Tim Slekar followed up his earlier post with an announcement that the war against the teaching profession in Wisconsin has reached a new low.
He declared a victory for the far-right ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council, which writes most of the “model laws” to privatize schools and eliminate the teaching profession).
Well today “they” did it. “They” opened the door to deprofesssionalization and authorized the use of emergency licenses to address the “shortage” and placed our most vulnerable children in a defenseless position.
Instead of truly addressing the EXODUS of teachers and the miserable conditions driving teachers out of the profession “they” simply created a pathway into our classrooms for unlicensed and unqualified personnel.
Of course “they” won’t admit this. In fact, “they” already have “talking points” in case someone dare question the integrity of devaluing the teaching profession.
Now let’s be very clear about how these emergency license rules will really play out in schools across the state.
The most qualified teachers will end up in the most affluent areas.
Emergency licensed teachers will end up in high poverty areas.
School districts with money will hire licensed teachers and require specialized licenses for teachers in fields such as special education.
School districts without money will hire emergency certified people and use the new emergency rules to get around the specialized license requirements for fields such as special education.
ALEC will have won another victory because the cost for teachers will be significantly reduced.
And over time, more and more license reductions will eventually result in a deprofessionalized field and our children will suffer as novices with no sense of the professional, ethical, social, and moral obligations required to be a teacher take over our classrooms.
Can we let this happen?
Does anyone seriously believe that we can have a better education system by hiring unlicensed teachers?
Union Busting at it’s best. Sad days ahead for children and professional teachers.
Quote: “Does anyone seriously believe that we can have a better education system by hiring unlicensed teachers?”
Indiana wants to get people in other professions into the classroom. Guess teachers are doing such a crappy job that we need ‘real’, intelligent people who can make progress.
Anyone with a degree in any subject, as long as you had a B average in college, can teach in Indiana. I have no idea of whether or not any districts are lowering themselves to hire such people. There is a shortage so that is possible.
The current trend will continue. The urban/inner city districts that struggle to hire qualified teachers as it will now have fewer qualified teachers to chose from.
Of course, there is always the problem of why would anyone want to teach under such horrible conditions, including bad pay? If the job market ever recovers, I can’t see people with degrees going into teaching.
For me, it is the working conditions more than the pay. Yes, I would love to be paid more but more important is to be treated right with a certain level of respect.
The veteran, well-qualified teachers are out there — they just aren’t on the hiring lists any more. We must keep in mind that while many teachers may choose to stop teaching, especially in the inner city many other educators have been pushed (and are still currently being blamed, harassed, labeled and pushed) out of teaching against their will.
Yes, they are.
If we whip the jockeys, then the horse will run faster…..NOT
The 4 co-hosts of ABC’s Good Morning America, including Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulis expressed praise for Indiana’s plan to put an 18- year- old graduate of a charter school, back in her school, 3 mos. later, to teach. Her sociology degree was earned while she was in h.s. (probably not what the co-hosts’ want for their kids). I’d compare it to a serf system with all of the families living at subsistence wages.
Anxious to find examples of minority success in a racist society sadly, resulted in pandering. If the 18 year-old was White, maybe it would have provoked questions about a system that perpetuates poverty.
An 18-year-old in the classroom. I hope it is at the elementary level. If they put her in a high school with 16-17-18-year-olds, then that is a recipe for disaster.
In Texas, there is a big discussion about inappropriate teacher/student relationships which leads me to be very concerned about this idea.
Eighteen seems to be serious overkill for elementary teachers.
Why not just have k teaching Pre-K, first teaching k, 2nd teaching first, etc?
After all, who knows better about what a Pre-K student needs than a kindergartner who just went through Pre-K?
By the way, I intend to patent this method in case George Stephanopoulos is reading this. So, don’t get any ideas, George!
I’m going to call it “SomeDAM Teaching Elementary Method” (STEM)
Arizona as well. Do you have any way to get the original materials created by ALEC on this specific issue?
To learn about ALEC and its model legislation, go to a website called ALEC EXPOSED.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13054/cashing-kids-172-alec-education-bills-2015
I have long been an advocate for alternative certification for teachers. Here in Virginia, an individual with a degree in certain fields (Computer Science, Foreign Languages, etc.) can obtain certification through a “boot camp”.
See
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching/educator_preparation/career_switcher/
This is a terrific program, and it is already bringing highly qualified individuals into the classroom.
Here are the details and who has signed on to this agenda.
Not a peep of opposition from the groups that should be defending professional credentials for teachers. http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.wasda.org/resource/resmgr/misc_docs/1.27.17-MessagePoints.pdf
The Koch’s created a crisis of public funding with their concentrated wealth and their funding for campaigns that reject taxation. Cheaper labor is gained by reducing worker qualifications and pay. The Koch/Gates grandkids won’t get their education from inexperienced serfs. That’s only for the 99%. The Koch’s ultimate political success will come when Gates’ schools-in-a-box are sold to parents, after public education has been destroyed. Then, the Koch/Gates colonialism will be on full display, with the abject poverty embodied in a parent forced to buy schools-in-a-box, pleading, “Don’t make money on our poor backs.”
and, in happy tandem with the techno-billionaire money now pouring into Education in the name of “philanthro-capitalism,” only low-paid NO PENSION computer facilitators needed to replace those highly-educated and professionally-paid teachers….
Yup. It will happen.
And no, nobody thinks that this is a path towards a “better education system.” Nobody. It’s the path to exploding the education system and making it ripe for ever more privatization.
One mistake we routinely make is thinking that our side and the other side have inevitably the same goal (a better education system.) This is not true. Our side is trying to keep alive the idea of public education. The other side is not. Period.
The right wing and the reform movement had finally dropped all pretense of democracy etc. Under Trump, we now see a more honest version of everyone on that side. That’s good I guess. And horrifying. It shouldn’t be shocking though.
If there is a teacher shortage, shouldn’t the school boards be proposing huge increases in salary like a good neoliberal who prays to the “Market” God?
I have no doubt that there are not many 20 something’s going into education, and the education degree graduation stats support that. But if this is truly happening lower licensure requirements will not motivate more people to go into teaching. More salary and better working conditions will. But who am I kidding that ain’t happening, let’s hire another Asst. Principal instead.
The future of education as reformers see it, and a future that looks increasingly likely, is free from the constraints of a professionalized teacher. The future, again as they say it but quite likely considering their ability to win, is all about technology. The adult in the room will be a tech helper. The instruction will be via the device. This has been clear and legible for some time as what they really want….a privatized space with few, if any, well-paid professionals and a maximization of “efficiency.” Vouchers, charters, VAM, etc etc….all nonsense and noise when the real thing had been and is going on right under our noses. “Technology in the classroom” is the real teacher-killer.
Just watch.
Yup. I’ve already heard administrators say that kids can learn foreign languages with Rosetta Stone and not a teacher. Vacuous buffoons.
And just to rub salt into the wound, they did it on national teacher day.
This is a comment on the House version of improved ‘health care’. The House ‘health care reform bill’ would affect school children. I had no idea that Medicaid money was going to school districts. Republicans don’t care about the poor or about children.
………………….
…With all the sweeping changes the Republican bill would impose, little attention has been paid to its potential impact on education. School districts rely on Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor, to provide costly services to millions of students with disabilities across the country. For nearly 30 years, Medicaid has helped school systems cover costs for special education services and equipment, from physical therapists to feeding tubes. The money is also used to provide preventive care, such as vision and hearing screenings, for other Medicaid-eligible children….
AASA, an advocacy association for school superintendents, estimates that school districts receive about $4 billion in Medicaid reimbursements annually. In a January survey of nearly 1,000 district officials in 42 states, nearly 70 percent of districts reported that they used the money to pay the salaries of health care professionals who serve special education students.
Republicans say federal health programs must be restructured to curb their soaring costs — the biggest driver of projected budget deficits — and force a smarter allocation of limited resources….
You don’t need to be certified in anything but escorting kids to the bathroom if the job will consist of tending to kids glued to computer screens. See,e.g., Rocketship; K12, Inc.
The Arizona Legislature (Republican majority) just passed a bill to allow the hiring of uncertificated teachers. They also just opened up the voucher system to ALL students. Furthermore, they gave teachers a measly 1% raise. Arizona is 49th out of the 50 states in teacher pay and funding per pupil.