Great topic!
I'm biased though...I have many great teachers in my family and know how hard they work and how much they love their craft--teaching.
At the same time, I'm extremely critical of the American educational system. I don't think that K-12 public school teachers are paid enough. Considering the amount of work, pressure and emotional problems/issues teachers have to deal with on a daily basis, teachers are underpaid. If we want to attract, retain, and motivate the best and the brightest, we need to raise the starting salaries of teachers to be competitive with other professions.
I think "tenure"--a lifetime contract for teachers, should be done away with including faculty at the college level. Some will think that is sacrilegious for me to even suggest that, but I see how tenure can bias a system in favor of some over others and it typically works against AA faculty. Teachers should be evaluated in an equitable way and retained based on meritorious behavior. "Good" teachers will get rewarded and "bad" teachers will not. A formal and legal review should be made mandatory though prior to firing any teacher.
The evaluation process for teachers should be made uniform nationally and not regulated by the state they work in.
The current curriculum needs to be overhauled drastically to fit the educational needs of our modern and vastly diverse student population. America needs a curriculum that is more advanced in math and science and one that is interesting and will keep the attention of our youth. More business/economics courses taught in K-12 would also generate an early entrepreneurial spirit among students, which would have the potential of stimulating the economy.
To be more globally and nationally competitive in the job market, compulsory education should start with preschool and the school year should be year round with a short summer break of maybe one or two weeks only.
Public education should be free and should include electives i.e., artistic expression and physical education.
Hiring and retention-- each school district should have a diversity plan whereby it becomes mandatory that teaching faculty be racially diverse.
Classroom sizes should be smaller and this should be made mandatory. If more schools are needed due to the smaller class size, then sufficient funding should be available to expand the infrastructure.
Now, this conversation should lead to discipline and issues of violence in our schools both on the part of teachers and students.
How should we address the disorder in today's schools?