Honestly, there will never be a better time to flush out these Augean Stables.

If we're not going to, what's the point in all this running for office in the first place? It's got to be done.

Proper school choice will do that for us. "I've worked in the private sector, they expect results".

They wouldn't last a year in the free market.

Whoever develops an affordable homeschool progam will be raking in cash. Just need to focus on the 7 classical arts. The trivium(grammar, logic and rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and cosmology). Its what the ancient Greeks did and the Romans stole it from them. It teaches people how to think instead of pouring facts, now mostly lies, down kids throats and have them throw it up on a bubble sheet.

They were a failure since their beginning - everywhere. The base idea was "equality of opportunity", which can be understood as a form of "soft equity", and the intention was to streamline education for the bulk of society in a way to create obedient factory workers and aggressive soldiers.

It worked, and it significantly contributed to World War 1, because people have been indoctrinated into serving the idea of the nation by serving the state that appears to control and oversee it. It was a major collectivist push, and it is no coincidence that this outdated nationalized education system fits perfectly into the communist scheme. You'd think they'd revolutionize the education system in any significant way after they did so much else? No - it was already a perfect fit - they just adjusted some parameters.

People were willing to sacrifice their lives for their nation, the government and its wars, and the nations that fermented that obedience abused it to the maximum. World War 1 was the display of how much control governments gained and how they managed to subjugate their populations for their own, unethical goals.

And even today the public education system is of terrible quality - it does not prepare children for life, it does not teach them valuable information, it does not help them in their careers beyond what the government and its tight ally, academia, artificially mandates as relevant. A lot of it is just self-perpetuating, ancient systems for the sake of being risen to some "intellectual" priesthood at tax payer expense. And oh wonder, that elite that lives from tax payers promotes ideas and ideologies that demand more taxation and more government control.

As of today children are indoctrinated into favoring Marxism or at least tolerate it, while rejecting National Socialism because it is not socialist as they want it to be, and because it divides people as races, and not in classes as Marxists see it. Of course they can also reject the nationalism part - which can be understood as patriotism in reasonable forms - as well. And of course they ignore the detail about how the atrocities of communism and socialism surpass that of Nazis by magnitudes - that's just an inconvenient truth that needs to be silenced.

Oh and forget any sense of ethnic in-group preference - this is forbidden for the white race. We are forced to accept all races while all others races are allowed to reject whoever they want. But we are still evil because we are not tolerant enough - in fact we have to be destroyed as a race, we have to be turned into 100% cucks with no loyalty to our own kind, while being forced to respect that of everyone else. If Marxists were consequent about their ideals, they should reject Black Lives Matter in an instant, given that it is a race based, racist movement - but it is clear now what they truly oppose - it's not nationalism, it's not fascism, it's clearly not authoritarianism, it's not racism - it's Western Civilization and the white Christian.

And the best way to take us down - as a race, as a culture, as nations - is to further the very education system that is fundamental for Marxists to brainwash children, which also originally lead to WWI in all its horrors - and of course to everything after it. Because think about it - what does Collectivism truly lead to? Does it make you love your neighbor more? No. It enables you to consider your neighbor a traitor for not serving the ruling ideology, and report them to your government. It allows you to make your own people enemies. Collectivism is the ultimate tool of power for elites - or for people who are "takers" in society.

• Added to the list of Great Ironies of the Left!

I've been saying this for over a decade: the teacher's union is the worst thing to ever happen to education in this country. We let the one place that absolutely should never ever be infected with the stench of self-serving unionize and fuck everything up. Did you know there are far FAR more administrators in education these days than educators? There's a local school around here with a few hundred kids that have TWO principals. WTF?

Except in Commiefornia, Newsom bowed to the Teacher's Union and shut down most private schools too. He's holding them to the same standards for the WuFLu as he is the public schools, for opening.

My child's school was all set to open for in-person instruction, until Newsom lumped private and charter schools into his order on public schools.

Yes, this is "exactly" what we need. Kids who have too much technology and lack of critical thinking skills - to be put in front of more technology with "teachers" that lack critical thinking skills...

Homeschooling is on the rise in a big way. I am sure the Teacher's Union doesn't like that either!

The problem is the majority you speak of. They are ruining the kids, while you do your best to help them grow. If the other teachers were all like you, this country would be a better place. Unfortunately, as you know, that is not the case.

Thank you for your work though.

Thank you for your service.

Your own words: "To be fair, the vast majority of teachers I have worked with during my career are absolutely horrible and should not be paid as much as they earn. In a perfect world, they would be fired and replaced. Unfortunately that is not the world in which we live. " Let's make it the world in which we live - fire them all, you included, and let them all apply to staff a new system of public schooling where the students come first, education is the focus, and indoctrination is done away with. The free market finds solutions. Status quo is clearly not a solution.

I too thank you for your service.

Math and Science instructors trend more conservative, than those who teach other subjects.

My uncle is also a Math Teacher. He's the one who introduced me to The_Donald in the first place.

As someone with 2 higher education STEM degrees, I'll add this observation. "A good teacher is priceless. Those who are knowledgeable and passionate about there subjects can change lives. If only they weren't so rare."

First of all - a well written and thought out comment deserves acknowledgement and a focused, detailed response.

Many of us have had teachers who changed our weltanschauung. It could be that you are that person to others - and for that you get nothing but respect. There are a handful of teachers on my journey that definitely impacted the preparation, direction and outcome of the adventure so far! They had the similar qualities you defined - capability, determination, passion for their subjects - and it rubbed off on me. In many ways it made me challenge my own ways of thinking - which before snowflake culture took over - was considered a good thing.

I agree with you that sometimes teachers are one of the best parts of society. They are now, unfortunately, being asked to play more and more a substitute parenting role. For those who don't not know, there is a series of offerings these days called "Adulting Classes". Students are showing up to university so woefully underprepared and ready to survive, that they need to be taught "how to live" before they can be taught "how or what to think" and thrive.

I would wonder, however, how many of your colleagues approach their profession with the same level of dedication, professionalism and competence you describe?My experience, again, is that this is an individual quality - and not necessarily something that is learned. What I have seen in higher education would put you as an exception and not the rule. And if they do have these qualities, how does the union block them from innovating and improving student results?

Thomas Sowell has a lot to say on this theme. I highly encourage you to read more on his studies and findings in looking into the subject. This is only one of his books on it - there are others.

Case in point, read in the Thomas Sowell books about Charter Schools in high poverty areas. The students coming from the same environments score astronomically higher on testing, get into better schools, and thus become better contributing members of society. It has little or nothing to do with their skin color or family situation. It has to do the students attitude and self-belief, and with teachers who are motivated (and rewarded) to make the students into the best they can be. It simply works. That is why the teacher's unions are fighting it. Competition will expose the failure to deliver results - in apple-to-apple comparisons.

The teacher unions are blocking competition, diversity of thought, innovation, and thus preparation and development of their customers (there students). They are supporting the teaching of revisionist (false) history and false biology and false _______ (insert snowflake topic here). That's not OK and needs to stop. It's one thing to say, here are 2 opinions on the topic, here is the data to support these positions, you decide. It's another to force feed snowflake content down the throats of students who never asked for it.

There is a beautiful saying on this theme: "A Baccalaureate student tells you how they feel about it. The Master's student says "here is the data" to support my position.

The fact that the teacher's unions are becoming so vocal - only confirms how much of the problem they are for the rest of us. Making demands? Really. I think the best response for those demands is G.T.F.O. - and we will find someone or some group that wants to help students.

To your point, in the end, it is the relationship between the teacher and student that makes the magic happen. The point here is to give the teachers every opportunity and tool they need to do that better... something that the teacher's unions are NOT doing.

The commies have indeed infiltrated the teacher's unions. Infiltration unions is what they do.

https://ia802306.us.archive.org/4/items/CommunistInfiltrationInTheUnitedStatesItsNatureAndHowToCombatIt/CIUS2d_text.pdf

Communist Infiltration in the United States, Its Nature, and How to Combat It

Yes, Regan. When the union thinks it's more powerful than the President - the President needs to help them with that understanding.

FAA/air controllers are federal employees. The only major group of teachers who work for the federal government are on military bases (DODEA). Public school teachers are municipal employees (there are some state employed teachers, mostly for correctional facilities or special programs).

If you don't like what your public schools are doing, look at your local and state school boards first. Federal involvement is a distant third.

It's hard to keep track of it all. Thanks for chiming in!

I had this discussion in a previous life. I wanted to stop paying the "union dues", because: (a) It was a lot of money that I saw no benefit in paying; and (2) It was never presented as "an option" - it was "required". It would have been easier to negotiate with the Russian Mafia.

Every single public school teacher? Maybe not. The 10,000 + of NJEA members who were given paid time off if they attended the pussy hat rally in D.C.? Most definitely enemies of conservatism, and tools of the dem party.

Look Fat, Corn Pop was a teacher...

President Reagan fired the air traffic controllers who refused to come back from a strike.

Thanks for sharing - the openness to new ideas is where good things happen.

I say put Thomas Sowell in charge of the reforms.

If we want to be fair, we could say - make a test - and see if they pass! That would be interesting...

I do believe that there are a lot of GOOD teachers - who are caught in the circles of Dante's Inferno - sometimes called the Teacher's Union. Transformation or disruption of the Teacher's Union might be as easy as get all the teachers at a certain level to vote for who THEY want to lead them... not the local mob boss.