Peter Greene has scoured the nation to determine which state legislature is most hostile to teachers. Here he explains why North Carolina wins that dubious title.
He begins:
“There are several state legislatures that are working hard to earn the “Worst Legislature in America” medal. Florida, where it’s cool to use terminally ill children as political tools and their families as punching bags, has always been a strong contender. New York State staked its claim by taking the extraordinary measure of overruling local government because they didn’t like its decision. Several states have worked to promote the teaching profession by stripping it of any professional trappings like decent pay and job security.
“But when it comes to suck, North Carolina is a tough state to beat.
“The legislature tried to make tenure go away entirely, but was frustrated to discover that they could not legally revoke tenure for people who already had it. But the wily legislators realized that they had a unique piece of leverage in a state where teachers’ real-dollar wages have dropped every year for seven years.
“The proposal is simple. NC teachers can have a raise, or they can have job security. They cannot have both.
“They may have a raise. And who knows. Some day they might get another one. But they can also be fired for being too expensive. Or they can have job security, but Senate Leader Phil Berger warns that they will probably never see another raise again.
“The message is as clear as it is simple:
“North Carolina legislators do not want teaching to be a career in their state.
“If you want to devote your career, your lifetime of work, to teaching, you cannot do it in North Carolina.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Who is Peter Greene?
Thanks.
Glenda Hubbard
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Peter Greene is a high school teacher in Pennsylvania who has a terrific blog and writes often about the absurdity of fake reform
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Yep. That’s the deal for us here.
I think depending on lottery money to pay teachers is part of the problem.
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We have a similar structure in California…but here is both lottery money and Indian Casinos which provide a percent toward education. This is no way to run a country.
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Well, this is a tough one. The competition for most teacher-hating state government in the country has been fierce of late.
I’m sure that there will be many who will cry foul, who will say, WAIT A MINUTE PETER GREENE, our legislators and governor and commissioner of miseducation are every bit as venal, corrupt, brain-dead, undemocratic, authoritarian, ignorant, and abusive as are the backwoods crackers gathered round the stump in North Carolina and then list enough wrongs to make the indictment of King George in the Declaration of Independence look like a recommendation for canonization.
But, Peter’s right. It’s North Carolina by a inebriated ALEC-steak-and-wine-dinner nose, in a close, close race to the bottom of decency and sanity.
In this, the state race to the bottom differs, of course, from the national race for worst secretary of education of all time, where Arne Duncan has powered past those third-stringers Bennett, Paige, and Spellings and slam dunked it.
Now, can he beat out Robert McNamara for the title of worst presidential appointment of all time? That’s a tough one, but certainly, the damage he has done and is doing is incalculable.
This level of play is truly a spectacle, huh?
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Backwoods crackers gathered round the stump. Hmmmmm. That’s a little condescending, don’t you think Bob? Or is it still ok to go hating on the south just because, well. . . we’re the south. We do have a rather high per capita of PhDs in RTP and some of the most coveted Universitites in the country.
Our legislature is full of religious rookies. They were gullible culprits for ALEC because they believe their job is to create a state of piety and bring everyone to Jesus. So while they are forgetting the real heart of compassion and misplacing their zeal for God with a zeal for Jeb Bush’s approval, they are sinking the state while trying to deliver it to heaven. In my opinion this is what happens when religious zeal is not well or thoughtfully educated. Obviously I don’t have a problem with Christian sentiment, but it cannot be the driving force IN THIS way if a society is to thrive. I think our legislators are in over their heads, many of them, and that ALEC and blind love for all that it represents, somehow mysteriously wrapped up in the presumption that ALEC values are Christian values, are what is running the state.
Lest we forget, there are elections in November.
Bob, if you would like a better picture of NC, please come visit. I will be happy to show you around. You just might like the place. We do have lights and running water, contrary to some ignorant assumptions.
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Joanna, I am quite familiar with North Carolina, having spent many of my finest hours in this lovely state. And with regard to being a creature of the South, I can only say that I resemble that remark. That the folks in the legislature show themselves to be a bunch of ignorant hillbillies time and time again is simply an empirical fact. Don’t go yelling at me. I did not spawn them. I am but a witness to their yammering. North Carolina is a state of contrasts. It is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It has many of the finest institutions of higher education. It has many enlightened, educated citizens. And it has legislators who act like crackers gathered round the big stump down the holler a piece.
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alrighty.
I don’t yell. 🙂 But I do reprimand.
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I don’t yell. But I do reprimand. Spoken like an experienced, capable educator!
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TAGO!
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Sorry, off-topic, but if you haven’t seen this yet, it’s worth a read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-macaray/exploiting-the-myth-of-th_b_5490278.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business Succinct and spot on.
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It is a good article.
Again, though, as I have been shouting in the way I shout, this is not the case in NC. Unions are not part of the education conversation in the same way they are in other states.
I track our problems back (aside from what is being heaped on now with Rttt and ALEC agendas) to the following:
1. Test score based bonuses in the 90s
2. A state lottery that pays teachers
3. National Boards
4. A poorly equipped teaching force in terms of integration
5. Racism
6. The influx of immigrants who do not have the support of the very church who tells them not to use birth control( Why aren’t Catholic schools welcoming the chance to educate their brethren?)
7. Barbecue (hee hee just kidding)
8. Christian values void of educated thought
9. Racism.
10. Racism
There are plenty of educated and thoughtful folks in NC, but they are obviously either not asserting their opinions at this time, or they are hiding behind the convenience of radicals because they themselves just might be a teeny tiny bit wary of their you g white daughter marrying a black man.
I seriously think the racial component is far heavier and secretive than we give it credit for. The legislature we have now is providing a good cover for many people who are secretly delighted to get away from minorities, even though they claim they are color blind
The upcoming elections will be very important in the way we go from here.
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Concerning #7:
I’ll put my Show Me State Backwoods BBQ against your NC Backwoods BBQ anytime!
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Duane–
Having lived in the Show Me State, no dice.
The barbecues are different—but they are both very good.
Down east we use a red pepper vinegar sauce and we put the slaw (also vinegar based, generally) on the barbecue. It’s good stuff. Even here in the mountains, that style of barbecue is considered “down east.” I grew up down east on the coast.
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“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
–Yeshua of Nazareth
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Bob: precisely.
My experience with the radical right is that they think they are doing that by “leading people to Jesus.” They think they are encouraging people to seek Christ. . .their framework for understanding what their savior commanded is entirely different from those who have adopted a more educated standpoint (that is, those who might have compared the creation stories of the Hebrews with that of, say, the Egyptians. . .finding that they are very similar). I think they fear if they supplant that almost naive reliance on “looking to Jesus” that they are somehow wronging their neighbor and forsaking any chance at a heavenly reward. It almost becomes a superstition. They are focused on the “blood of Christ,” and not his healing grace that allows us to look after other people and requires that we do so, in my opinion. My husband and I used to joke that we were going to sell bumper stickers that read, “Jesus is my overdraft protection” because of the mindset of some of these county folks around here.
Maybe that’s why the lottery doesn’t bother people here like I think it should. That’s their vice. They can’t drink (not supposed to because of their Baptist religion), all other sins are frowned on but they can buy lottery tickets!!)
Our legislature wants to beef up the money for paying teachers by spending more on advertising for the lottery. To me that is saying, “we’ll raise more money to pay teachers by spending more to get the poor to spend more on lottery tickets to pay the pain in the butt teaching force.” I don’t understand where these right wingers trade off their religious zeal for thinking they have a God-given right to money while others don’t, but I think we should pay THEIR salaries with lottery money and actually make paying teachers something honest state revenue takes care of. It’s all backwards and I knew it would be the day NC adopted a state lottery.
And that’s who is driving the ship in Raleigh. I guess it is a little backwoods, for lack of a better word. Albeit they seem to be able to speak the Queen’s English and so forth (which is more than I can say for some of the classroom teachers I have come across in this state, as much as I am in their corner—bless their hearts, some of them just cannot speak properly).
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Churning the labor force works for profits. When education is seen as a business for profit, it makes sense to those with no heart nor soul.
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You can add Ohio as a leading state to “Race to the Bottom.” John Kasich despises his Ohio teachers. If you are getting out of college and looking for a teaching job, do not move to Ohio. You will be hated. Kasich is trying hard to make teachers a fast food worker in a restaurant serving up french fries and hamburgers. (No putdown intended.)
Within 10 years you will be able to teach in Ohio with a 6 week training course. The goal is to get rid of all of the career status teachers and make sure no one goes into this toxic scary career. I think we can all agree that this is already happening U.S. wide. “Race to the Bottom” for teachers is equivalent to “Obama Care” for medical doctors. It is intended to destroy the public school system and replace that system with profitable charter and online schools. In our rural county, the smaller school systems are already being cut off with state funding. The plan is in motion.
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So, North Caroline was the first state to totally fall to the corporate empire ruled by oligarchs. It’s no longer a people’s democracy.
Imagine what will happen next once they are done with the public schools.
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The record is not over yet!!!
Good grief what a bunch of fatalists.
We are working on it. Quit dooming us to one bad crop of legislators. The sun also rises. We will get through this.
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But how will we get through this. There is no pre-written timeline. There is no guarantee that this will be won with the pen. In addition, it could take a few months, years, a few decades or a few centuries.
Maybe a little history will reveal what I mean.
For instance: Vietnam was conquered by the China in 111 BC and occupied to 40 AD. The Vietnamese freed themselves through endless rebellions.
Then in 43 AD, China returned and that occupation lasted until 544 AD when the Vietnamese freed themselves once again through endless rebellions.
The 3rd Chinese occupation was from 602 to 938 when, once again, the Vietnamese won their freedom through endless rebellions.
The 4th Chinese occupation lasted from 1407 to 1427 when the Vietnamese once again won their freedom.
Then the French arrived from 1858 to 1945 when they were also driven out due to endless rebellions.
Who arrived next? You got it, The United States from the 1950s to 1975 and once again the Vietnamese fought a 19 year war to drive us out.
Whatever freedom the Vietnamese have, they wanted to create for themselves. If the American people want to keep the freedoms that exists today, we must fight—one way or the other—to keep it.
I think we can learn from Vietnam’s history that we might not be the ones who win this particular struggle against oppression and the evil of greed. It might be our children or our grandchildren or …. but fight we must with pen preferably or with bullets and bombs.
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Lloyd–oppression and the evil of greed are part of the human condition.
I don’t mean we accept it when it’s being done. . .but the battle will never be over. Why do you think people have religion? to deal with that fact.
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I respectfully submit that religion is and has always been part of the problem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_war
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Lloyd-
that may we be true, but if you listen to the music, songs and poetry from religion over the years, you will know that evil and oppression have never been the intention of religion, but as humans we cannot escape our condition as such.
I propose you add some music history to your vibrant knowledge of chronological history. I don’t mean memorizing when Mozart lived. I mean listen and maybe even sing some of the music from various eras and various religions. It will help you understand better and perhaps have the empathy needed to not feel so defeated (which I sense that you do).
I have never found the wars and oppression as a result of religious movements to be reason enough for me to stop believing. I have found the wonder and mystery I find expressed in the music from many religions (including the call to prayer, which Muslims don’t really consider to be music, but I couldn’t wait to hear it when I was in Turkey, including Native American song, Balkan folk song, and slave and gospel music).
Go get some singin’ on, Lloyd. It will cure what ails you and get you in the spirit to face oppression head on.
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Matthew 18:20 says Jesus said—since He never wrote anything down—that “Wherever two or three gather in my name, there I am among them.”
In my wildest imaginings, for instance, I can’t translate this into a Pope and a religion with a billion people. In fact, I think He meant to keep it small to avoid the risk of corruption.
I don’t doubt that there are songs sung by members of religions that sing the praise of peace on earth, but there’s also an old wisdom that says don’t judge someone by what they say but by what they do.
There are thousands of religions on the earth. If you find one that doesn’t have a central leadership and is small in size so the members are neighbors, then I think that might be a gathering worth belonging to, maybe.
Established religions that have a central leadership are no different than any other political movement. Once a religion allows one person or a small group of people to decide what is morally proper in life for everyone else in that religion and also have the power to start wars, then religions become dangerous and history shows us that regardless of the songs the members of a religion sings, what the members sing isn’t as important a what that religion does as a group.
And does this smaller, leaderless religion just gather to discuss what the Bible means or do they gather to generate political agendas and decide what is moral and how everyone else should live—-then force everyone else to live that way or else.
The fake education reform billionaire oligarchs are no different than the powerful leaders of large, organized religions. The power of their wealth has corrupted them just as the power of a billion people might corrupt the leader or leaders of a large religion.
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Ah, Lloyd. Writing like yours is what makes this ‘teacher’s room’ so special. I have, in 40 years, sat in rooms with some very bright teachers who grasped history and science, and who grappled with big ideas. I miss it, but have found it here with you, Bob and so many others.
It is not money that is powerful, but the ACCESS it buys.
It is the power of ACCESS that corrupts, today, and it is TELEVISION that allows access to the minds of billions in ways that only religion once did…convincing them that up is down, and that climate change is a myth, but the Garden of Eden is not.
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As a former US Marine and Vietnam vet, singing is not the way I learned to deal with oppression.
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No Pope in my church.
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“For how can we sing. . .in a foreign land?” asked the Hebrews. Fair enough.
I’m just trying to get you to feel personally less threatened.
So many on this blog feel so threatened that I find them to be mean and snippy. Maybe understandably so, but I don’t think you can solve problems that way.
The situation in NC is delicate. In my opinion, loud protests mean nothing to our G.A.
Now, today I attended a small rally where 61,000 signatures were ready to be taken to Raleigh in support of public schools. That’s a good thing.
Probably, the only change here in NC can come from voting certain people out. But meanwhile, the reform movement has given so much momentum to certain myths that many of us must be ready to calmly explain them to people—not hit them over the head with rudeness. Believe me, in the south that tactic does not work. I want people on this blog to know that what works in a union state will likely backfire in one without. I’m tired of being dissed for being calm. I find rudeness to be tacky. Sorry, I’m southern. We have other ways of getting things done.
And we will.
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Lloyd–one more point about the rationale against organized religion because of the “2 or more in thy name” passage.
Many would say the same about public education. That we don’t need it.
Careful not to let public school become your church.
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But where is the Pied Pipper—the Pope of Education—in the almost 14,000 public school districts with elected school boards? Each one is separate. Each one is manged by the ed code of one of fifty states.
One could argue that there is no common ground for a Pope of education to appear and lead the children away with 3.3 million teachers teaching them and these teachers don’t all belong to the same political belief system: About one-third are registered Republicans; half or Democrats, and the rest are Independent voters like me—surely, a form of checks and balances.
Then there is the racial diversity in the United States that is represented among the 49+ million children attending public schools.
The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2050, 52% of the U.S. population will be
people of color, 24% of whom will be Hispanic.
• Public school diversity (including charter and magnet schools) in 2006:
o White: 56% o Hispanic: 21% o Black: 17% o Asian: 5% o Native American: 1%
• Independent school diversity for the 2010-2011 School Yeari:
o European American: 67.6%
o Asian American: 7.6%
o African American: 6%
o Multiracial American: 5.6%
o Hispanic American: 3.8%
o Unsure: 3.8%
o Middle Eastern American: 1.4%
o Pacific Islander American: 1.3%
o Native American: 0.2%
o Students of color as percentage of total enrollment (average): 25.9%
In addition, for instance, in New York alone:
According to the New York State Department of Education, there were 868 nonpublic
schools grades K-12 operating in New York City during school year 2010-1011. New
York State breaks them down by affiliation, as follows:
o 281 Roman Catholic schools
o 269 Jewish schools
o 40 Christian Fundamental schools
o 19 Lutheran schools
o 16 Islamic schools
o 15 Seventh Day Adventist schools
o 12 Episcopalian schools
o 11 Greek Orthodox schools
o 5 Baptist schools
o 3 Friends (Quaker) schools
o 1 Mennonite school
o 1 Presbyterian school
o 1 Russian Orthodox school
o 194 nondenominational nonpublic schools
• Approximately 10-12% of students in New York City public schools are Muslim
Click to access Religion%20and%20Diversity%20in%20Schools%20Fact%20Sheet%20FORMATTED.pdf
The closest thing the U.S. might have to a Pope of education would be Bill Gates and/or Arne Duncan—at this time. In fact, one could argue that the campaign to replace public schools with private sector charter schools is an attempt to create a Pope of Education by using the misleading word “choice” when there really is no choice between the better performing public schools and the worse Charters (many riddled with fraud), on average.
The United States has the third largest population in the world with 316+ million people after China and India, and this diversity will protect us from even a Bill Gates as the Pope of Education.
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As a teacher of 19 years in North Carolina, I wholeheartedly agree with your post. It feels like we are being pushed out of our profession. They want inexperienced teachers who they can push around. Experience teachers are the ones they are pushing OUT.
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No me tion of Wisconsin. As a retired teacher in Wisconsin, I can say Scott Walker and his minions have destroyed teaching in the public schools as a career, and they did it before North Carolina.
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Here is one bright spot,
“but was frustrated to discover that they could not legally revoke tenure for people who already had it”
Hopefully a national precedent, good job NC judicial.
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Maybe tenure is a loaded word. Does teachers employment differ from other city and state workers, police, fire, transportation, etc? Continuing contracts, due process, seniority, does it differ at all?
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Also, is it outdated considering we now have protected classes and more case law on sexual harassment and so forth?
Pregnant women as teachers might have needed “tenure” in the 70s, but do we now?
These are questions worth asking and asking them does not make me a teacher hater so rabid bloggers back off. I’m allowed to think here.
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Short answer, Joanna. Yes, they do.
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“Does teachers employment differ from other city and state workers, police, fire, transportation, etc?”
Do other city and state workers spend every work day with a class full of kids?
The police are responsible to keep the peace and maintain law and order.
Fireman put out fires.
Bus drivers, drive buses.
Clerks fill out paperwork.
Compare that to what teachers deal with, and yes, you will discover that teachers need that due process job protection so they are free to speak out when some parent, politician or administrator abuses their power in a way that it will hurt kids and the only person there is left for that child is the teacher.
I think my memoir shows why teachers must keep due process rights.
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Now the very FACT of such a question, shows how this division –52 states and almost 16,000 districts makes it impossible for anyone to know the facts about the educator’s situation.
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Bob, can you give me an example (for my enlightenment?)
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But again, Susan Lee Schwartz. . .most teachers I know in NC don’t walk around thinking about what our rights are all the time. I only encountered that in teachers’ union states. So I ask the question because discussing this stuff with my husband, an attorney, we come up with questions for the sake of intelligent discussion.
I think the defensive reflex of teachers’ unions right now is understandable (although the rudeness always deplorable), but wouldn’t a little self-reflection help them? They can be right all the way to their dissolution and near powerlessness and leadership leading them astray, because what they are doing doesn’t seem to be helping anyone, especially them. If they want to preserve, shouldn’t they reflect and see where they can give? Even Wendy Kopp said, at one time, that she wanted to work with them.
They are “they,” not because I am a troll, but because they are not a factor in NC.
I still think they need to prove why they are so valuable if they want people to get behind them. So far all I see is defensiveness and rudeness.
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I appreciate your intelligent response. Let me be clear, in all the places where teachers relied on the union, where they trusted the contract they signed which ensured due process, the union sold them out.
You make a good point. What had they to gain by betraying their duty. Well, I can only say that in NYC you get to tell the members about all the benefits they will get. They do not tout the devil’s bargain they got in order to get the NYC legislators and mayor to come to the table, when THEIR goal is to decapitate the teachers after the first few years of practice.
Thus, they UFT big shots get re-elected on the same kind of propaganda that our legislators do. How about the perks and salaries they get, as we struggle to keep our jobs and to actually educate the future Americans in our care.
Also, Joanna, I know of six teachers who went to court to fight for something that should be de rigor, the right to defend against slander.
All spent a huge amount of money. All spent years of their lives, in some cases the last real years of youthful energy, defending themselves against lies
.Only two won, the others lost both their money, their reputations and their careers.
Lorna Stremcha won her case, at great cost.
http://blog.ebosswatch.com/2013/05/one-womans-legal-fight-against-workplace-bullying/
Why this kind of lawlessness could occur at all takes us beyond the issue of unions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNxj-O1DiI
The other was David Pakter, whose elegant essay as he fought I read at Crane’s.
He spent half a million bucks, and 8 years of his life. In the end, his children took him into their care and their lives. David was a treasure, a brilliant artist who brought the medical illustration course to Fine Arts HS, in Manhattan, and won the NYC award for excellence.
Why did he have to fight a principal who said he was insubordinate for bringing in a plant.
http://protectportelos.org/the-david-pakter-saga-an-all-too-familiar-of-a-story/
That is why it is about due process. The access that the powerful administrators have to the justice system is legend. Everyone loses to the stacked deck– the delays, the money drains, the cadre of attorneys the system owns, so there is no justice.
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Joanna, I just have to ask. If your husband was a Little Debbie truck driver would you mention his occupation so often? Would you still engage in intellectual discussions? Yes that was snarky but his occupation seems to crop up every so often.
The bottom line here is that there are teachers who are unable to relocate and get hired because their twelve years or so of service has made them too expensive and freshly minted teachers are being hired instead. This is yet another indicator of how the state, the system, and a lot of other folks value our educators. It is all about the money, not the quality of education.
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You got it right. Unhirable. career over!
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Diane – check out the editorials in yesterday’s Star Ledger and today’s Asbury Park Press supporting the California decision. Lynn Smith
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cross posted here http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/CURMUDGUCATION-North-Caro-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Children_Political_Profession_Security-140616-503.html#comment494962
with this comment and link here:
“The message is as clear as it is simple, says Diane Ravitch click here:
“North Carolina legislators do not want teaching to be a career in their state.
“If you want to devote your career, your lifetime of work, to teaching, you cannot do it in North Carolina.” Submitted on Monday, Jun 16, 2014 at 11:15:33 AM
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Peter Green makes a persuasive case for North Carolina having the worst Legislature in the US when it comes to educational policies and support for their teachers and schools.
I nominate the state of ILL-inois for second worst.
The problem with our State’s legislature has been described in great detail by numerous op eds and commentaries published by a variety of sources.
George Will summarized those arguments in a piece posted: 05/30/14, titled “DEMOCRATS Have Ruined Illinois.”
To be fair, GOP members of the bi-partisan Illinois “Combine” helped too.
http://www.pottsmerc.com/opinion/20140601/george-f-will-democrats-have-ruined-illinois
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The horror of this is that for a long, long time, North Carolina was one of the most enlightened states in the union with regard to its educational policies. A wave of backward fundamentalist radicalism has taken it over, and it’s beginning to look like a fundamentalist theocracy. Want a hint of that? A couple years back, one of its brilliant legislators crafted a bill to save Tarheels from areolas. I wish I were making this up. The law would have made breastfeeding in public a major crime, like murder. Fortunately, after initial success followed by a national uproar, the law was defeated.
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Yes, but to be fair that enlightenment included:
1. Bonus pay for teachers based on scores
2. National Boards (where we deferred to Pearson to name our Master teachers, rather than trusting our University and experienced teachers to do so)
3. A continual push for accountability
There is no such thing as the good old days. I am very carefully analyzing the political scene of the last 40 years. It sounds good to say that to add to the woe is me we’ve been defeated mindset that plagues many of the readers of this blog. . .but I don’t see it like that. It has never been a glorious scene. Ever. Even when the teachers were paid better, there were strings or seeds being cast for some of what we are seeing now. What WAS glorious was that there was bipartisan agreement that public schools matter.
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Also, as I pointed out earlier, the glorious times still, sometimes (not always) put minorities second. My buddies from my home town who are black liked the schooling we had and are OK with it, so I don’t really have a personal account of a minority being second (although we certainly didn’t see them at church or the restaurants where we ate or the pools where we swam, etc). I think that as minorities are gaining ground in becoming more equal in terms of personal wealth and influence, many whites are scrambling to keep them suppressed (even if by subtle and sub-conscious ways like opting for a charter, where their children are more likely to not be friends with minority children). I think a silent “birds of a feather” mentality still prevails here and we are seeing it come out in new ways.
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I have seen Education Deforms come and go, Joanna, and yes, some of the previous ones have been awful (e.g., behaviorism and behavioral objectives), and this one, too, shall pass. However, this is more extensive and organized and for the first time involves the creation of a national Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth. THAT IS VERY, VERY SERIOUS and UNPRECEDENTED.
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I have always agreed with you on that one, Bob. The CCSS has always bothered me, philosophically. I know there is not one truth. Therefore there should not be one curriculum. The very idea makes me shiver. Seems like that one is already beginning to break down. God bless America!
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You are right, until the eighties, there was a consensus that the school was a place for learning, and the professional practitioners were supported, after a fashion.
I started teaching in 1963. In all those years some things did not change. I had very little supplies, and bought most of the materials I needed with my own funds. BUT never, until 1988, did management interfere with my plans, my objectives or actively undermine learning. Not until my last 3 assignments did I see top-down management cross the line into unlawful behavior, both hidden and in-tour-face.
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The U.S. turned to the dark side during this B-rated actor’s two terms in the White House:
Ronald Reagan 1981 – 1989
And this guy has a cult following in the U.S. who literally worship him as if he were God.
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I hate to say this, but we are talking about North Carolina.
Why the surprise?
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I am so sorry to hear all this. I feel terriable for the children and the teachers in NC. I hope new leadership can be voted in to change things around. It will be an up-hill battle. Good Luck!!! I hope you can all change things around.
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When I first heard about this, I was once again ashamed to be an educator in North Carolina.
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