Poor Teachers Or Poor Funding To Blame For Education Crisis?
Newsweek recently posted an article titled “Why We Must Fire Bad Teachers”. The article cites that “what matters more than the class size or the textbook, the teaching method, or the technology or even the curriculum, is the quality of the teacher.”
The article also points out that “as the population of disadvantaged students grows, overall scores continue to sag.” Thus, as long as communities continue to be stripped of funding which provides assistance for things such as social services, housing and the creation of new jobs, there will continue to be a widening achievement gap between privileged and poor and minority students.
What I found interesting is that there is a connection between the two. According to Newsweek, “the weakest teachers are relegated to teaching the neediest students, poor minority kids in inner-city schools.” Statistics often demonstrate that this does not always happen due to mere coincidence.
In the state of Nevada the relationship between these factors is no different. An annual survey by Education Week magazine ranked Nevada 50th in the nation for the quality of its public K-12 education, with Las Vegas receiving a letter D grade. Also, according to city data Nevada ranks third in unemployment. If Las Vegas was a state it would rank second behind Michigan. The unemployment in Las Vegas ultimately led to foreclosure where Nevada ranks worst in the nation, causing many displaced families. To top it all off, Nevada teachers are some of the lowest-paid employees in the state and are currently facing an additional 1.75% salary cut on top of the 10% across the board that has already been proposed by Republican governor Jim Gibbons, which would result in thousands of teacher layoffs and 50-student class sizes in high schools.
How do we improve education for all when faced with so many obstacles?
