Judging by responses to a recent NPR report on a lawsuit to make it easier to fire California teachers, many members of the public seem to see public school teachers as a species of self-sacrificing missionaries dedicated to acting as surrogate parents to every child who enters their classroom.

What do you think?
Firing Teachers Won't Improve U.S. Schools

The state of Kansas thinks that teachers are slackers who don't deserve due process rights. They are taking away the ability for a teacher to earn tenure.

Hello there,

I came across this very interesting site and I wonder if it could be useful in this instance. If I understand it correctly then it should be ... unless of course the powers that be stamp on it - but the crowd sourcing will out!

www.icitizen.com

We are unlikely to get anything like this in S A for sometime when it comes to government, but the application for innovative and smart companies would be an amazing leap into the future,and it won't be long before somebody intelligent starts to use and develop it and or add it to 'nursery' applications as they currently stand.

How difficult is it to start a school in the USA?

Cheers and thanks

It's actually not that hard in some states. Many of these schools do a substandard job of education.

Charter schools do not have a good track record of improving education. While there are a few successful ones, those are rare. Many have failed. I worked at a charter school years ago. My daughter also worked for one. Both of those schools are no longer in existence. They failed, like many charter schools have.

As for starting a school it is very difficult and expensive. It presents many challenging social, legal, transportation and technical issues. After all that there is the actual teaching and educational concerns to consider.

Unless you plan to dedicated every waking hour of your life to starting a new school I would not recommend it.

I agree, Craig58. Years ago, I was given an opportunity for seed money to start a school. After careful consideration, I chose not to pursue it. The challenges are considerable and the chance for success are slim, unless you are willing to devote your life to the school.

Maeve, your points on improving education are spot-on.