Where Do We Need To Change?

Have ya noticed how politicians love to talk about how to improve our education system? Or replace it? Have ya noticed how politicians don't seem to know what they're talking about? I mean they propose measures that are already in place, or that have been tried and discarded as ineffective. Take No Child Left Behind. It was supposed to be the sure cure for what ailed American education. And hey, who knows, it might have worked. The only problem was that it was never funded. But then I don't think it would have worked anyway, even if it had been funded properly. Politician keep talking about privatizing schools, school choice, charter schools, you name it. Here's the thing. For the most part, schools in affluent areas do pretty well. Schools in poorer areas, for the most part, don't do as well. So the answer must be to have schools only in more affluent areas, right? Well, except that a lot more kids live in poorer areas. What to do about those kids? That's the question. So maybe instead of state and federal funding for schools in more affluent areas, that funding should go to poorer area schools to bring them up to a level with the rich areas. But if you take funding away from the schools that are performing well, what will that mean to those schools' performance? See? There's no easy solution to the problem. Do we use tests to determine what's working? Do schools then teach only to the test and leave out critical thinking and other subjects that help in that thinking? Maybe what we need to do is have tests that cover a variety of subjects, but not give out the questions to the schools until the day of the tests. Offer this advice; teach all the subjects because some will appear in the tests. That might be good advice. If school boards and  teacher's unions and parents all spent more time thinking about the students and less about their own benefit, maybe all the schools would do better, even without change.