How to Lower Costs and Improve Education?

[krazy kaju]

If you were put on your local school board and didn't have the power to abolish it, how would you go about improving education in your district without spending absurd amounts of money?

[TastyWheat]

I don't have any suggestions for elementary or middle schools, but high schools need to have more personalized programs (like magnet schools do) and stop the "one size fits all" approach to education. I'm not going to argue about what courses should be required and which shouldn't, but there seems to be a lack of courses that really focus on the talents and interests of students. Magnet schools achieve this goal of practical, career-oriented education very well.

[penguin]

The first thing I would do is fire everyone who is not a teacher. I would hire an outside company to clean the school once a month focusing on the heavy stuff, eg floor mopping/buffing etc. The teachers and students would need to learn how to pickup after themselves. The lunch program I'd leave up to the parents but would not provide a kitchen due to the costs imposed by regulations. A school nurse? nope but I would provide space for that if the parents choose to fund the position themselves. The bulk of the administrative work would be done by the non-union teachers and the volunteer school board. I would promote as many fundraisers as possible to purchase the books and materials the Teachers choose to use for their classes. I would also group children by ability and desire to learn as more of these students can be taught at the same time than the others. I would also promote parent participation in class as much as possible.

EDIT: BTW - I'm not in education, I'm just a taxpaying parent of 3.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Purge the curriculum of all PC material. That probably means a bonfire of the vast majority of the textbooks.

Fire every teacher that belongs to the NEA.

Replace the texts in almost all cases with reprints from the 1950's and 60's. The exceptions being scientific areas where there have been significant advancements and things like current events and geography (country names, etc).

Get kids used to doing a lot of HW questions.

Encourage apprenticeships, self directed learning, members of the community coming in and teaching on a volunteer basis, as well as students teaching classes in areas they know about.

Let students sign up for any class they want, but put a core curriculum in there or work it into other classes. Establish flexible graduation requirements that makes sure they pick up the basics, but also that let students follow their own interests.

-t