The main thing I blame the teacher's union for is the resistance to change. Personally, I don't care if Japan or Germany's teachers are unionized. Fine, not concerned about them, my kids will go to school in the UNITED STATES.
The Teacher's Union (more specifically the NEA) is a POLITICAL group, not a union that actually cares what the output is (generally speaking, I am quite aware that there are exceptions to the rule).
The NEA fights against any and all changes to the status quo of education in this country. They want teachers to be paid highly no matter how poorly the student perform. They are generally against standardized tests. They are generally against paying based on performance.
In this case I don't think that it's a Union problem, it's a POLITICAL problem. Education is a politcal football. Everyone wants to carry it, but everyone drops it right before the touchdown. The Democrats and Union leadership see it as opportunity to gain seats and power by claiming that there are all these problems, but only fix the cracks, leaving the gaping holes alone. "Let's ban TAG!", "Sensitvity training for all!", "No more football or cheerleading as those who don't make the team have their ego's bruised." "No more baseball because Title 9 states we then have to have a softball team." Meanwhile the graduates cna't hardly spell, read, read a map, know where the United States is, know what the capital of Vermont is, know that the Mississippi is the 3rd longest river in the world, know how to solve x+y=z equations, can't even figure out how to make proper change for a $20 bill. There is little to no econmic education. There "seems" to be even less civic education. No, we're too busy blaiming President Bush for "allow" the inner city schools to be over run with drugs. We're to busy sueing gun makers and the NRA for the proliferation of guns on campus (which I thought were gun free zones... huh. Imagine that... the only ones following the rules are victims, but I digress).
I've had teachers that made a lasting impression on me in both ways, good and bad. I've had teachers that were the most sexist people on earth (a girl in class got an A no matter what and a boy had to work his a$$ off for a C or a B and nothing could be done about it). I've had teachers that encouraged us to do more, see more, be more outside of the text. I've had teachers that were a mix of good and bad.
It costs about 1-1/2 cents to make a Penny.... yep the day of the $.01 have passed. Time to update.
I would love to see a $1 and a $2 coin. It's one of the few things that I beleive Canada has an advantage over the US in.
Leadership has been sorely lacking. There was a few glimmers of possibility in the past few years, but really the last "leader" we had as a nation was Reagan. I don't see anybody in Congress stepping up. Few of the presidential candidates have the potential, and the two that do on the Demonrat side won't even get 5% of the vote, combined. The Repubichairican's have a bit more promise, but still no standouts yet (though Thompson may change that, we'll see).
