I understand what you are saying, but..
There are problems with your argument regarding schools.
For example. A few years back the state of Maine was among the highest average amount spent per student in the country. They had one of the lowest ratios of students to teachers, yet on average it had among the worst performing school systems in the country.
The money was being poorly spent. All those teachers hired to give the great student/teacher ratio came at a cost. The quality of the teachers hired fell as the priority was on hiring bodies to fill quotas, not hiring good teachers. School system bureaucrats were making exorbitant salaries while negotiating agreements with teachers unions that left them nearly powerless to fire incompetent teachers.
The new governor flat lined state education spending, they were already spending plenty, and he has focused on better accountability for how the money is being spent. There are literally dozens of states, thousands of cities and towns and millions of parents that need to come to this realization.
If teachers are having to buy supplies their school systems priorities are messed up. Why parents have tolerated such behavior from elected and unelected school bureaucrats is beyond me, but blaming companies that have to deal with, reeducate and train, the graduates of these diploma mills is misdirected anger.
Your last 3 sentences say a lot. "Innovative and creative companies (and individuals) are alive and well. So are good teachers. We as citizens need to notice and reward all the above with our support. "
So I ask. Why are teachers unions against annual teacher reviews and merit pay? Why is it so hard for cities like NY to fire bad teachers that they pay dozens of them to sit around all day and do nothing because they are harmful to students. This mob of chair warmers includes teachers that have assaulted and sexually abused students. Yet the city cannot fire them.
We all agree that the good teachers should earn more money and not have to pay for supplies. We SHOULD all agree that bad teachers need to go. We SHOULD all agree the bad school administrators need to go.
The fact is our kids are better off being one of 30 students to a class with quality teachers at the head of those classes instead of one of 20 students to a class with nothing better than a warm body filling the teachers seat.
Sadly we have just warm bodies for teachers in too many of the nations classrooms. The overall poor performance of our students is proof of that.
