Should public schools be managed and taught by the military?

Great Debates
1

Since the 1980’s when all of this started, public schools have been constantly stripped of their powers, and made into nothing more than the tax-paid babysitting service it is today.

Schools stripped of their power to manage and discipline their own schools.
Teachers stripped of their powers to teach actual life lessons and reality, only having to now do nothing more than to teach old propaganda from old text books.
Teachers stripped of their powers to contain, teach, and discipline their classes.
Teachers who aren’t thoroughly vetted and professionally trained.
Schools that all politicians cut funds to before any other program.
Kids who have uncaring parents and school is the only safe refuge from them for one reason or another.
Bullies.
Pregnancies.
Rapes.
Shooters.
These ongoing problems are getting worse and worse each year.

The military should manage and run all public schools–

Teachers would be thoroughly vetted and professionally trained, as well as trained in the art of handling conflicts, disturbances, and crowd control by appropriate means.
School administrators and principles would have the means and training to properly administer discipline, which wouldn’t be a much of a problem with military grade trained teachers in charge.
Schools would be managed by proper means and maintained.
All kids would get decent food, and wouldn’t have to pay for it.(they shouldn’t have to in the first place)
Kids will be taught discipline, self-control, manners, etiquette, and taught about actual real life and how to deal with it.
No phones, no pads, no gameboys, no other electronics allowed, other than teaching aids.
NO bullies.
All kids get treated equally, no special treatment.
Knowledge comes first, before anything, especially sports.
Schools actually becoming SAFE places again.
I’ve had ex-military teachers when I was in high school, and believe it or not all the kids preferred these teachers to all the others, because they had solid structure and discipline in their classes. You never had to guess what the teacher was going to do or say, or if any of the other classmates were going to be disruptive, etc… You KNEW that class was the same from day to day and you didn’t have to worry about anything other than paying attention to the studies and lessons. It was a relief for many to be able to take a class where you didn’t have to worry about anything other than listening to the teacher and reading your lesson.

Control and discipline. The two biggest tools of the trade that has been stripped from public schools over the decades. So now, you have nothing more than tax-paid babysitting centers mislabeled as “public schools”.

Without control and discipline, you have anarchy and destruction. Which is what this country has today.
I’m NOT saying public schools need to be made into military instillation’s.

I’m saying that the military needs to be the ones to manage, maintain, teach, and hire professionally trained and vetted personnel for all positions at all public schools. Turn these daycare centers back into institutions of learning and teaching kids how the world works and how to survive in it.

2

My Lai Public High anyone?

3

The idea is idiotic and hardly worth addressing, but one thing:

If rape is one of the problems you want to fix, putting the military in charge is thelast thing you want to do.

And just how much of a rape epidemic is there in US schools?

4

Tl/dr. Keep the fucking military out of the public school realm. This should be a no-brainer.

5

The military have no expertise in primary or secondary education. Discipline is not education.

6

Where does the money come from, especially since you’ve now added a whole extra layer of costs?

7

Damn! That’s what I was going to say. But now that you’ve said it, I’m offended.

8

This isn’t the 1960’s and it isn’t Vietnam.

I didn’t say it was PERFECT and there wouldn’t be any problems in itself, but there needs to be discipline coming from somewhere, because it sure as hell isn’t coming from the self-entitled, snowflake parents of this country who have made sure they stripped all public schools of all the discipline and control they used to have.

I also didn’t say this was a permanent solution, just one that needs to be implemented where these schools can get back on track to what they are supposed to be…educational facilities.

There wouldn’t be any need for extra money spent, only certain military personnel redirected to working in public schools to get them refocused back to what is important, and how schools should be operating. A lot of retired and ex-service members could be given jobs at public schools in this capacity…especially those vets who have a hard time finding work after leaving the military. No, not ALL of them, only the capable ones with the training and mental stamina to do this work.

And yes, sexual assault is a public school problem. Just because it’s not splattered all over the “news”, magazines, and other outlets for such things, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen and it’s not a problem.

The point is…public schools are in a bad state and getting worse, and they need some strict enforcement and training to get them back to whats important, as well as giving them back their control and discipline.

9

I can certainly agree that there are some ex-military who make good teachers and even administrators. If you wish to seek out these people and encourage ex-military to work in public education, I’m all for that.

The rest of your proposal is a terrible idea.

10

The military would be okay, but if we really want good schools let’s put the TSA in charge. Or Department of Energy. We have options.

11

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

NO.
The idea that a lot of those things wouldn’t happen if the military ran the schools is laughable at best.

12

If that’s true, wouldn’t prison guards have much better success? Their charges are in prison involuntarily, much like students at school. Soldiers are in the service voluntarily, so military experience at discipline isn’t as applicable. I’m sure teachers would relish the opportunity to put misbehaving youths in “the Hole” for a few periods. And what’s detention other than a weak form of solitary confinement?

13

The military is already in charge of public schools, DODEA. I went to one of their schools K-5 and it was a very good school. Of course this was back before the days of cell phones but I can say bullying was certainly a thing and I watched my first blowjob on the bus ride home from school. I believe thattheir standards for teachers are high and their pay is better then most so the quality of teachers is good. The parental involvement was also very high.

I’m ok with federalizing the education system and increasing standards and pay but even the department of defence doesn’t put solders in charge of children they hire professional teachers and it isn’t some miracle cure for the problems you listed. We did have armed guards patrolling my school growing up and concertina wire on top of the fences so I guess that makes some people feel safe but I don’t think that’s realistic for every school in the US.

14

Welcome to the Straight Dope! I warn you, though, that when you start a post with such a blusteringly foolish and counterfactual sentence, nobody will take the rest of the post seriously.

I recommend a little humility and a lot of reading before you come back. If your next post has the world’s most sheepish apology for your having taken such an objectively incorrect approach to education, maybe some folks who actually know about the issue will be willing to help with your education.

15

Just one thing I’ll add: I’ve taught alongside plenty of vets. They would heap much more scorn on this idea than I am.

16

Serve The Empire.
Absolute Order will be maintained.
Raise your children from infancy to the strict discipline and order that the Empire brings.

Nothing can possibly go wrong.

17

Lol this is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard all week!

18

You can’t really talk about public education in the United States as if you’re talking about a monolithic entity. There are more than 13,000 school districts in the US and the experience a student has at one might be radically different from another. Heck, there are often radical differences even within school districts depending on which school they’re attending. I really don’t see any advantage to having the armed forces run our public education systems.

19

“Would you like to know more?”

20

Virtually every current teacher is more skilled at teaching kids than virtually every current service member.