Chicago public school suspends teacher because he taught students how to use wrenches, pliers, and screwdrivers
CNS News reports:
Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a civil rights lawsuit against a Chicago public school district on behalf of a second-grade teacher who was suspended after he displayed garden-variety tools such as wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers in his classroom as part of a “tool discussion” in his class.
Despite the fact that all potentially hazardous items were kept out of the students’ reach, school officials at Washington Irving Elementary School informed Doug Bartlett, a 17-year veteran in the classroom, that his use of the tools as visual aids endangered his students. Bartlett was subsequently penalized with a four-day suspension without pay – charged with possessing, carrying, storing or using a weapon.
“This school district’s gross overreaction to a simple teaching demonstration on basic tools such as wrenches and pliers underscores exactly what is wrong with our nation’s schools,” said Rutherford Institute Pres. John Whitehead.
None of the tools were made accessible to the students. When not in use, the tools were secured in a toolbox on a high shelf out of reach of the students. They were used to demonstrate the proper use of tools
We need more teachers like this. It’s too bad the idiot bureaucrats suspended him for teaching his students skills that are actually useful in the real world.
Public schools teach math and science much better when the teachers DON’T have a degree in education
For low-income minority students, cheap Catholic schools are better than expensive public schools
The Pittsburgh public schools have an enrollment of 26,649 students, and an annual budget of $529.8 million. That works out to $19,880 per student per year.
By comparison, the Catholic schools in Pittsburgh charge approximately $7,500 tuition per student per year. The low-income minority children who get scholarships to Catholic schools in Pittsburgh through the privately funded Extra Mile Education Foundation have much better attendance rates, graduation rates, and academic performance, than the students at the Pittsburgh public schools.
Public school for low-income blacks and Latinos goes from horrible to excellent by firing bad teachers
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Spitting in the eye of mainstream education
Three no-frills charter schools in Oakland mock liberal orthodoxy, teach strictly to the test — and produce some of the state’s top scores.
Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: “We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multi-cultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots, and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply.”
Los Angeles teachers’ unions try to shut down South Central charter school that has been very successful at teaching low-income black and Hispanic students
In 2008, the Wall. St Journal wrote the following about a real world example of a charter school which has done an excellent job of teaching low-income black and Hispanic students who live in South Central Los Angeles, California. As is always the case with successful charter schools, the teachers’ unions want it to be shut down, because they are terrified of competition. The teachers’ unions want these low-income students to be trapped in the horrible public schools:
Why do so many public school teachers send their own children to private schools?
The Washington Times reports:
“Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools.”
“In Washington (28 percent), Baltimore (35 percent) and 16 other major cities, the figure is more than 1 in 4. In some cities, nearly half of the children of public school teachers have abandoned public schools.”
“In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, 41 percent; Chicago, 39 percent; Rochester, N.Y., 38 percent. The same trends showed up in the San Francisco-Oakland area, where 34 percent of public school teachers chose private schools for their children; 33 percent in New York City and New Jersey suburbs; and 29 percent in Milwaukee and New Orleans.”
People who say U.S. public schools are “underfunded” have no idea what they are talking about.
The United States is tied for first place with Switzerland when it comes to annual spending per student on its public schools.
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