Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Educational Decay 12-26-24

In the 1800s, education was home-schooled. Every home had a Bible and everyone was taught to read the Bible. Children went to work early and learned math to deal with money. Writing was taught in families and used to send letters through the Postal Service. Books and pamphlets were read to allow the expansion of useable knowledge. Wealthy families were able to send their children to college. In Rural areas communities built school houses and paid college educated teachers to work in one-room school houses. Older students helped teach the younger students how to read, write and do math.   

In 1840, Catholics in New York City established their own system of schools to provide a religious education. Catholic schools and hospitals were established in all States, but began to decline after 1962. The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, began on October 11, 1962. This resulted in a decline in religious vocations. Religious orders began to sell their hospitals and close their schools. This resulted in massive increases in school and hospital operating costs in the US since the 1970s.

By 1850, the Industrial Revolution had brought many families from farms to cities to work in factories. This allowed schools to have larger populations in their schools and allowed the separation of grades.  Most public schools in the United States charged tuition until 1850–1870, when most states transitioned to free public schools funded by property taxes. The United States had a large supply of teachers, with 2.7 teachers per 100 students in public schools and 2.9 per 100 in all schools.

By 1900, most cities had public schools and the curriculum was basic reading, writing and math.

In 1955, there were 400,000 members of public employee unions in the U.S. By the 1970s, the number had risen tenfold, to more than 4 million.

The sudden advent of public-sector unionism was partly a product of legal changes.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order allowing federal workers to unionize, and some states and cities followed suit. But, in many cases, it was only militant—and illegal—action by teachers and other public-sector workers that forced politicians to change laws. The rise of public-sector unions was closely tied to other social movements. Martin Luther King Jr. endorsed a unionization fight by Philadelphia teachers in 1965. That same year, municipal hospital workers in New York City—most of them African American—organized in a campaign that drew on the traditions of both private-sector unionism and the Civil Rights movement. And, of course, at the time of his death, King was in Memphis to support a strike by public-sector sanitation workers. The feminist movement was also part of the activism among public workers, particularly in the traditionally female profession of teaching. Unionization was an obvious route toward the goal of equal pay for women’s work, and public-sector unions were—and still are—more likely to be led by women than their private-sector counterparts. In the 1960s, strikes by teachers and other employees were generally illegal. But that didn’t stop them. In 1968 alone, strikes closed schools in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Albuquerque, and Montgomery County, Maryland. In Florida, nearly half the teachers across the state—teachers responsible for a half million students—walked out for three weeks. Beyond seeking higher pay and the recognition of their unions, the teachers’ strikes called for smaller class sizes and better conditions for student learning. Despite the decline of the broader labor movement since then, teachers continue to fight that same fight.

https://daily.jstor.org/the-rise-of-teachers-unions/

Right to Work Laws protect Teachers’ rights to refuse to pay union dues. AFSCME reaffirmed that all public employees have a constitutional right to choose for themselves whether to pay any union dues or fees. You can opt out of GAE dues by filling out a form, printing it and mailing it to the union.

Trump will need to publish the Federally required public school curriculum content to reverse the Decay. States will be required to comply. It should require ensuring that students bring their reading, writing and math skills to “grade level” and emphasize “Occupational” curricula in high schools and colleges. It may also require BS degrees for math teachers and BS degrees in whatever they teach like Chemistry, Physics, History, Biology and other subjects. 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

 

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