@ john from office

Don't hold your breath for a credible attribution on that one!

One area of education in New York state that gets little-to-no attention and funding is educating the gifted and talented. We need training for teachers, screening to identify gifted kids, and appropriate, challenging programs for these kids to keep them engaged and help them fulfill their potential. Gifted kids have among the highest drop-out rates because they are so bored they see no value in attending school.

Why do we not hear anything about the principals' accountability in the schools? Why is it just teachers who need the support, teachers who are at fault?

jgarbuz from Queens
where did you get that factoid??

Have you ever seen these "dads"

I was a tutor in a Brooklyn public elementary school after school program for several months and I was appalled at the total disorganization. A lot of money was being spent on materials, but the kids did not benefit from it because the classroom situation was completely chaotic.

i completely agree w/ jgarbuz,john from office and carolita.......family is the most important factor in a child's education and it's not stated enough by guests like this.
the single 18 yo "mother" who tells her kid to shut the f&%! up in the supermarket while filling up her cart w/ 5 1/2 gallon bottles of cherry coke, 8 bags of doritos and a huge bag of store-made fried chicken is not willing or able to help their children w/ their education. i see it in the 'hood all day, everyday

Carolita: Ha! Love it. :)

I like that King is discussing the low support aspect of these educational laws.

I also like that the caller talks about teachers leaving. As a teacher who left the profession after 5 years under the high accountability/low support environment, I think it matters very much.

One way of improving education, is to give fathers more custody and domicile rights in divorce. Kids raised by single fathers tend to do better in school than those raised by single mothers.

How is "successful" defined when applied to his charter school network?

What about art, physical education, history, language, music, extracurricular activities, and an environment of less stress, where learning is enjoyable?

Shouldn't the State Education Commissioner be the chief advocate for levels of funding that providing educational excellence requires? Shouldn't Mr. King therefore be decrying the lack of fulfillment of the Campaign For Fiscal Equity settlement, and calling on the Governor and NYS legislature to pass a millionaires tax in order to provide that funding, plus more? None of his desires can be accomplished on the cheap.

Does John King belong to the Arne Duncan-Michael Bloomberg-Michele Rhee school of educational destruction? "Improve performance by cutting budgets, imposing mindless tests, and privatizing."

I find this man very impressive. I would like to see the day Brian does not see the need to identify the ethnic and or racial group of a guest. Racism from the liberal side. He is just a smart person.

Broken homes produce broken children.

Every kid I've seen that does well in school has parents that do their homework with them when they come home from work. Yes, working parents that come home from work, tired, and help their kids with their homework.

So, I say, maybe include a new line in marriage vows: "I promise to help any children we might have with their homework after school when I come home from work."

Maybe even provide a marriage coach, at City Hall, to review new couples on what they're facing. And for unmarried mothers/couples, a child-rearing coach could give them a pep talk along the same lines in the hospital before they leave with their baby.