The extent and sheer audacity of the 2009 Atlanta schools testing scandal, now resulting in teachers and administrators facing prison time, shows (or perhaps I should say “should show”) the complete folly of calling for more funding as the solution to the rotting U.S. education system. Indeed, I would argue that budgets should not be increased one penny anywhere until the educational establishment demonstrates that it is capable of policing itself, holding members of its profession to higher standards, which is to say, standards, of ethical conduct and professionalism, and can prove that it is more interested in the goal of teaching students than it is in pensions, job security, and cash.
I don’t think they can do it, frankly. I think this so-called profession has deteriorated beyond the point of no return. Unlike genuine professions, it has no universally accepted or enforced code of conduct or ethical standards, all the better to ignore basic ethical values like diligence, responsibility, honesty, fairness and competence. The NEA’s primary mission appears to protecting jobs and impeding educational reforms; the teachers’ unions are accurately characterized by their conduct in Wisconsin, when they left students without teachers in order to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to bring the state budget under control, and used fake notes from doctors in the process. Teachers using students for sex, once a rare occurrence, is now routine, with sexual predators, some of long-standing who have received honors as “Teachers of the Year,” turning up in every region in the nation, virtually every week, usually with multiple victims. Other teachers engage in classroom indoctrination; administrators terrorize and stigmatize innocent students, some barely out of diapers, for such offenses as hugging or forming their little hands into the shape of guns.
There have been test cheating scandals in many cities, though none (none that have been uncovered, that is) are as shocking as what transpired in Atlanta. As I wrote about Atlanta’ still developing story two years ago, there is little reason to think that the problem is relegated to Georgia:
“If 178 principals and teachers in a major American metropolis could mutually agree to fabricate test results—without a single member of the educational community coming forward and saying “No! This is wrong!”—then it isn’t unethical individuals, but a culture devoid of ethics. If there were 178 professionals directly involved, another 350, or more, knew something was going on. Why Atlanta? Only because the conspiracies in the other cities haven’t been uncovered yet.”
It is two years later, and I haven’t seen any evidence that the educational establishment has taken action, have you? Why should it, when parents are enabling the cheaters and public officials are so addicted to teacher union largesse that they can’t speak about education without extolling teachers’ hard work and character as if our children weren’t learning less and less, weren’t graduating from high school functionally illiterate, weren’t being subjected to daily ineptitude and idiocy and weren’t having their test grades manipulated so administrators and teachers can collect bonuses?
This is a lost and untrustworthy profession, failing a crucial societal need, in denial and being bolstered by public inertia and apathy. As is always the case, what is needed is a leader, a leader that can speak the truth, show courage under fire, insist on unwavering self-examination—a leader like, say, Dr. Beverly Hall-–qualified, compelling, unwavering in her..oh, wait. Yeah.
Never mind.
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Sources: New York Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution
Graphic: Jolenephilo
Ethics Alarms 
I knew things were bad, but I hadn’t realized how bad until my stepson told me he didn’t need to go to school the last week of the year because they were done with the end of year tests and teachers told them to not come. I suspected this was a fib told by a 13 year-old and told him that he did, too, have to go to school. He called me about 11 am on the first day and told me to come pick him up, because the teacher’s hadn’t shown up. When I arrived at school, what a madhouse I saw. He actually hadn’t been lying. There were only 2 teachers the school that day for the entire 6-8 grades!
Later I found out how they had spent the last 3 months of the school year studying copies of old end-of-year tests marked ‘Confidential, Do Not Copy’ and ‘For End-Of-Year Testing Only’. The teachers know at the beginning of the year what will be on the End of Year tests and only teach that material. They have stopped using textbooks to make it harder for the parents to realize they are only covering 20% of the material in them.
I also notice that the monthly ‘teacher work days’ are not listed on the official school calendars and we only get notification of those a week in advance. I bet the State Board of Ed doesn’t know about them and is counting them toward the minimum school days. I have been told the teachers just decide to have these when they are behind or just want a break (I know they didn’t have them when I was in school).
This is what happens when you let the government and the union completely take over a vital function. There is no oversight, no regulation. Who can hold the government accountable? You can’t even find out what is going on because the only people with the information are the same people who are running the show. Only revolutionary action can fix the problem.
the seed planted in the cultural revolution of the 60’s has grown and is bearing fruit.
Yes. In this and many other endeavors besides. Teacher unionization had a lot to do with the moral downfall of the teahcers’ profession, but so did a number of other factors. One was the neglect of parents in their involvement and oversight of school affairs and their children’s education. Another was the failure to pay attention to the composition of the school boards and not voting, thus allowing the unions to pack the boards with their creatures. One other element of this, I think, was simply when teachers came to think of their job as just that… only a job with a paycheck at the end of the month. Teaching ceased to become a “calling”- more than a mere profession.
For many teachers, though, it still is. But they are not in control. Nor is their diligence rewarded. Three events must happen. The school districts must deunionize. Teachers must be subjected to regular fitness reviews. Parents and taxpayers must take charge of the districts with their vote and diligence. And a 4th factor- let God back into the classroom. It’s good for the teachers and children alike.
I thought God was supposed to be everywhere?
Never mind, a good dose of Religion would help instill discipline, submission to the Authority of the Divine. Prayers five times a day, and learning scripture – the Holy Koran. That should do it.
That was what you meant, wasn’t it? Or did you mean “the deity I wish to impose on others”, rather than another one objectively more suited to the task? I’m sure though that you’d be able to find a better one still if you looked though. Minerva perhaps. Vulcan for Trade schools.
He is everywhere, Zoe. It’s just good for children to have this acknowledged. I think you’re entirely aware of the ridiculousness of your facetious comparisons.
You object to having religion in the classroom but I know you have no problem with secular ideology being promulgated in the classroom. Doesn’t this seem a bit hypocritical. Send a child to an American school and they may not learn to read or do arithmetic but they will be fully indoctrinated in progressive/leftist dialectic. The truth is the left has turned public schools into seminaries of leftist ideology. Any problem with that Zoe?
I smell a Tom Johnson.
I concede it’s bad in many places, but will not agree that it’s equally bad everywhere. Blaming the ones who are doing their job for the screwups elsewhere is is just as much tarring all doctors and lawyers too (and they make a lot more on the average)
That would be downright unethical, wouldn’t it?
This sort of thing is going to keep happening, until the US drops its obsession with testing, competition, and “success.”
Some kids are just not college material, which doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t succeed, but they may do better working or starting a business.
Other kids are disruptive – if they won’t allow other students to learn, let them leave, and learn to deal with the world on their own.
As long as we refuse to provide equal access to educational opportunity, by making academic funding dependent on bogus test scores, or only allowing underperforming students to receive assistance, creating a privileged class of incompetents, things will never change.
No, it actually is ethical to blame the good teachers along with the bad. Government unions want collective everything, except responsibility. If you are bargain collectively and hold collective work rights independent from work performance, you should also bear collective responsibility. That includes the good teachers who do nothing while bad teachers survive and thrive in the system.
The left has vandalized every American public institution for its own political gain. They have co-opted every public good and turned it into a cynical vote getting machine. It’s the lowest common denominator and Tammany Hall writ large. It is no longer possible to argue that these are unintended consequences of good intentions. This system is motivated by pervasive viciousness, greed and lust for power.
Yes, I think this is a good point, and seldom made. A “good” teacher or administrator can’t just pretend that the larger professional culture is none of her business.
This isn’t just the left. Look at the blue wall of silence. Same issues, and police don’t exactly lean liberal.
Some still enter the profession with the best intentions. My daughter’s private school has teachers like this one:
http://www.upworthy.com/teacher-caught-on-camera-making-a-student-cry-its-actually-pretty-amazing
There are some good teachers swimming is a sea of discontent and failed government policies. Home schooling is on the rise for more than religious reasons.
Awesome example from ‘higher’ education