Regulations and rules on teachers are a major part of the problem. Take the story recently of a Mr. Conti, a man that taught in Westfield High School in New York. You can link to the article under his name here but suffice it to say, Mr. Conti resigned from his job as a teacher after 27 years of service, saying simply that his profession was dead. No longer could he actually make a meaningful impact on his students; the regulations and rules that were forced on him as a teacher had reached a breaking point and his abilities to actually move kids forward was ceasing to a halt.

Mr. Conti’s story is not unique. Many teachers today throw their arms up in disgust over the countless restrictions they have on educating their kids, namely being forced to teach, simply to have their kids pass state and federally executed tests; rules that limit their creative abilities within the classroom in the interest of “safety” and “political correctness”, regulations that tell teachers what their curriculum should be, and worse yet, outdated materials for students that limit the scope of a teacher’s ability to communicate clear ideals in their own tone and way. This has to change.

Worse yet, today we face a very dangerous state of affairs with teachers who have been in the public education system with mixed or poor results and are not held accountable for their skills. Public school systems today are known to have holding areas for teachers that are suspended from working in the classroom, but because of tenure, can maintain their jobs. Teachers who lack the heart or spirit to teach hold onto their jobs because of a safety net that they are guaranteed through tough union bargaining. This deprives school districts of new teachers that could enter the profession or worse yet, deprive needy school districts of necessary revenue flow to actually go towards buying new books, building and rebuilding structures, and moving schools into the 21st century. Like medicine, teaching is a vocation that should be done because the interest is not simply the betterment of oneself, but rather similar to the Hippocratic oath that doctors take upon entering their profession. Each teacher performs his or her job with the desire to HELP and improve the lives of each person that he or she touches; once that desire no longer exists, they should exit the profession in the interest of the children.

This puts us in a wild juxtaposition; the state is letting our kids down by forcing massive regulations on schools and teachers because they feel it’s in their best interest and yet the unions who mobilize teachers let our kids down by not being responsible for their skills and devotion to their craft. One could argue that if teachers had the resources to teach and the regulations removed, the statistics would swing in a wonderful new direction. Yet, it must be said that we live in a time where with a rising China, a rising India, and countless other rising countries, that our first focus should not be on the teachers; it should be on the students. How do we make sure our students are getting the best education possible? This is not a slight at teachers in any sense. I believe that great teachers ought to be treated as champions, paid generously, and compensated well for a career that is not always rewarding and often extremely difficult.

It’s time that the public education system start examining specific ways to solve its crisis in education and they can start by looking to the success of numerous Charter Schools that have been popping up all over the country in the last 20 years. The Harlem Village Academy in New York City is a wonderful example of a Charter School that has served the needs of a specific community and has autonomy to make decisions that impact students in a positive way without having to kowtow to government bureaucrats who think they know what’s best for every child. Simply put, public schools should not be a cookie cutter, one size fits all model. Different children have different needs and different skill sets. Different skill sets require a vast pallet of teachers from various disciplines. Our leaders should be encouraging and putting forward laws today that give teachers more flexibility in the classroom, they should begin re-allocating administrative costs directly into the classroom; paper work, overhead, and the bureaucracy of school districts is a huge drain on the dollars necessary to actually educate our kids. If we simply move those dollars directly into the schools and let teachers make more critical and consequential decisions, we are one step closer to solving our crisis.

Moreover, we must do what some state leaders are starting to do, as Governor Christie of New Jersey has done recently with the Newark Schools: compromise. We must begin compromising on how to reward the teachers that really care and get the job done; compensate them better for success in the classroom and make them even compete to have success. Our country is built on the essence of competition; we strive to be better than the person or organization next to us because we see it in us to be successful and have a positive impact on the people around us. There’s no reason why we can’t apply this to the system now. And it goes without saying that teachers who are failing their kids should no longer be teaching.

Enough is enough. It’s a dual headed a battle; one with the government and one with unions, and it’s going to take a very loud public voice to swing the pendulum, or the system that we know today will continue to decline and the next generation of Americans will be worse off. Let’s speak with a loud, positive voice in affirmation that kids are our future and that they deserve the best possible educative experience there can be.