The Value of Education

From the Times:

In a Room for Debate forum in June on the value of liberal arts master’s degrees, one group of readers — teachers and education administrators — generally agreed a higher degree was well worth the investment. They pointed out that pay and promotion in public schools were tied to the accumulation of such credentials and credits, specifically from colleges of educationShould the public schools reduce the weight they give to education school credentials in pay and promotion decisions?

But current teacher training has a large chorus of critics, including prominent professors in education schools themselves. For example, the director of teacher education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Katherine Merseth, told a conference in March that of the nation’s 1,300 graduate teacher training programs, only about 100 were doing a competent job and “the others could be shut down tomorrow.” And Obama administration officials support a shift away from using master’s degrees for pay raises, and a shift toward compensating teachers based on children’s performance.

Should the public schools reduce the weight they give to education school credentials in pay and promotion decisions? Is this happening already, and, if so, what is replacing the traditional system for compensating teachers?

My personal opinion is that teachers should be compensated, above all, by children’s performances. The pedagogy learned from education courses are, to some extent, valuable; but there remain many other factors in determining the success of American educators. As Patrick Welsh stated in the online debate, mind-numbing education programs are so highly appraised, that they prevent the brightest, most dynamic and creative people from entering the field; when in all actuality, the schools filled with such mediocrity, are depriving children of the education they deserve.

Letter to the Left

Mr. Obama and Democrats of Congress,

I implore you to ignore the off-center rhetoric of the right, and accomplish what you were elected to accomplish. Despite my wishes for this administration to be politically impartial, the right-wing grows upon the president’s apathy. Visit the town halls, talk to the people, and give us the public option we need.

And here, Mr. Obama’s Op-Ed in the NYTimes

Separating Fact From Fiction In Health Care Debate

For those of you who remain uncertain what government-run healthcare asserts, here’s Bill Adair, editor of PolitiFact and the Washington bureau chief for the St. Petersburg Times speaking on NPR’s All Things Considered. Adair says that because much of the action in the health care debate has been on the side of the groups that oppose an overhaul, that side is also responsible for much of the misinformation.

“I think much of the dialogue is being set by the critics who are making some very strong claims about this, and when we check them out, we find that many of them are exaggerated or completely false.”