Education

I was a middle school math teacher in another life. I loved teaching, but I was not paid commensurate to my expertise or experience. I spent over 100 hours a year at my own expense and usually on my own time in inservice programs even though I'd taught off and on for 30 years, had a master's degree, and was only required to spend 20 hours a year. That is how much I wanted to know so I could help prepare students for the 21st century.
The fight to underfund the schools further and to undo the tenure laws infuriates me. Tenure was instituted over a century ago in order to protect teachers from the political fickleness of school boards and parents. The situation has not changed. Often school boards are made up of people other than educators who don't understand the standardized tests used to judge the efficacy of a child's education. I'll leave the discussion of those tests to another day. It deserves a further discussion.
Despite my expertise, desire for excellence in teaching in my classroom, and my concern for each individual student, I was often pressured by parents to give their children a particular grade. Note the word "give." The child did not deserve a good grade because of hard work toward improvement or meeting the state curriculum standards if they did not get what most parents believe is a good grade of A or B. If they improved, they received consideration in the grade for their hardwork and improvement  or if they simply met the state curriculum standards with or without improvement, they received the grade that demonstrated their mastery. Without tenure I am sure I would have been either transferred or fired because I had so many influential parents who had misplaced concern over a grade.
If schools are not adequately funded, then well motivated and educated teachers are going to other professions that pay a living wage. They are the backbone of your child's education. Materials for the students and the teachers to use are the building blocks.
Also an administrator who understands excellence in teaching in every subject is essential. There is a reason they are called principals; they are the principal teacher. If they are supported by their superintendent and school board, the administrators have the tools in every state to challenge a teacher's tenure. The law can exist and poor teachers can be dismissed.
I don't plan to use my blog as a soap box, but I am watching the news and see our country undoing a hundred and fifty years of building  public school systems that attempt to serve every child. I agree that there are bad teachers in those systems. I agree that not every child can be served in an excellent way as the systems are run today. But don't throw out one of the few protections good teachers have to continue to use their expertise to bring children to their potential.
What do I think should be done? Fund teacher education at the state level and institute challenging end testing to eliminate teachers who are not adequately prepared. Fund teacher internship programs that match teachers of excellence with non-tenured teachers, but give those expert teachers a stipend for all the extra work involved in teaching another teacher. Most importantly hire excellent administrators who know what to look for in new hires and who will be able to support their best teachers and cull their weakest ones. Lastly, don't depend on standardized tests to tell you if your child is succeeding. Instead, pull up your state's standards on-line. Inquire about how they are being instituted instead of your child's grade. Every teacher should be able to answer that question and show you which standard is being met by lessons and projects.