Presidential candidates ignore education, but one NYC school holds promise of a better nation

One major issue not discussed at last night's presidential debate was education.

It dominated the 2000 presidential debates. It was often cited in 2004 as to whether President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act was doing was it touted as accomplishing.

No matter the economic cycle, a good and adquate education will determine whether a child and their family can weather any economic storm and safeguard themselves for a lifetime by moving up the ladder toward the American Dream.

The following commentary by a New York City teacher today in The New York Times is shocking and exciting. The writer cited a model in which teachers finally earn what the good ones contribute to society and young lives.


http://lessonplans.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/well-paid-teachers-im-on-board/

At this charter school, teachers make more than the principal. The person in charge administratively makes $90,000 a year. There is no vice principal. In fact, bureaucratic staffing extras and expenses are eliminated.

Resources are focused on the classroom of middle school children failing academically and the teacher's salary.

I hope you are sitting down when you read the following salary figure.

The teacher makes $125,000 a year.

And bonuses of $20,000 are offered for superior performance by professionals who already are the top of their fields and heights of their consciences for the least among us.

Finally, someone has found the model that works and corrects society's priorities as to which profession should earn how much for what it gives to society. Wall Street CEOs -- who make $50 million over five years -- represent a societal standard turned upside down.

In Nashville, the whole school system is failing because of cowardly decisionmakers with narrow experiences. It is months from state control under the No Child Left Behind Act. And teacher salaries are insulting.

The kind of education miracle and justice growing in one charter school in New York City is not possible in Nashville with the kind of leadership of chamber of commerce officials and Damn-Near-Republican Democrats in elective office.

A lot of prayers and hopes are contained and being nurtured in that charter school. Again, it is good teachers who make the biggest difference in lives, and they should be recognized financially for that truth. And a good, solid education is the best economic policy any presidential candidate can cite and push -- recession or not.