You can't raise the standards...

without giving the teachers support, safe, well equipped schools, and decent pay.  I am appalled at the news that  standards and testing are being raised without giving schools the tools to make that happen.  Teachers are already being forced to "teach to the test!"  Believe me, kids are being tested to death and the teachers are not able to teach other material which is so important to our kid's learning experience.  We are raising a bunch of kids who are constantly stressed out because of this.  Exactly what does this accomplish?  It absolutely causes burn out in our valuable teachers and saps them of the joys of being able to teach a well-rounded curriculum.  We seldom see teachers getting more supplies, most schools are using 5-10 year old books.  Many teachers are copying books, or pages from books to give kids. When was the last time they got a raise? WHAT?!?  This is like putting the cart before the horse.  Lets call our congress people and tell them that they need to accomplish something!  Let's give them some long, hard assignments, and expect them to come through for us, for once.  We should also let them know that THEY WILL BE PAID ACCORDINGLY. BUT ONLY AFTER WE GET GOOD RESULTS!!!!!  HMMM... What do you think would happen then?