Our K-12 teachers deserve more compensation. Their unions are shrill in their condemnation of society’s failure to honor teachers with higher wages. I agree they should be paid more, IF—-that compensation was based on the pay structure of accountability for results.

Teachers resist any competition in the form of sectarian, charter schools,  home schooling, etc. Yet, our results as measured by PISA scores have been falling for decades. Having been a businessperson for 35 years and on the board of a dual-enrollment trade school I see the result of kids in high school not having the necessary skills to perform in today’s job market. Yet, the establishment continues to promote to the next grade.

Teachers resist measurement of the progress children make in their classes; they resist testing to an acceptable standard, SAT scores have fallen where K-12 is not up to par. The educations aristocracy decided to not require SAT/ACT for college entry and many colleges jumped on board. This short term decision has already proven to be an issue.

Lastly we are finally emerging from a 50 year bias against trade/technical schools in favor of four year colleges. I know the CEO of one of the top ten General Contractors and he laments regularly that finding workers in the trades is a critical path issue.

OK, is this just a rant? Somewhat, but New York Governor Hochel just signed a bill repealing student performance requirements in teacher performance reviews; thus poorly performing teachers with seniority will keep their jobs and kids will be deprived of a decent education. The unions triumph again for their members at the expense of students.

No wonder almost half the country has now expanded charter and other alternatives to the government run K-12 system. I contribute to that effort and hope to see current power structure cave in on itself and a Phoenix rise from the ashers to provide our kids with the education they deserve.

Teachers would be paid more if they joined the movement to measure results, and teach those who are struggling. Most do, for sure. Leadership is the problem.

I recently was involved in a conversation at my church about K-12 education and its’ lack of positive results over the last few decades as measured by the PISA scores and lack of knowledge and skills of high school graduates. My solution is competition, allowing parents to control where their tax dollars are spent for K-12 education.  My talking points are below.

K-12 Education Funding, More parental control of where to use taxpayer funds  February, 2024

I am an engineer by education, a former military pilot and over thirty years as a businessperson. Objective measurement of performance, data and continuous improvement have been my operating values in all these endeavors.

Let’s talk about some data. Our country and society owe the rising generation an effective education, so they are prepared to participate in their economic future and be responsible citizens. In 2022 80% of children attended traditional public schools, 6% charter public schools, 9% private schools, 3% home and 2% parochial. So 14% of parents paid taxes for public schools as well as tuition for other types of schools. All of these schools have to be certified by the state as providing appropriate minimum levels of instruction.

On average, the U.S. spends $15,908 per pupil on secondary education. The U.S. spends the fifth-highest amount per pupil compared to the 37 other OECD countries, behind Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, and Norway. Our PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) scores placed us 20th.

Senator Tuberville recently said half of high school graduates can’t read their high school diploma Politifact, a political fact checking organization, put out a statement contradicting those facts  by offering the following data.

• 50% of U.S. adults are unable to read an eighth-grade level book.
• 46% of U.S. adults can’t understand labels on prescriptions.
• 66% of American 12th graders are rated “basic” or “below basic” in reading achievement.
• Only 37% of 12th graders reached or exceeded the academic preparedness benchmarks for both math and reading that would qualify them for entry-level college courses.

The irony is Tuberville overstated the facts, but the data supports the thrust of his comments. Looking objectively at these results has led me to investigate what we need to do to improve our results.

There is a strong movement for parents to gain control of the tax dollars and use them where they feel their child will get the most appropriate education. This movement has been growing over the last decade or so and crystallized when Terry McAuliffe said parents shouldn’t influence what schools teach in a Virginia governor race debate and when covid hit. Parents were thrust into the education process and were not happy with what they saw. Almost all parents want an effective education for their kids.

Some of the issues driving the demand for more parental control of where that money is spent are:

1. 100,000 kids attend 206 schools in Alabama that are rated as “D or F”, 2022 data.
2. USA PISA scores have been “average” as compared to OECD competitor countries for decades.
3. Diplomas issued without objective evaluation of skills and knowledge.
4. Social promotions
5. Too much focus on “Going to an academic College” versus other types of post-secondary education, or the military.
6. Court ordered elimination of religious themes.
7. Teacher Tenure in K-12 schools means firing someone for being a poor teacher is very difficult. Alabama teacher compensation is based on time in grade and academic degree and is disconnected from student achievement. Other states do have a component of compensation based on achievement.

Some of the reasons we haven’t done much to improve the results are:

1. Political partisanship, hardening of positions.
2. Those with performing schools are fearful of their schools being affected.
3. Teacher and administrator resistance to changing the status quo.
4. Interest groups advocating for their particular mindset, both conservative and progressive.

A recent Stanford University study that detailed the above average performance of charter schools was featured in the February 3d edition of the Economist in both the opinion as well as the US section. It also highlighted the ferocious opposition of the education industry and unions to any competition.

It appears to me that the choice of where to spend our taxpayer funding should be established in K-12 education. We all know kids have different education needs and adapting the government run bureaucracy to accommodate those needs is near to impossible. Many parents want their kids to have an element of religious education along with traditional subjects. My own experience with Vestavia schools is there were a few teachers who should have been retired and no longer teach.

Our system is choice-based once graduating from high school, why should it not be the same for K-12. International ranking systems continue to show US universities occupy 13 of the top 20 rankings, competition forces continuous improvement. Once students enter the workforce they are evaluated on performance, output, not on inputs which it seems is the way we measure our return on investment in education. Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, we need to try different approaches that the education industry and teacher unions seem to oppose.  Results are what matters. Choice will cause turmoil for a few years, but as with the rest of life, but choice will produce students better prepared for life and citizenship.

Bi partisanship is the answer, each side will have to give in on something. We try something, evaluate and change again until our results improve.