Today the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a typical story about the poor teachers and the poor students in Milwaukee. How dare they be required to teach things like reading and mathematics, and how dare the students actually be tested to see if they’ve learned these skills!

The story reports on a meeting of 100 Milwaukee Public Schools employees who wanted to cry about conditions in the classroom. Their biggest gripe appears to be the lack of funding for arts and trades (carpentry, plumbing, etc.). The meeting was sponsored by Network for Social Justice and the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.

The article says:

Teachers face daily pressures to teach for various tests and accommodate cuts in arts and library budgets, many participants said.

I say don’t teach for the test… just teach children reading, writing, math, and science, and they will do fine on the tests. JUST TEACH. This myth of “teaching for the test” is one that we should not allow to be repeated. The tests are necessary to see if the teachers are actually teaching… how else do we know if the children are learning the basics if we don’t test them???

If there is a school funding problem in Milwaukee, it is because of overpaid teachers and a bloated administration system. If salaries and benefits were brought back in line with reality, and if the unnecessary administration employees were let go, there would be much more funding for the “extras” the teachers want.

The teachers say it’s all about the kids, but it’s really not. If they wanted these kids to really have more opportunities at school, they would agree to have their inflated pay and benefits reduced to reasonable levels. As things currently stand, of course there’s no money for fun classes because it’s all being spent on overpaying teachers who teach the basics.

This statement shows that the teachers are, in fact, capable of understanding some of the economics surrounding education:

Some participants expressed frustration over district mandates that they cut budgets at the school level while positions are added at the central office to address the district’s status as a District Identified for Improvement, a sign that it’s falling short of federal benchmarks.

Now all they have to do is look at their own situations, admit that as teachers they’re overpaid, and also admit that there is a trade-off that must be made. They can continue to be overpaid and have no “extras” in their schools. Or they (their union) can agree to have their pay and benefits brought down to a reasonable level, and there will be money left in the budget for the extras they desire.

The problem in the schools is not lack of funding. Not by far. Milwaukee Public Schools has a bigger budget than ever before, yet enrollment is 20% lower than it was just 10 years ago. If MPS was a private business, it would have been closed years ago due to the gross incompetence of the employees.