Tom Brokaw Asked These Questions About Education On Meet the Press Today

“MR. BROKAW: Let me quickly move to a couple of other issues that are of great importance to the American people in the closing moments that we have.

Today, your senator is speaking by satellite to the American Federation of Teachers. The No Child Left Behind Act, which has been controversial for a variety of reasons, now there's a bipartisan effort within the House to remove the accountability section in which you have a national standard by which all schools can be measured. Just yesterday I heard Bill Gates, who's deeply involved in education reform in this country, say, "No Child Left Behind has not been perfect, but it has been phenomenal for two reasons. It's pointed out that education in America desperately needs reform, and that accountability is an important part of that." Does Senator Obama support the idea of keeping accountability as part of No Child Left Behind?”

My answer to this question: The No Child Left Behind Act has taking education to new lows in this country. If we are going to talk accountability then let’s start with school administration. Administrative pay is now reaching the same levels as Corporation pay but teachers and students are the ones paying the cost. If you want to improve education I say you clear house of all of the top paid administrative staff and put the money back in the classrooms along with the creativity of how we educate our children. Teachers go into the field of education to teach but until you take educators and educational staff off welfare wages the level of education will continue to decrease in this country. Administrative employees don’t even know in most cases what their employees do in the classroom and if they do care to visit then they clearly don’t understand how to educate anyone because they have not been trained in the field. Giving Administrative staffers two or three hundred thousand dollar salaries will not improve the level of education in this country. The money can be better spent on students and people who work with students on a daily bases.

“MR. BROKAW: Senator McCaskill, I've talked to a number of educational reformers across the country, some of them card-carrying Democrats, self-described. They all say, quietly because they're afraid to do it publicly, the Democratic Party has to break its bonds with the teachers' union in this country. It can't move forward as long as the teachers continue to have, effectively, veto power over educational policy.”

My answer to this question: Good idea Mr. Brokaw let’s get our information from people who don’t know the first thing about education to dismantle the process so our children don’t have a chance to achieve. Better yet let’s build more prisons because without a public education system that is where most of our children will end up.

“MR. BROKAW: Do you think they have too much power?”

My answer to this question: The American Federation of Teachers does not begin to have the power that the Republican Party has over how we educate our children in this country. When school board members feel that they can cross an AFT picket line and no one will report on it clearly the republican controlled media also has more power. It is about time that elected officials started to listen to those that are in the classrooms everyday of their life. If teachers and educational staff had more say then the system would become one of the best in the world but at this point in time all of the control is held by administrative staffers who care more about endless meeting then the people they serve. Administrative staffers also have control of lobbyist who buys the votes of local politicians so that educators and educational staff receive two or three percent wage increase while administration receives 11% salaries increases. The republican controlled new media always give credit for any achievements to administration even though it is the direct result of all the hard work by the teachers and educational staff which effects how student succeed. New idea let’s down size the administration and use all the money we save to buy new laptops and advanced technology for students and to improve wages for people who work directly with students. We could also save money in the future by not having to build new prisons for all the students that we educate. Quality educators might come back to the field of education if they did not have to live on welfare wages.