One of the most important things in a society or civilization is training and teaching the next generation of up and comings to do the required jobs, and run the system. If not, the city-state, state, province, or country will begin to decline and decay. Indeed, right now there are some serious challenges as many state budgets are being cut to the bone. Obviously, one of the biggest costs is education, and therefore it cannot go unscathed during budget cuts. There are many states that are in financial hot water.
Consider if you will states like New Jersey, California, Florida, Illinois, New York, just to name a few. These states have watched their tax revenues cut, and although they are back on the incline, they are in severe debt. They have no chance but to cut costs, meanwhile they've already promised pensions and have legacy obligations to past state employees, including the teachers. Trust me when I tell you this, the teachers will not go down without a fight, and the teachers unions are quite strong if anyone thinks they're going to cut their pensions, or benefits.
There was a rather comprehensive article recently in the Wall Street Journal written by Stephanie Banchero titled "Illinois Education Overhaul at Risk" published on May 10, 2011. This article discussed the major changes happening in the state of Illinois, and the passing (unanimously) of a major education bill. However, if you think this is only an Illinois problem you're sadly mistaken. The article also explains the major education bills signed into law in Ohio, Indiana, and Florida.
We also know that there have been major changes in the state of Wisconsin, as we watched the protests, and in the state of California they are about to also have a major education overhaul reform bill. Indeed, in Los Angeles County, the school districts are reevaluating teachers based on a new mathematical equation and metric. It looks as if the concepts brought to the Washington DC school district by Michelle Rhea are being adopted elsewhere.
In other words, tenure will not be enough, every teacher must perform, or they will be cut. This is because parents and voters are upset that many of the good teachers have been laid off, because they didn't have tenure. And that's the way the cookie crumbles, or least it has been in the past, no longer say many legislators, voters, and parents in many states. Should we be surprised? No, not really eventually everything has to come back into normal, and the runaway costs, and the outrageous administration expenses got out of control.
Nevertheless, we must always remember that our civilization is only as strong as our schools and education system was 20 years the prior. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it. If you have any comments, concerns, and/or questions I ask you to shoot me an e-mail.