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Bad teachers or the system?
Both.
In general, students in the College of Education at most/all Universities are among the weakest, entering with low ACTs, SATs, and GPAs. The College of Education often accepts weakies who flunk out of the top-line departments. This has been the case forever.
In many states, a system of lesser colleges (often called State Teachers Colleges in the past) with big and weak Education Depts. developed. In the south, the separate (but never equal) black colleges produced teachers by the thousands.
Today - we've got tons of poor teachers, further handicapped by a strong union. (I'd say this is proved by the private schools {all non-union} which hire and retain good teachers, even with lower salaries)
The system also sux. The unions are in control, and always seeking higher pay, smaller class sizes, and less accountability.
As education spending rocketed up, some controls were needed, and NCLB was passed (Bush and Kennedy were the leaders on NCLB). If all this money was being spent, some evaluations and testing were needed to learn if the money was being well spent.
The system needs some changes, and vouchers are worth trying. Give the parents some control (the money) and most of them will choose to use their voucher to pick a quality school.
There's a newspaper article this week, telling about an autoshop teacher who has some very devoted students, who want to work extra and learn more - and many of these kids struggle in other classes.
Another article tells about the NYC HS for Accounting and Food Studies, and the young chefs there who love it and have a good career ahead of them. NYC also has a HS for future "sports professionals", not learning to play but learning to lead athletic ventures.
If parents had control with vouchers, they would use them to put their kids into schools that the kids like and enjoy.
Most drop out, I think, say school is boring.
Vouchers are worth trying. The existing system isn't working.
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