Education K-12
By: Simon Li
A good educator teaches young people academic knowledge as well as life lessons, scientific theories as well as moral values, how to be disciplined as well as how to dissent. Our teachers are an essential part of each student's mental and social development. This why a strong education system is fundamental to the success of young people—the future of America—and necessary for a well-functioning democracy.
Today, the current education system is broken and needs reform—not promises for reform but action. DYNO is fighting to end three main problems with our education system:
Abuse of Power
School and district administrators too often abuse their authority by increasing their own salaries and promoting unnecessary pet projects.
Especially during these tough economic times, administrators should serve as leaders and make the sacrifices along with the teachers and staff. We must ensure that school districts attract qualified and talented administrators but administrators must also recognize that the school system is a not-for-profit sector. When other government employees are being furloughed and losing benefits across America, many school administrators must stop giving themselves raises, many of whom make more than your members of Congress and governor.
When various services are being cut across the state, many administrators are continuing to develop pet projects at the cost of improving school curriculum. Administrators make exorbitant investments on construction and unnecessary equipment to impress visitors at the cost of providing quality education.
No one can judge better than the students and teachers themselves on excessive administrative pay and nonsense pet projects. Their voices must be heard and action by our representatives to stop lavish spending by certain school administrators and invest on the students themselves.
Top-Heavy Management
Throughout school systems in America, administrative positions are often redundant within the school, local school district, and regional school districts. The system has become too top heavy with administrators sharing the same duties and operating very inefficiently. When cuts need to be made, administrators too often let go of good teachers instead of reducing inefficiency at the administrative levels.
These are our tax dollars being wasted. We must demand easy access to a transparent school budget. After public scrutiny, we can boldly identify any administrative redundancies and must ask our representatives to ensure that changes are made and costs reduced.
Lack of Accountability
We must demand change to an education system that lacks accountability from both the administrators as well as teachers.
Administrators often believe that the public and media are unaware of their subtle decision. Administrators must be held accountable by the Boards of Education and be accessible and transparently issues the public may have.
Teachers, too, are often not held accountable for their performance. School systems throughout America fail to reward and empower good educators. Conversely, educators performing poorly are not identified and not provided the assistance or additional training they need.
Addressing the issue of merit pay, President Obama has said, "I don't want to just talk about how great teachers are, I want to reward them for their greatness." Teachers should be awarded if they serve as mentors to other new teachers, take on added responsibilities, learn new skills to better serve students, and consistently excel in the classroom. We must demand reform that would set criteria to fairly evaluate teachers and reward them accordingly.
The time for change is now. We must boldly and decisively bring up these issues at public meetings and contact our local elected leaders to demand these reforms.