here is my question: all teachers are represented by a union that negotiates on their behalf. the teachers union in california is the most hard ass and powerful lobby. why isnt the union bargaining for better hours and better spending of literally 40% of california's annual state budget? more than 70% of our school budget goes towards salaries. schools are overcrowded and crumbling. many have cancelled programs and every year, we increase teachers' salaries(noone earns less than 100k) with lifetime pensions(including for dependents after they die). A union that can negotiate all this and coordinate with the ginormous pension management fund cannot bargain better working hours and useful school supplies? its almost as if they advise the teachers to do this so they use the 'sacrificing teachers' as a bargaining chip for more raises and votes. i have been watching this in ca for almost a decade now and it blows my mind.
Schools need security guards in some counties and they have become hotspots for political agitation. In the bay area schools, students walked out of class and demostrated during lunch break in support of teachers union. they are using the kids as their weapons against the tax paying parent who are literally held hostage. the unholy union and melding of political agendas between the UC system and CA public schools is another nail on the coffin of california public education system.
if anything, education costs should be coming down. personal story: the biggest expense when i was a student in school was notebooks because i had a lovely but a somewhat benevolent dictator as a math tutor who would make me to do 100 math sums everyday. it just had to be any kind of math..her method was that i had to sit down and have the discipline to set aside the time for math. i was always scrambling for paper. and it was getting expensive. finally my mother got permission to use her old office ledgers where accounts were only recorded on one side and were meant to be pulped. and every weekend, we'd have to burn them because even though it was 5 plus years old, we couldn't just discard them.
i marvel..MARVEL...at the tablet and the computer now. i rented a computer on a weekly basis to learn programming at home. i am so envious of the kids these days. and education is FREE for all!! i am SO MAD that this dumbass state of california is fighting to remove mathematics from school curriculums amongst other shenanigans and no disrespect to your wife, i dont feel like i can throw my support or show sympathy to the teachers. if there is a mafia and a godfather, the henchmen still dont get my sympathy.
education should be CHEAPER now! education should be more evolved now and tailored to suit individual children according to their aptitude. we had textbooks and one teacher for 40 students. in a country of about close to a billion. why isnt america better in 2022? every child should be able to be the best of what they can be and not some cookie cutter failed method that is unevolved even by developing countries standard.
if i were a conspiracy theorist, i would say that unionised public schools are america's soft underbelly where the poisoned dagger will be thrust to destroy the country. without a doubt, the educational system of this country(i dont know about the rest of the country..but at least speaking for california) is how the children will be weaponised against this nation. maybe ten years ago, there might have been a way to reverse this downfall. It is too late now as a whole generation has been poisoned. it starts with making an entire generation dumber. and teachers have been complicit.