| | Better than nothing, but only fair. Like Christie in New Jersey, whom many of us admire, they do not question the belief that schools are the government's business.
- Require teachers to major in the subjects they teach. Superficial. An exam or a minimum number of courses (perhaps letting an exam substitute for part or all of the coursework requirement) would accomplish what is valuable about this suggestion. Besides, it seems to contradict their next suggestion, fast-track credentialing. If people have work experience that would make them good teachers, they probably didn't learn it in college.
- Hold principals responsible for violence. What does this mean? If it means personally liable, I doubt that this would fly legally. Make their jobs depend on holding violence down? Sounds better, but if that's what they want, they ought to come out and say it.
- Cut the Department of Education by half. The comeback to this is too obvious to need mentioning.
Vouchers? Yes. Don't require teachers to join unions? Are they in fact required? If they are and the rule changed, how many would drop out?
The current debate on education, including this clip, is reminiscent of what went on in eastern Europe from the 60s on. They tried halfhearted little compromises with capitalism such as small private businesses with a limit of five employees or accounting methods that aped profit/loss, always insisting that socialism was sacred and beyond question. Finally they gave up and admitted that the dogma itself, not its execution, was the problem.
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