The legislature in North Carolina, apparently joined at the hip with ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), passed legislation establishing charter schools a few months ago.
Buried in the bill is a stipulation that only 50% of teachers in charter schools need to hold a teaching license (see page 7 of the bill).
In public schools, ALL teachers must be licensed.
Apparently in the minds of the North Carolina legislature, the way to “improve student learning” (the alleged goal of creating charters) is to lower standards for teachers.
Perhaps we will soon see the legislature lower the requirements to practice medicine, law, and other professions and occupations in that state.
And they will no doubt say it “improves the profession by letting anyone do it.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The worst teachers are teachers. To get good teachers, you need people who aren’t teachers.
At least I think that’s how it goes.
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But then wouldn’t those people then be teachers and, hence, the worst?
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Ah, Catch 22 in action.
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You are either being obtuse or delusional. I can’t decide which.
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It gets worse. I don’t know if it has been changed, but in Louisiana charter school teachers did not even have to have a college degree.
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Are you still a good teacher once you become a teacher? Or does being a teacher make you a bad teacher?
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exactly.
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Fat chance you’d ever get the AMA or ABA to agree with lowering the standards for their fields. After all, those are “serious” jobs, male-dominated jobs, not a pin money job like teaching.
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well said
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How soon they forget their own hype.
Anyone remember the mantra that ‘charters are the rising tide that will lift all school boats”?
Apparently the Microsoft EduAutocorrect changed a couple of words in the original: ‘charters are the tsunami that will swamp all school boats.’
It is difficult to think of this as anything but institutionalizing and mandating the dumbing down of America.
😎
P.S. My bad. Of course, not to apply to the wonderful schools that the leading charterites/privatizers and their educrat enablers and edubully enforcers send THEIR OWN CHILDREN to. This is just for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN.
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the Microsoft EduAutocorrect
Ah, finally, THE ANSWER! Does that come with a talking paperclip?
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At one point in the life of this bill, NC SB 337, there was no requirement for a teacher instructing core classes in grades 6-12 to have a college degree.
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You can see in the linked legislation where they inserted it.
Maybe public schools can advertise: “our schools have teachers!”
It was pretty clear to me where they were going with the attacks on teachers in ed reform, and I’m not a teacher.
They simply ended that profession, by statute. Now comes the race to the bottom on wages. I think the goal is 15 dollars an hour.
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It also makes background checks optional. This will make it easier to hire convicted hedge fund managers to be the financial CEO of a fly-by-night charter and cook the books.
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so disappointing that the legislature makes these accommodations with teacher and administrator quality!
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/14/netflixs-reed-hastings-has-a-big-idea-kill-elected-school-boards/
Just canceled my Netflix account.
Hit ’em where it hurts
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They really don’t hide their contempt for democracy, do they?
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For Twitter: Just copy and paste then ReTweet often
Private Charter schools in NC only need 50% of teachers with license
But public school 100%
Who owns the legislature
http://bit.ly/1fXYAA5
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Section 1, a: The purpose of a charter school is to:
(3) Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods;
Darn, does that mean no scripts??
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It means they can hire someone like Jordan Belfort, the real Wolf of Wall Street, who will teach innovative methods of making lots of money fast leading to more charter school CEOs.
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That chucklehead Tony Bennett tried that foolishness in Indiana–lowering the standards for teachers. And yet the ninnies in the Indiana state legislature think that lowering the educational requirements for teaching will attract the so-called “best and the brightest.” (Actually, the best and the brightest are already in education!
They’re tragically wrong–the youngsters coming out of college want living wage where they can afford such fripperies as food, clothing, housing, and a car. It is becoming obvious that this is not possible under current conditions.
Side note: at a staff meeting last year, it was determined that a teacher would reach the top of the pay scale in my [Indiana] school corporation after 37 years of service. Oh yeah…lots of advancement there!
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I also teach in Indiana and have been at the top of my corporation’s pay scale for years. It topped out at 25 years unless I went on to get a phd. Of course now that isn’t important or rewarded and the cost of living raises we could get helped but we can’t even negotiate for that any more.
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I am sitting here hoping beyond hope that the readers of this blog and my fellow educators are beginning to realize that this is a war.
Not a war of words or something that can be met with conferences, articles, and letters to the editor using the most respectful rhetoric allowing a “both sides have valid points” nonsense but a real, all encompassing war on public education, the profession of teaching, and the future of our democracy.
Perhaps then they will be ready to fight and sacrifice to stop the war on schools, teachers, and other people’s children.
I have my doubts.
My own state legislature today introduced a bill to end public pensions for teachers and when I mentioned that this was all part of the 1% design to destroy the middle class my very troubled colleagues in the lunchroom loudly disagreed with me, proclaiming that no, much more money goes to undeserving welfare and food stamp recipients , it’s the fault of Obamacare, and more of the Fox “News” propaganda .
These teachers have been Foxified by Murdoch into supporting their own demise. So, so sad and so, so predictable. They will vote Republican/Tea Party next election and then be totally mystified when they are fired under VAM a few months later or when their pension fund goes belly up and files for bankruptcy because there are no new members paying into the pension fund to keep it strong and stable.
Perhaps we/they deserve what is happening, at least here in Florida. Once the smoke clears and we are all unemployed maybe then they will finally wake up and realize the evils of ALEC, the Bush junta, and the Gates/Broad/Walton triumvirate.
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I agree with you, Chris, that it’s a real war, but unfortunately, you’re on the wrong side blaming the wrong people. Public employees SHOULD NOT have defined benefit pensions, but like most other workers in the country, defined contribution pensions. That way, you get what you earn, and there will not be any political pressure from teachers unions on the school districts to promise better pensions than the public tax revenues can fund. Solvency is at the bottom of the new law. Otherwise, Florida might become Detroit, and those public service workers may lose 70% of their pensions in the bankruptcy settlement. The unions elected the Mayor and City Council and they returned the favor by promising benefits their tax revenues wouldn’t support, and then they borrowed to make pension fund payments, and then couldn’t pay back the borrowed money. Then the city filed for bankruptcy. You emit a nice liberal line of hate, but pensions of public employees should be private just like for the rest of us.
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Let me just add, that I don’t see how private pensions will result in the end of democracy. Maybe you could lay out that argument for me. You seen to think public education is somehow related to the democratic form of government guaranteed by the federal and state constitutions. Public education, with elected boards, is only a small fraction of the democratic tradition, i.e. the tradition of consent to law by those governed by it.
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Hate to tell you, HU, but many public pensions are now defined contribution, not defined benefit. Utah is an example.
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So much the better. May it spread.
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401ks are the biggest fraud perpetuated on American workers – ever. That is the next big crash after student loan debt. Rather, how about some good old free market choice? Offer both – defined benefit and contribution. See what workers prefer.
Oh wait, we did that in our state and people overwhelmingly like the freedom of chosing a pension over a 401k. That being the case, we should instead have more pensions everywhere.
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401Ks have already crashed.
The Huffington post reports, “A Perfect Failure: Why the 401 (K) Has Been a Flop”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-callahan/401k-a-perfect-failure_b_1574834.html
USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/02/05/social-security-retirement-benefits-column/1891155/
PBS Frontline:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/retirement-gamble/teresa-ghilarducci-why-the-401k-is-a-failed-experiment/
Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2013/04/24/why-401ks-have-failed/
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-401k-retirement-plans-failing-most-workers/
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I agree with you Chris. This is the game plan. But to take it further. Privatize social security and then turn Medicare into a voucher program. It is a war. I wish we could look to the dems to have a solution. I am an active democrat. But the dems are just as deeply involved in the school privatization movement – which so disappoints me as I had so hoped and expected for better. However i will say that most grassroots dems do not understand what is happening with education. But many do understand Alec and the corporate takeover of our democracy.
There is a big sucking sound-the sucking of the earning capacity and benefits from the middle class. Obviously we wouldn’t need these benefits if we earned enough to self fund our retirement years without SS and Medicare. Perhaps we should have planned better. But10 years ago who would have thought this is where we would find our democracy.
What I suggest is that we quit spending money–to starve their beast and then immerse ourselves into the local politics of both political parties en masse to change the narrative and to continue conversations with as any people as we can. Talk to one person per day. Take on l eadership positions within both parties. Keep having conversations. Find like minded folks – build local communities of like minded persons- one person at a time. We have to create the tipping point. But we are getting stronger every day. More and more people are beginning to see.
Choose local businesses, avoid ALEC businesses, avoid corporations that have taken a stance against the middle class and public education. Sometimes there are no good options, but simply do the the best you can in how you spend.
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Getting back to North Carolina — The bill authorizing charter schools in North Carolina was passed many years ago under an all Democrat Governor and legislature. The current Republican Governor and legislature only expanded the law.
The current legislature did change some of the rules but none of this would have been necessary if the current class of professional, college educated blah blah blah educators/teachers were teaching the children. They are not — the latest state-wide 2012/2013 End Of Grade (EOG) test results are: Only 14.2% of Blacks passed both (reading and math) EOG tests (yes state-wide only14.2%); Only 17.4% of ED or Economically Disadvantaged students passed state-wide; Only 10.3% of Hispanics passed; Only 43.5% of Whites passed; Only 49.8% of NED or Not Economically Disadvantaged students passed and only 56.7% of Asians passed. Note also that only 6.6 % of Students with Disabilities passed.
At what point does one try to improve the results? Obviously college educated and licensed teachers are not doing the job of teaching our children. How many lives or even generations of students should we allow them to condemn to poverty? Currently some of the teachers say it is the parents fault because there are no books in the house or the children do not get a bedtime story from their parents. How can that be changed if the current crop of children are also not learning to read?
By the way, if lawyers — doctors — truck drivers – hair dressers — and others requiring licenses had those disastrous results, I am sure the current crop of teachers would be demanding an alternative.
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Thauck–nc,
Well, those college-educated and licensed teachers are not doing the job, so it makes sense to replace them with inexperienced, unlicensed, uneducated “teachers”? Next time you are disappointed in the advice you get from your doctor or lawyer, why don’t you switch to someone with no training in medicine or law? Go to your neighbor or ask the person standing next to you in the checkout line at the supermarket for advice about your illness or your legal problems. That should work for you.
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Thank you for your response to my note.
Kindly review the 2013 NCTQ Report on teachers colleges and then please explain the results.
The report, if I read it correctly, states the majority of teachers colleges are not preparing college students to be teachers. Here is the link http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Teacher_Prep_Review_2013_Report
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NCTQ is a joke and their “report” is an embarrassment of poor scholarship and false interpretation. Try again.
And your unwavering acceptance that standardized tests measure anything but family income, which has been proved over and over and over and over again and again and again is another bit of egg on your face. Psychometry is akin to reading palms and astrology. Try again.
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And what will you say when public schools are no more and teachers have gone the way of the passenger pigeon but there is still massive poverty in the USA? Whom will you blame then?
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If I understand correctly, no one has to teach the poor because everyone knows that if you are poor you get poor test scores and nothing can be done about it. No wonder inner city schools are written off and the test results and the graduation rates are very low. For shame. How do those professional, licensed, college educated non-teachers justify their salary, pension and other benefits?
If one cannot or does not want to teach poor children. set them free to go to a school that will teach them so they can get out of poverty. Instead, it appears that the professional teachers from the teacher’s union insist that they must go to a public school that will not teach them. Sounds irrational to me.
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No one has ever said that except for those who think it is a smart move to blame generational poverty on teachers. Interesting how you ignore the racist underpinnings of this argument since the vast majority of poor US citizens are rural rather than inner city.
We have known for at least 75 years what is needed to improve life for those trapped in generational poverty in inner cities. It costs lots of money and requires a society that believes that we are all truly equal and that we should share in the care and support of each other throughout life.
So much easier to demonize poorly paid teachers and let them be the scapegoats, isn’t it?
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Not an answer, Chris. So much easier to demonize parents who want out of the public schools. The racist card no longer works on most people. Standardized tests do tell us something about minimal technical competence in literacy and math. And in my personal experience as a teacher the SAT, for instance, correlated about 99% of the time with my own estimate of a student’s intellectual skills based on their writing and my own tests and the grades I reported for them. There were exceptions in which a student here and a student there scored much BETTER on the SAT or on the English AP exam than their grades in my courses, but I don’t remember any case where I was surprised by a low SAT score. I’m only one retired teacher, but ask around.
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Everyone is truly fooling themselves if they think the NC government has any care for the education of children. Every move they make is out of pure greed. Common Core, charter schools, vouchers – it all means big bucks. Uncertified “teachers” means less overhead and more profit. Art Pope, the Koch brothers, Michelle Rhee, Wendy Kopp all have there fingers in the pie. The rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer, not matter what school they attend.
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Hi everyone,
I’d like to share a talk I recently gave to the School Board of Palm Beach County, FL about the excessive testing going on in our public schools and who is profiting by it.
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