P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

I think the problem with schools is not too many incentives but too few. Because of tenure, teachers' unions, and the fact that teachers generally aren't observed in their classrooms, they can do whatever they want in class.

The simple facts are these: We need higher standards in our schools, and we need to hold teachers accountable for the outcomes in their classrooms.

The countries who do the best in international comparisons, whether it's Finland or Japan, Denmark or Singapore, do well because they have professional teachers who are respected, and they also have family and community which support learning.

I'm a very big public school advocate.

In America the schools have become too permissive, the kids now are controlling the schools, the tail is wagging the dog. We've got to make a change there and get it back to where the teachers have control of the classrooms.

I had a public school education - 3,000 kids when I was there. And there were a lot of teachers who would just sit there. You'd come in and sign your name and the teacher would just sit there at the head of the class and you would literally just have to stay in your seat for 40 minutes and that was the only thing you'd have to do in class.

The single most important factor in determining [student] achievement is not the color of skin or where they come from. It is not who their parents are or how much money they have. It is who their teacher is.

I became a teacher all right. I wanted to become a teacher because I had a misconception about it. I didn't know that I'd be going into - when I first became a high school teacher in New York, that I'd be going into a battle zone, and no one prepared me for that.

Teachers alone can't educate young people.

There are far too many ineffective teachers and, in particular, far too many truly terrible teachers who are harming children and poisoning the system.

Texas is a national leader in education reform and student achievement. Through our college- and career-ready standards and assessments, strong school accountability, and a focus on educator development, we have created an education system that prepares our students for success after graduation.

School teachers, taking them by and large, are probably the most ignorant and stupid class of men in the whole group of mental workers.

In my mind, there is no reason public school reform should be a partisan issue.

One of the problems we have is children are not in school long enough in the day and during the year.

Teachers themselves know if there's a colleague who can't keep control or keep the interest of their class, it affects the whole school.

Instead of just giving lip service to improving our schools, I will actually put the kids first and the teachers union behind in giving our kids better teachers, better options and better choices for a better future.

Cameras in classrooms are no substitute for greater authority by parents and teachers.

Teaching is the profession that makes all other professions possible and yet we do not treat teachers as professionals.

When people lose faith in a system as they have in the public school system, they no longer want to support it.

For many years we have spent a great deal of effort and money on school reform. Yet where are we today?

School is where you go between when your parents can’t take you and industry can’t take you.

In public schools, classes are bloated - it's ridiculous.

When you have teachers saying, 'I don't have enough time for hands-on activities,' we need to rethink the way we do education.

We have become unable to think of better education except in terms of more complex schools and of teachers trained for ever longer periods.

I grew up going to public school, and they were huge public schools. I went to a school that had 3,200 kids, and I had grade school classes with 40-some kids. Discipline was rigid. Most of the learning was rote. It worked.