drug task forces.
