The Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina eliminated 46 degree programs across the system, mainly in education. The Legislature earlier eliminated the highly successful NC Teaching Fellows while expanding Teach for America. Evidently, the Legislature and the university governors don’t want professionally trained teachers.
Here are the degree programs that were eliminated:
DISCONTINUED DEGREE PROGRAMS
Appalachian State University: Family and Consumer Sciences, Secondary Education; Technology Education; Mathematics, Education
Elizabeth City State University: Special Education, General Curriculum; Middle Grades Education; English, Secondary Education; Political Science
East Carolina University: French K-12; German K-12; Hispanic Studies Education; German; French; Public History; Special Education, Intellectual Disabilities; Vocational Education
Fayetteville State University: Art Education; Music Education; Biotechnology
North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University: Comprehensive Science Education; Physical Education North Carolina Central University: Theatre; Jazz
North Carolina State University: Africana Studies; Women’s and Gender Studies; Business and Marketing Education; Physiology
UNC-Charlotte: Child and Family Development; Special Education, Adapted Curriculum; English Education; Mathematics Education
UNC-Chapel Hill: Human Biology
UNC-Greensboro: Mathematics, Secondary Education (BA); Mathematics, Secondary Education (BS); Economics, Secondary Education; Biology, Secondary Education (BA); Biology, Secondary Education (BS); Composition; Latin Education; Biochemistry
UNC School of the Arts: Film Music Composition
UNC-Wilmington: Physical Education and Health; Music Performance
Western Carolina University: Health Information Administration Winston-Salem State University: Biotechnology; Elementary Education; Teaching English as a Second Language and Linguistics
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The positive in all of this is that the UNC system is so strong from prior years of support that most of these programs can be found at another UNC system campus, if no longer at the ones where they were eliminated. So we have that going for us, which is nice.
The NC Teaching Fellows is very much a loss, though. The bill to reintroduce it got kicked back into committee, from what I understand.
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good article here about the search for a new UNC system president (albeit nobody is quite sure why they needed to ask the current one to step down—no apparent reason other than politics) http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2015/05/26/public-weighs-search-new-unc-system-president/27989215/
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From the article:
“Board member Steven Long, who is the vice chairman of the academic planning committee, expressed concern about the labels applied to the actions, saying that words like “discontinuation” could confuse the public.
“They think you’re eliminating a lot of the cost, but we’re really only eliminating a little bit of the cost,” Long said. “We’re really not discontinuing the whole program; we’re just scaling it back.”
Long said he didn’t think the programs addressed by the report necessarily needed more scrutiny.
“We’re capitalists, and we have to look at what the demand is, and we have to respond to the demand.””
YEP, they’s kapitalists whose only concern is what the free market “demands”. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay!!
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“The Legislature earlier eliminated the highly successful NC Teaching Fellows while expanding Teach for America.”
I didn’t see any reference to the TFA in the article, where does the “expanding TFA” come from?
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I think Diane was just trying to reemphasize the type stuff NC is dealing with right now. For further reading and to continue illustrating that point:
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/05/26/ruchos-revealing-rationalization/
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/05/12/senate-votes-to-keep-stigmatizing-poor-schools/
stuff like that.
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http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/05/13/the-final-class-of-the-north-carolina-teaching-fellows/
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Thanks for the response IM!
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Duane, in earlier posts, I cited news articles about the Legislature’s decision to abandon the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program, which has a great record of training career teachers. At the same time, the Legislature allocated $6 million for more TFA.
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Thanks, Diane and IM as I wasn’t sure if I was reading the article quite right.
Sad day in America when, as Chiara almost daily points out, that our elected officials neglect the public sphere for which they were elected to oversee in favor of the private sector who fills the politicos pockets.
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So VERY interesting. All the politicians express huge concern about education and then they destroy the very essence of education in our country in so many ways.
They started with the schools, grades 1 -12 and now they are destroying the colleges and universities which have been regarded as the best in the world, foreign countries sending their best students here to study.
WHAT are they thinking?
Rhetoric but anti education legislation.
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Not only is it troublesome that some people don’t care about regular classroom teachers being properly trained, but it is very disturbing that some teachers of students with disabilities are coming from the ranks of TFA. Do they throw in an extra day of their summer training to learn about special needs? It is totally ridiculous and unconscionable.
Our great state of Louisiana is pushing and funding “Believe and Prepare” grants so school districts and others can “prepare” their own teachers. I’ve heard one district went after the grant so the superintendent’s daughter could be in the program. I reckon it saves folks some tuition money.
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the tuition money is a good point and relevant—-worth thinking about
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Relevant is getting the proper background and experience to be let loose in a class of children who depend on you.
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I think it’s nuts for ed reformers to discount the value of experience. No other field does this. If it’s true for education then education is a singular one-off, and that extraordinary claim should demand lots and lots of proof.
It’s weirdly anti-education, unless you consider “education” as ending the moment formal training ends.
Really? People learn ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in practice over decades? What a grim, cynical hopeless view of the world ‘o work that is.
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good points; but what about the college loan problem? Conversations about how to offset it are good ones to have, no matter how they start. Just trying to think realistically.
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Chiara, when have the so-called reformers EVER cared about education or children, except as props to be used in their insipid and dishonest rhetoric?
Money, power and control… Money power and control, a story older than the pyramids…
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“Involved Mom
May 27, 2015 at 1:14 pm
good points; but what about the college loan problem? Conversations about how to offset it are good ones to have, no matter how they start. Just trying to think realistically.”
I worry about the “college loan problem” efforts because I worry about certain groups being told they’re not college material.
I support vocational ed. I went that route before college (later-first I went to community college for a trades certificate) and my middle son is in a skilled trades program. I just think you have to be careful when you start deciding who is college material and who is not. Some of this stuff about choosing “practical” work goes too far for me. Picking a college major or course of study for work is one area where I think markets really DO work. People eventually figure out what makes them employable. I tink we can keep it wide open and let them choose. I’d hate for some people to be pushed to vo-tech and others to be tracked to college too young.
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However, if by “college loan problem” you meant “how do people afford college?” then I agree with you.
I don’t want to put words in you mouth.
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yes, affording it.
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The criterion for elimination seems to be a simple-minded productivity measure–number of degrees produced.
Of course, not all programs are degree-producers, especially in the arts and humanities and science courses not for majors–used to be regarded as essential for a great and liberating education.
I think the cuts in education were not informed by any studies of supply/demand for teachers in South Carolina. Nationally, there are shortages in special education and mathematics.
Ohio is moving in the same “capitalist” direction, with productivity measures tied to workforce contributions WITHIN Ohio. I call this economic parochialism.
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It just seems really extreme, like they’re swinging from “borrow as much as you can and get any old degree!” to “everyone needs to be trained for a specific employer at 18”
They’re just extreme people, really. They lack restraint. 🙂
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Investigate some of the undergraduate degrees that TFAers have. Lots of them majored in those “regarded as essential for a great and liberating education.” For example, the Classics. Yes, a great and liberating education. No, not preparation for teaching.
I asked some TFAers if, when they were in undergraduate school, they had any idea about what career field they wanted to go into after college. The answer from many was “no.”
Makes me wonder – Were most of them from families who were well off enough that they were not concerned about earning a living themselves? Did they just figure they deserved that great and liberating education?
The students I went to college with had a career field in mind at some point in undergraduate school, hence their choice of major. After graduation they pursued employment in that field.
The mindset of “everyone needs to be trained for a specific employer at 18” certainly fits in with what the 1% imagines for other people’s children – the compliant workforce that will keep them in business. None of that silly great and liberating education for other people’s children. Not in K-12, not in college.
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Robert, is there any chance that somewhere in the middle lies the answer? Just because a TFAer didn’t know what they wanted to do in undergrad does not mean they had a nefarious agenda when they signed up with TFA; nor does it mean they were in error by not being too sure of what they wanted to do after a liberal arts undergraduate degree.
I was someone who had no idea what I wanted to do during my four year liberal arts education (well, I thought I did but then realized I didn’t so then I wasn’t sure). So after working in a few different jobs, I went back to school to become a teacher (another three years at a university). It was expensive for me to do that.
I was a good teacher (as told to me by students, parents and administration etc). Is that because of my liberal arts foundation, or because of my teacher training? Or because I have a personality that is good for it? Or because both of my parents were good teachers and I learned from them? Perhaps a mix?
Just because someone didn’t major in education or an education area in undergrad doesn’t mean they can’t be a good teacher. In fact, a subject like “the Classics” can be enriching for a teacher to draw on in their teaching. I think conversations about how to encourage teachers to join teaching that won’t cost an arm and a leg (which my path did) are OK to have. Now granted, NC’s problems were mostly created by what appears to be tax cuts for the upper echelon and a continued burden on public services and those who work in them, but I still think conversations about new approaches or ways to not have people go into debt to become a teacher are good conversations. As a music teacher with a liberal arts background I often noticed a reluctance on the part of teachers who majored in education to truly participate in aspects of community that enrich a teacher’s perspective (like the Symphony)—-it’s like they just wanted to do their job and go shopping or to home jewelry shows and forget culture; many teachers who majored in education are very linear in their views of teaching and often act like those in the arts are just fluff. So I’ve seen a little of everything in teaching. Great teachers who majored in education, and great teachers who did not. (The TFA folks I know, which are few, did not stay in teaching—but I suspect they did about as well as any first year teacher, if they had had experience working with children in camps and so forth). In fact, my own experience working in camps helped prepare me for teaching later in life (even though I did go through traditional student teaching for a semester—I was doubly prepared, I suppose). I think it’s a mixed bag. The issues are more about what has happened to the profession and the cohesion therein, rather than the quality of any individual teacher and what they have to offer, I think. I think if we truly want to discuss it we have to step back and consider various walks in life.
Unfortunately the right in NC wants to, as a politician explained it, “take a meat cleaver” to education instead of using a scalpel to trim where excess might exist. At the same time, I find the left reacts strongly when even the scalpel is used.
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There is a shortage in NC. 2015 – 2016
in
Mathematics (Grades 6 -8 and Grades 9 – 12)
Science (Grades 9 – 12)
Special Education: Adapted Curriculum and General Curriculum
Click to access tsa.pdf
See page 118
So they cut the very programs that have the largest needs.
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But if you have no job, how are you going to pay to go back to get certified in those areas? Borrow? Isn’t the student loan borrowing something we want to veer away from? Maybe we need new lateral entry night programs (actually some of the private colleges have them. . .but again, they are expensive). And I know the answer is that if we hadn’t created a budget problem by cutting taxes we wouldn’t be staring down these shortages. But until we get new people in office, they aren’t going to listen, I don’t think. So we either work to get new folks elected or we figure out how to make the best of the situation. And again, there are other UNC system schools where people can go to get those ad-ons. Also, you can get ad-ons online anymore.
I don’t think this is the end of the world. It’s symbolic of priorities, sure, but it’s not the worst thing.
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Vote the bums out. All purpose answer.
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Yes, good reporting Diane. The next territory the reformers are trying to conquer is Higher Ed. They are going to try to rearrange teaching programs so new teachers are forced to get on board with their program. More reporting on this topic is crucially important.
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Who needs educated, qualified, experienced teachers any more when there is TFA recruits who are mostly gone in two years to move into leadership positions where they might end up ruling the United States without the need of elections?
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My point exactly
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framing it like that does make one stop and think; for sure.
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Lloyd,
When do you think the elections will be cancelled? Will they resort to Marshall law before canceling election? Please let me know, I want to be prepared.
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Hopefully it won’t happen until after I’m dead, but with Citizens United, the deadline is fast approaching as corporate oligarchs gobble up cities, states, seats in the U.S. Congress and keep getting presidents elected who do their bidding.
I read this morning that this all started during the Korean War with the rise of America’s global empire.
Without drastic changes, for instance, an end to Citizens United and proper campaign reform, it is inevitable until the day comes when our leaders calls the U.S. a democracy in name only, and maybe the U.S. is already there.
It has been reported that at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when Benjamin Franklin was leaving, a woman asked him, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”
Franklin replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
The author of this one post says we have already lost it.
“Many Americans believe they live in a democracy. They don’t. Yes, there are names on the ballot, campaigns are waged, votes are cast, and the winners serve their terms in Washington. But some votes count more than others. Way more. Those who vote with their checkbooks have far more sway than those who do nothing but push buttons or pull levers in a voting booth. The further you move away from the “one person, one vote” principle, the less of a democracy you have. Here in America we’ve moved a vast distance away from this ideal principle. That is especially evident this year now that we live in the Age of the Superpacs after the Citizens United decision.
“Unfortunately, there is no good word to describe what we’ve got in the United States. We could call it an oligarchy, but that implies a concentration of power that doesn’t exist. The elites who make the rules in America are a relatively large, diverse group. Power is widely and loosely distributed, although most of the power broking goes on in Washington, D.C.”
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2012/03/democracies-always-fail.html
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“Plutocracy” might be the right word.
What worries me is not just money’s strong sway in politics; it’s the public’s lack of ardor for democracy. In their hearts, many Americans have always been fascists, but at least they used to give lip service to democracy. Now I seem to hear the lip service less and less.
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“Beginning with the Constitution’s adoption, America has been a Republic. But the dominant trend over the last two centuries has been to make it into a democracy as well, a representative democracy, also known as a democratic republic. True, the creation of the Constitution itself was partly a reaction against democracy.” …
“At the national level the major steps toward democracy can be marked by amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The Bill of Rights guaranteed limits to the power of the federal government. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment effectively extended the vote to all adult male citizens, including ex-slaves, by penalizing states that did not allow for universal male suffrage. The Fifteenth Amendment explicitly gave the right to vote to former slaves. After the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments did not extend suffrage to women, a vigorous campaign for the vote was launched by women, who received the vote through the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
“But the main Amendment that tipped the scales from the national government of the United States being a mere republic to being a true representative democracy was the often-overlooked Seventeenth Amendment, which took effect in 1913. Since 1913 the U.S. Senate has been elected directly by the voters, rather than being appointed by the state legislatures. That makes the national government democratic in form, as well as being a republic.”
http://www.williampmeyers.org/republic.html
The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism: Crash Course US History #8
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WI is doing major damage.
Click to access dpinr2015_58.pdf
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NC currently has a shortage of qualified teachers, so the response was to cut the teacher preparation programs. When there are too few police or doctors or IRS or any other position, we usually incentive the jobs, not cut training for the job. Many of the secondary programs have low enrollment since they are not degree programs, they are licensure programs. So a math teacher majors in mathematics and only gets a license in Secondary Education Mathematics, not necessarily a degree (same for English, social studies and science). So I am not sure exactly what was cut or not. Those of us in the UNC system impacted by this decision have not received any official word that I know of other than this one article that came out a few days ago.
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So it seems they are cutting the programs where interest (translation: $$$$$) has declined. (Never mind they are the programs most needed.). Hmmmm…. Of course, interest has declined because the jackals leading our General Assembly in NC have done everything humanly possible to encourage college students NOT to want to become teachers. Enrollment in teacher education programs has, indeed, plummeted. Anyone who has kept up with NC education the past several years knows what I’m talking about. (And thank you, Diane, for continuing to expose their asinine maneuvers!). Trust me, people… This is all falling perfectly into place, per their plan. Long story short: the biggest teacher organization in NC generally endorses Democratic candidates. It’s payback time, and has been for a number of years. Look up NC Senate Bill 480 if you think I’m joking. Strip teachers of their longevity, their career status (not really tenure), their pay (new pay schedule gives a small raise once every FIVE YEARS!) and now…their political voice and what do you get?? Teacher shortage, of course. The answer? Charter schools (why bother with those pesky teacher credentials or the accountability of public schools?) and virtual schools with computers and “facilitators”. Makes sense, though. Computers don’t protest, question, make demands, and most importantly, don’t vote. Take a peek at the proposed budget and follow the increases!! When they have finally demoralized enough of us and we give up, they can say, “Mission accomplished”. Praying the NC public realizes it before it’s too late…
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Today’s paper reports that enrollment in NC teacher ed programs has fallen 27 percent in the last five years. The state says it needs to hire 10,000 new teachers each year to keep up with demand. Forty-six of the 56 programs cut out of the UNC system were education programs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ superintendent says the teacher shortage keeps her up at night. And our governor wants us to emphasize “job preparation,” not the liberal arts. (I assume teaching jobs aren’t real jobs.) NC officials and legislators are just nuts. Vote the bums out, Diane? Oh yes, except that I fear that NC’s lean to the right will only get more extreme. I honestly don’t think the voters see it. So sad.
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Meanwhile, see related:
NC GOP Governor McCrory: “Oughtta Get a Teachin’ Degree in Two Weeks”
As of last week: one can pick up 6 online courses at the community college and “become a teacher” in North Carolina with rapid speed!
A little more than two weeks, but:
“As NC’s college of education program enrollments plummet 12%, Governor McCrory has a new strategy #2weekdegrees”
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Grrrrrrrrrrr!! Certainly proves his disdain for our profession!!
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Reblogged this on Learning and Labor and commented:
Coming soon–to a campus near you!
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I agree with Diane. Vote the bums out, indeed. People died for our right to vote and this country has a bad record re: citizens voting. Makes me ill.
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