Waiting for Superman

I got a chance to see Waiting for Superman last weekend, and a few things really jumped out at me.

First, teacher unions are bad. There were a group of teachers from D.C. Public Schools in the documentary who were protesting Michelle Rhee's (the Superintendent of D.C. public Schools) proposal for higher pay instead of tenure. Why do teachers feel as though they are entitled to their jobs? Teachers should have to "work" to keep their jobs just like any other professional.

Another issue worth noting was the "dance of the lemons." Bad teachers (the lemons) are passed from school to school until a principal gets the mediocre one of the group. In the state of NY, there's a place called "the rubber room" where teachers who needed reform were sent to complete their reform program. The teachers show up for 6 hours per day and get to do (essentially) whatever they want. They can play cards, read, listen to their ipod, text, eat, etc. And while they're there, they get paid their full salaries! This seems like a giant waste of taxpayer dollars.

Overall, I thought this documentary was very accurate and raised a lot of good points about the state of education today. It was very depressing to see kids "stuck" in schools that are bound to fail, and the only way out is to get in a charter school (which has a limited number of seats available). Most of the kids in the movie did not get into the charter school. There has to be a better way!