What's Next? What's Public Education Coming to?

Well, I completed my Ed. S. degree in Technology, retired from my job, and sat down to contemplate my next move. As a forty year educator in the Chicago Public School District, I am not happy about the current events in my district. Of the student teachers that I have mentored, I wonder how their teaching experiences differed from what I promised them. I mentored with great enthusiasm; insisting on excellence from my student teachers and encouraging them to continue their own educations. I taught with greater enthusiasm. I LOVED my job. There was no better feeling than that of a student understanding what I was teaching and taking it to the next level; and yes, there was a lot of that. My students were wonderful and I enjoyed showing off their work to their families and my friends. I celebrated student achievement.Yet, I could not encourage my own daughter to become a teacher. There seems to be a war on teachers and their unions. The people making educational decisions are not educators and they do not know what educators do on a daily basis. The real feeling is that teachers are glorified baby-sitters who must be told what,when,and how to teach. Every couple of years, some new idea pops up to upset the going momentum and stop whatever progress is being made. Teachers are not the enemy. Their unions are not the enemy. Teachers and teaching became better with the demands of the unions and the sacrifices of those teachers brave enough to walk the picket lines. Public education is important to democracy. Public education is important no matter how many private, charter,or religious schools become available for parental choice. Public education should be funded by public funds. Private, charter and religious schools should get their funds from their students. The old argument that those attending private, charter and religious schools also fund public schools forgets that those attending those schools made that choice. Public funds for public schools.  Is your public school below par? Fix it. Public schools should be the schools of choice because the best and brightest teachers challenge the students on a daily basis. Public schools should be the schools of choice because their standards are so high that the best and brightest students find them so rewarding they lift the standards with innovative project-based learning among other things. Peer-review of teachers will allow teaching standards to step up and problems are solved collectively. Teaching becomes a preferred profession with pay that denotes its status. I can encourage my young relatives to become teachers without reservation. Am I dreaming? So, now, what's next?