Maybe if we started supporting our schools instead of cutting their budgets? Right now most public school teachers are facing larger classrooms resulting in less individual attention for student needs, a lot of them have to spend their own money on classroom supplies and they're all facing stringent requirements on test results meaning they're not teaching students to learn so much as teaching them to pass tests.

The problem isn't that they're bad teachers. The problem is that they're doing the best they can with increasing restrictions on how to accomplish the goals set for them.

As a young person in school to become a teacher, it's disheartening to see this. I myself attended a high school where this happened shortly before I got to the 9th grade, and it left a lot of young teachers who, while enthusiastic, had little idea of what they were doing and very few older teachers (I believe we had exactly 2 teachers over 45 for a school of ~700) to help them. It resulted in a lot of bad grades, burnt out teachers, students missing educational opportunities, etc.

I find it very sad how much our education system abuses teachers, and it's a fact I have to know and live with when going in to be a teacher, as things are little better in most states, Ohio included. I can only hope that us, the next generation of teachers, can find ways to fight back against the ridiculous system of standardized tests that has made this country's education system into a mockery of what it once was.

The testing environment here is a big reason why.