NEA THWARTS NEEDED CHANGES IN EDUCATION

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following letter to the editor from Brian Sirimaturos was recently published in the Maneater, the student newspaper at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Sirimaturos is grandson of Mr. and Mrs. James W. Hahn of Cape Girardeau.

While our nation's leaders battle over the rights to set the vision for tomorrow, issues such as balancing the budget and conflicts abroad have dominated the media, overshadowing perhaps the most important issues -- education. The nation's future lies within our classrooms, yet Americans have become complacent over the quality of education. The number of quality students being turned out by our public education system is declining at a frightening rate. At Mizzou, we witness first-hand the number of students who are ill-prepared to take true university courses and who lack the basics in reading, writing and arithmetic. Thirteen percent of the nation's college students need to take remedial classes on things they should have learned in high school. The state of America's educational system is in need of a major overhaul, and although the majority of Americans are in favor of doing something about it, there remains one-all powerful organization that opposes such a notion. Say hello to the National Education Association.

U.S. News and World Report recently documented that "teacher unions have become the single most influential force in public education, their impact felt in classrooms across the country." We can thank the NEA for producing below-average citizens who cannot compete on a global scale in both the classrooms and the work place. How do they do this, you ask? With its deep pockets and being one of the most powerful groups in the nation, the NEA produces and protects incompetent teaches who educate our children. How can we expect to produce skillful and well-rounded citizens if the people teaching our children are, let's say, less than qualified?

Most of us can recall only a handful of teachers who we remember as quality teachers -- those skilled in the area that they were teaching AND skilled in the ability to teach. Some of our university professors could use a few lessons in this.

In California, for example, teachers must pass what is called the CBEST test, which ensures that those in front of our classrooms have attained at least a 10th-grade level in reading, writing and math. The results -- only 35 percent of African Americans, 51 percent of Latinos, 59 percent of Asians and 80 percent of white test takers passed the first time. The results were not much better after teachers who failed the first time were given the test two, three, four different times. The NEA's response? They have filed an amicus brief in support of a suit against the CBEST test stating that it is -- what else -- racist.

The NEA consistently uses its money and "industrial labor tactics" to protect the jobs of America's teachers, which is not wrong but what about protecting our children from a poor education. What the NEA is really protecting are the vast number of poorly qualified teachers who make it almost impossible for qualified teachers to get in. The NEA is opposed to any real standard that would ensure quality educators because they know if any such standard were to exist, many teachers would lose their jobs.

Problem teachers stay rooted in classrooms because -- of tenure and seniority -- staples of the NEA. Teachers are not evaluated based on their skills but on how long they have been around and who was first hired. Principals find it harder to fire sub-par teachers because of union contracts. The amount of red tape and bureaucracy that the NEA has created has also cannibalized millions of dollars which could have been used to improve education. Jaime Escalante, the famous math teacher portrayed in the movie "Stand and Deliver" said after being run out of town by fellow unionized teachers, "I thought the union was going to focus on how to improve our skills. But they're more interested in politics than kids."

How and where do we start combating the dumbing down of our schools? Initiatives like school choice would help. Let's privatize schools and let these "businesses" recruit top-notch teachers with the money they receive from tuition. A voucher system will allow the middle- and lower-class families send their children to these schools.

More importantly, we need to increase pay for our teachers -- our qualified teachers. Get rid of the single pay system that the NEA supports. Let's reward teachers based on their accomplishments and skills. Shouldn't better, more qualified teachers get paid more than others? Set up a "free agent" system like in professional sports where top athletes are recruited by teams that want to win and become more successful. This system will let teachers market their skills and receive money they deserve.

The citizens of the United States need to stand up this election year and make education a part of the issue. Let's do it now before it is too late.