SENATE BILL: Atlasian Institute of Teachers Act (Law'd)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Sponsor: Simfan34

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Senator you have 24 hours to start advocating for this bill.

[Simfan34]

Sadly, the quality of our teachers in Atlasia has been lacking in recent decades. Less than 20% of all teachers today rank in the top third of their graduating classes. The majority of ours come from the bottom third. In contrast, those countries that preform well draw their teachers from the top 10% of their class. In Singapore, one out of every eight applicants for a teaching position are accepted. Why can't we be one of those countries?

In some cases, we are. In New York, the Teaching Fellows program has submits teachers to rigorous training and selection- one out of ten are accepted. A full 15-20% of Ivy League students now go into Teach for Atlasia, and some 2/3rds stay in the profession. These are great steps forward, and we should implement them on a wider scale. We need a professional teaching force. It is for that for that reason I am proposing the AIT Act.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

So the only purpose of creating this huge organization is to administer a federal examination? You'll have to convince me that this is necessary at the federal level. I understand that teachers will be responsible for running this organization, but what will the structure of it be? Will we be tying up a couple teachers per school with additional AIT duties? If we're really dedicated to raising the quality of teachers, wouldn't it be better if they spent more time teaching?

Either way, the AIT will require more government workers to deal with clerical and administrative operations. So we'd invariably be growing the federal government.

Honestly, I'm inclined to think these issues could be dealt with on the regional level instead of creating more federal bureaucracy. Maybe have the regional education boards deal with administering the federal test.

Also, speaking of the test, I'm not sure if I like the idea of stipulating that 25% of applicants must fail. What if 85% of the applicants are perfectly acceptable? I'd much rather give a cut-off score than say "x many candidates will not be licensed."

Sorry for all the nitpicks, but I feel like we might be trying to solve one problem through a means that could actually create more problems.

[tmthforu94]

Should it fail, I plan to take this idea to the regional level.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

An amendment:

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[Niemeyerite]

We should have an AIP (for Professors, like Elizabeth Warren ).

I think this is a good idea, but I don't think the President of the institution should be appointed by the President or the President and the Senate. This should be more of an independent institution, with teachers appointing their own President, don't you think?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

1. Is it really a position that should be playable, or would it be better of simulated by the Game Moderating Team.

2. There is a real crisis in Education that so far hasn't been adequately addressed. One of many aspects of that is that we have too many teachers who aren't academically qualified to be in the classroom. A glaring example of this is that so many tend to come from the bottom of their college classes. I have read to two books that examine this issue closely (amongst many others) and offer a list of solutions to that speficic education sub-issue or sub-problem. Mitten's, "No Apology" and Bill Bradley's "The New American Story". I had a third one temporarily for a project back in 2010, but I no longer posses.

What I find amazing is you have liberals who (like the guy who wrote the 2010 book) have no problem with school choice, but won't even contemplate performanced based pay systems, and then you have Bradley, who actually incorporates a kind of merit based pay system into his overall plan, while looking down and being very critical of school choice (he kind of setup a strawman of Conservatives based on a vouchers only approach, with some local control concerns spliced in here and there. Never seen a conservative approach that narrow really). The one thing they all agree on, Mittens, Bradley and I believe Wagner was the guy's name, is that the first step in teacher quality improvements and getting applicants from higher up in their graduating classes, is to raise base pay.

I don't recall Simfan ever stating that this bill of his would be a complete fix to the problem, but I do think it may act as a first step.  Having standards and accountability are an important part of this pie to be sure of.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Honestly, I'm inclined to think these issues could be dealt with on the regional level instead of creating more federal bureaucracy. Maybe have the regional education boards deal with administering the federal test.

I sympathize with the concern for many reasons. In his book Bradley, is very dubious about local control because they say they lack the resources to among other things, resist the unions, but also to ensure proper standards in terms of textbooks, as opposed to "getting sold" on the latest thing peddled by Prentice Hall or McGraw-Hill.

There may be a solution to these issues though. A solution that would allow for local (for our purposes regional) authority to be preserved because of the assistance of, rather than prevention by, the federal gov't. Many people tend to think that local control is an excuse for the feds to do nothing and the local people to underperform and/or fail  in their task because it is overwhelming. You can still have federal leadership and involvement, while preserving local control. You provide standards upon which to assess textbooks, you can do research in curriculum and other education siutations and thne make those available and even help the regions implement those. You can provide certain resources regarding issues such as transportation, information technology, or ways to deal with legal liabilities so that concern doesn't weaken the experience.

What is needed is some kind of indepth advocacy group that can detail and organize this, articulate what the Regions should do, how the Feds can help, draw upon RL sources from different sides of political divide come up with a comprehensive approach to reform that then can be used to push the Regions to reform and monitor those that have, can push the feds to act where and when needed, while opposing them where its not, etc etc. Doing that here, where most of the people are just coasting and get bored and disappear rather quickly is difficult, though.

[Simfan34]

I am pending a decision on the amendment.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

What is needed is some kind of indepth advocacy group that can detail and organize this, articulate what the Regions should do, how the Feds can help, draw upon RL sources from different sides of political divide come up with a comprehensive approach to reform that then can be used to push the Regions to reform and monitor those that have, can push the feds to act where and when needed, while opposing them where its not, etc etc. Doing that here, where most of the people are just coasting and get bored and disappear rather quickly is difficult, though.

When you say "here," do you mean Atlasia or the senate? For our purposes, do we really need an advocacy group? To me, now is a great opportunity to come up with a few standards that we can export to the regions without adding a lot of costs.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

What is needed is some kind of indepth advocacy group that can detail and organize this, articulate what the Regions should do, how the Feds can help, draw upon RL sources from different sides of political divide come up with a comprehensive approach to reform that then can be used to push the Regions to reform and monitor those that have, can push the feds to act where and when needed, while opposing them where its not, etc etc. Doing that here, where most of the people are just coasting and get bored and disappear rather quickly is difficult, though.

When you say "here," do you mean Atlasia or the senate? For our purposes, do we really need an advocacy group? To me, now is a great opportunity to come up with a few standards that we can export to the regions without adding a lot of costs.

I mean Atlasia as a whole, not the Senate.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

You didn't understand my point. I wasn't talking about the underlying bill and structure it seeks to create, I am talking about a think tank type group. My point is that without such an independent and non-govermental, "coordinating force", the federal gov't would be more likely to step in and take over more and more as problems persist. Such an organization could provide solutions to the various and complex sub-problems to formulate a comprehensive reform in each region. There are no silver bullets and there is no quick fixes to the problems in the education system and ultimately, someone will be seeking to address this because our competition isn't going away. I would prefer it if that doesn't come in the form of workaholic, "fixer Senator", with a  red avatar from PA or OH, to the rescue (glances at two obvious Senators ).

[Napoleon]

I suggest removing intervention from the executive and legislature completely.

[Simfan34]

I object to the Amendment. I would like to Amend the bill to strike the line "but its President shall be appointed by the President of the Republic of Atlasia subject to Senate confirmation" entirely. Hopefully that will reduce concerns over government control and ensure the AIT is a more professional and independent organization.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I object to the Amendment. I would like to Amend the bill to strike the line "but its President shall be appointed by the President of the Republic of Atlasia subject to Senate confirmation" entirely. Hopefully that will reduce concerns over government control and ensure the AIT is a more professional and independent organization.

Will you be officially offering that soon?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Sponsor Feedback: Hostile
Status: A vote is now open on the above amendment, please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

[Simfan34]

I object to the Amendment. I would like to Amend the bill to strike the line "but its President shall be appointed by the President of the Republic of Atlasia subject to Senate confirmation" entirely. Hopefully that will reduce concerns over government control and ensure the AIT is a more professional and independent organization.

Will you be officially offering that soon?

I am officially offering that.

Nay on the amendment.

[Napoleon]

I object to the Amendment. I would like to Amend the bill to strike the line "but its President shall be appointed by the President of the Republic of Atlasia subject to Senate confirmation" entirely. Hopefully that will reduce concerns over government control and ensure the AIT is a more professional and independent organization.

Thank you Senator.

[Simfan34]

I agree with the president. IRL, I would suggest that appointing the organization's president be delegated to the Secretary of Education. The in-game analogue would be ffairs.

I would propose an amendment, but I am not sure that I can support a bill that calls for such drastic federal involvement in education. However, I am in favor of pursuing this legislation at the regional level.

Perhaps you could give us some proposals for the clause where it is said the AIT should work with regional authorities?

I object to the Amendment. I would like to Amend the bill to strike the line "but its President shall be appointed by the President of the Republic of Atlasia subject to Senate confirmation" entirely. Hopefully that will reduce concerns over government control and ensure the AIT is a more professional and independent organization.

Thank you Senator.

I actually hadn't seen your suggestion, but I'm very glad we agree here

Sen. Hagrid, I would like to point out that the exam is designed to pass 75% of testakers,  that is, the curve would be designed to do that. It's not a hard and fast limit. Do you think it should be worded differently?

Others, what are your overall thoughts on this bill?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What an awful idea.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I object to the Amendment. I would like to Amend the bill to strike the line "but its President shall be appointed by the President of the Republic of Atlasia subject to Senate confirmation" entirely. Hopefully that will reduce concerns over government control and ensure the AIT is a more professional and independent organization.

Will you be officially offering that soon?

I am officially offering that.

Nay on the amendment.

Can you please put in into a more processable form?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

OF COURSE, NAY!!!

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Aye