How You, a Billionaire, Could Reform Education

[PurgedVoter]

Just take or make one school and do an amazing job.

While doing it, sure, you can crack a few eggs, but if your system does not take decent care of the employees that work the system, then all you are is a lie. If you want me to believe that you support education, don't stomp on the results of education. You can play with the culture and tenure, but if someone dedicated to your system cannot live well, send kids to college and retire well, then you are evil. You don't even believe in the results. Keep in mind while you play with tenure, that communities and states often play politics and that teachers need to be able to be honest. Part of real education is intellectual honesty. Censoring a great teacher is a worse crime than keeping a bad one. So when you play with tenure, you are playing with fire. Be careful.

If part of your long term process is high pressure on teachers and rapid turnover, then you either need very early retirement options or amazing success benefits. If you want to attract good people in the long run, make sure that teachers can have good lives. Keep in mind that without obvious, honest and amazing results, a high pressure, rapid turnover environment means you are just a nasty business manager with no belief in the future. If you have no belief in bright futures for the majority, you have no business in education. None at all.

If you want to make a new educational culture, then start a private school from scratch. Show us, honestly, how your school is better.

Here is what you do to reform education.

1. Pay for a school.
2. Just one. Don't cherry pick your students, and don't cast out the inconvenient ones. We already have lots of examples of how that makes for a great school while leaving other children in the dark. If that is your goal and method, then you don't really have anything to add to the conversation on education.
3. Keep the operational costs down. Keep good records of costs. Don't lie or cheat or rig the books if you really want a good result. Don't take buildings and utilities from the state and hide your expenses. Account for everything.
4. Maintain a safe and healthy environment for workers and students. Pay employees enough to be able to afford decent health care, retire decently and send a few children to college.
5. Pick an area that has always had problems. Lot's of them around, make it a good honest test.
6. Have independent monitoring going on. since this is an experiment. Keep the data even if it fails. Since this effects real children, keep the data open while protecting identities.
7. Do an amazing job. Have college professors praise your product. Get lots of evidence by winning competitions, and having colleges wanting your product. Don't lie or polish the truth, get results.
8. Hand it back to the School Board and State as a cheaper method of doing a better job. Help them produce a culture that can maintain the miracle you have made.


After this is done, process one more school at a time. If you do this, even if you fail, we will know more about the educational process. Maybe you can get it right the next time. We have quite a few examples of educators doing wonders with their methods, only to find that when their methods are used by others, the results are weak if not poor. Unless you can come up with a system that is show to be viable in other peoples hands, your reform will remain less than historic. If you keep good records, your attempt may have great historical importance even if it is a failure.

That's all you have to do. If your product is so much better, then people will want to switch. Otherwise, just donate some money to improve a few areas. Give some decent jobs to low income families. At least you will have a few results and will have actually helped some.

What you billionaires are doing right now, is wholesale destruction. Running other peoples businesses without a clear plan. This only makes sense if you are Machiavellian, blinded by narcissism, or deluded.

Right now, the evidence points to all three.

[Demeter]

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