Having treated teachers shabbily, Wisconsin now finds it needs to take desperate measures to hire teachers: lower standards.
Tim Slekar of Edgewood College in Milwaukee says this is madness.
He writes:
“There is NO NEED for an “emergency rule” that deregulates teacher licensure.
“However:
“There IS AN EMERGENCY need to address the reasons why teachers are fleeing Wisconsin classrooms. and…
“There IS AN EMERGENCY NEED to address the reasons why students are not enrolling in teacher education programs at Institutions of Higher Education.
“Any step that DPI takes to “reduce regulations” actually lowers the standards of the the people that will be charged with the educational and social/emotional welfare of OUR children.
“The TEACHERS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE will never enter our schools through the dismantling process of deregulating the profession and intentionally lowering standards. The standards were put in place to guarantee a level of expertise.
“In summary,
“WE DON”T HAVE AN EMERGENCY THAT REQUIRES DUMBING DOWN THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING.
“WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY THAT REQUIRES COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP!”
Tim Slekar testified to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction that the teacher shortage is a “manufactured crisis” and it will not be solved by lowering standards.
He is a one-man crusade, fighting for the integrity of the teaching profession in a state led by hostile actors. The people of Wisconsin deserve better leadership but they won’t get it until they vote Scott Walker and his malignant enablers out of office.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Look at that the writer is a capitalist . It would seem that the skills shortage has hit the teaching profession . I wonder what percentage of those 5 million unfilled positions needs to be filled in the teaching profession . The capitalist class no-longer believes in capitalism. Like the rest of the skills shortage it does not pass the smell test.
“when there is a shortage of skills,those with the skills arbitrage their skills between employers and wages rise . ” ‘CEPR’
In this case those with the skills to become teachers have decided that those employers are not in the field of education.
So to that I say
“having a shortage of diamonds is not being able to buy diamonds. It is not the same as not being able to buy diamonds at the price we would like to pay for them. ” Peter Cappelli Director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School
What a waste to have capitalism die in 2008 and not have the leadership to take us to a better place. Then as a result to wind up with Walker and Trump ,DeVos and the Clown show.
?
There is a very popular meme that says America has a shortage of skilled workers . It is a fundamental part of the reformer argument .
We are not providing industry with everything from skilled factory workers to scientific researchers . My point was that when you degrade the teaching profession in numerous ways, from falling wages and bennifits to a less rewarding experience at work . You should not be surprised that fewer qualified ,quality people decide to go into the profession . We have not rewritten the laws of supply and demand. So you are going to get what you pay for.
Apparently they do not care about the quality of education. Only that the burden of the cost not fall on the wealthy. The wealthy will send their children to elite public districts or private schools. Where the better qualified teachers will be located because the tax base can afford the higher wages.
The last comment was a reference to a wasted Black Swan moment.When Capitalism had collapsed from an orgy of unbridled greed. Obama who had a super majority wasted the moment .
With it, he lost the House, the States and then the Senate . You did not lose the house in 2010 because of Obamacare(Heritagecare) . The mandates did not kick in till 2014 . You lost it for failing to deliver hope and change.
Had I seen Jacks comments . I could have saved some effort.
PLENTY of teachers available, fewer and fewer systems willing to pay for and support professional teaching.
Exactly my point .
Sadly, the people of Wisconsin will continue to see a decline in education if they continue to vote for Koch brothers’ puppet, Scott Walker. Walker will continue to dismantle and destroy public education as it is a target of both conservatives and hedge funds. Unless the people have the will to organize and defend public education, the bleeding will continue.
And if they continue to vote for libertarian/Ayn Randians like Ron “Let Them Eat Koch-Kake” Johnson. We could have had Russ Feingold in the senate.
The plan is working brilliantly.
Next step is hiring unqualified temps.
Final step is Pearsonalized learning.
Ka-Ching!
Peter “Curmudgucation” Greene calls these laws “Warm Body Legislation”, as in … just put any warm body — no matter how unqualified, untrained, inexperienced, etc. in the classroom — and all will be just fine.
Peter’s also great with analogies, as in this one at:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/07/ny-warm-bodies-for-charters.html
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PETER GREENE:
“Travel with me to a board meeting at Giant Imaginary Hospital.
Board Member #1: “We are still unable to fill several openings in the surgical department. What shall we do?”
Board Member #2: “We’ll just have to offer a more competitive package, with better pay and better perks. I mean, that’s how the free market works, right?”
Board Member #3: “I have a better idea. Let’s just promote Sven.”
Board Member #2: “Sven Svenberger? From the kitchen at the GIH cafeteria?”
Board Member #3: “Sure. He uses knives. Surgeon use knives.”
Board Member #2: “But we’re talking about surgery on actual humans. He’s a cook, Jim. Not a doctor.”
Board Member #3: “Fine. We’ll give him a week of training.”
“Many starts have been having versions of this conversation as they pass their own version of warm body legislation, legislation that puts pretty much any warm body in the classroom.”
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Another great analogy from the same piece of Peter’s involves offering a ludicrously low price when buying a car:
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PETER GREENE:
“Sigh. Why do we have to keep explaining to free market fans how the free market works. If I can’t buy a Lexus for $1.95, that doesn’t suggest either an automobile shortage or that “I am struggling to find quality automobiles.”
“It suggests that I am offering an inadequate ‘bid’ for the goods and services that I want.”
” ‘Okay, I could go up to $10.95.’ ”
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Now, that piece by Peter Greene is spot on. Thank you for posting it.
Years ago, my father used to say “You get what you pay for.”
It’s still true.
And when Bill Gates pays for it, you get stuff you didn’t pay for — and don’t even want!
Stuff like Common Core.
In essence, what people are calling “a teacher shortage” is actually a “willing to pay teachers gap” or a “willing to tax citizens to pay for quality teachers gap”— the difference between …
… what anti-education, right-wing elected officials (and their Koch Brothers or Koch Brothers-ish billionaire backers/masters) are willing to pay for teachers,
… and …
… the amount that is actually required to be taxed/spent in order to attract sufficiently qualified, educated and skilled teachers to apply to work in Wisconsin (or in Kansas, or in Arizona, or in Nevada, or whatever state).
It’s funny how corporate ed. reformers, including Education Secretary Devos, are all about free market this, and free market that and let the free market fix everything … and on and on, but when it comes to applying the most basic of free market principles — The Law of Supply and Demand — to the prospect of attracting and retaining the best teachers, they won’t go there.
from wiki …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_supply
” … there is a direct relationship between price (being offered) and quantity (& quality being attracted) : quantities (& corresponding higher quality) respond in the same direction as price changes.”
The lower the salary of a job being offered, the lower the quality of —- and the lower the number of qualified — applicants seeking that same job.
The higher the salary of a job being offered, the higher the quality of —- and the higher the number of qualified — applicants seeking that same job.
Instead of offering more, the corporate ed. reformers say the solution is to re-define what “qualified” means, defining it downward, so that a greater number and larger pool of people — poorly qualified people — can step in and do the job.
Take Arizona, for instance.
In the article (BELOW) the governor and other politicians are actually arguing that all one needs to teach in a classroom is a high school diploma. According to the newest legislation, that “just-a-high-school-diploma” standard applies to substitute teachers, not permanent teachers (not yet, anyway.) If a district can simply declare an “emergency situation”, they then can legally bring in all the “just-a-high-school-diploma” teachers they want.
However, many a class is taught by substitutes in long-term assignments. These assignments are to cover maternity leaves, illnesses, teachers who move, or quit, or whatever. So in Arizona THIS COMING SCHOOL YEAR (not in some distant future), students whose classes are being covered long-term will be taught by “teachers” … and you can use that term loosely … who have zero training, and merely a high school diploma.
Furthermore, once Arizonans get used to it, do you really think that the corporate ed. reformers will simply to stop there in this death spiral — only subs can get away with “just a high school diploma” qualification, but permanent teachers need a Bachelor’s?
Fat chance o’ that.
Eventually, the “just-a-high-school-diploma” standard will also apply to permanent teachers. It’s inevitable, and proponents will likely argue that they just came up with this super-duper short term 20-hour Teacher Academy that’s just as good as a university degree and training in education.
If I were a public school parent in Arizona, I’d be going thermonuclear with rage right now.
Here’s that article:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2017/06/dozens_of_arizona_teachers_lac.html
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EDUCATION WEEK:
“Districts across Arizona say that the state’s teacher shortage has gotten so bad that they need to hire educators who don’t have a bachelor’s degree. There are dozens of such teachers across the state, according to The Arizona Republic, which collected data from 162 school districts, which collectively educate about 80 percent of the state’s public school students.
” … ”
“These certificates are valid for one school year and can only be used in the district where the teacher applied for the certificate. Emergency substitutes are limited to teaching 120 days during that school year, but state regulations don’t place any requirements on how many consecutive days an emergency sub can serve in one classroom.(i.e. long-term assignments, JACK)
” In order to get the certificate renewed, educators need to provide transcripts showing that they’ve completed two semester hours of academic coursework over the year. The state allows them to substitute 15 hours of professional development per semester hour. Educators who already have 30 semester hours are exempt from this renewal requirement.
” … ”
“Daniel Scarpinato, a spokesperson for the governor (Ducey), told The Republic that the new certification rules would help districts find qualified teachers by making ‘teaching an attractive profession and a valued profession and one that people want to stay in.’
“According to the Learning Policy Institute, a think tank headed by Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond, Arizona has a lot of other issues to overcome in addressing its deep teacher shortage. As Education Week Teacher’s Madeline Will reported last year, LPI gave the state the lowest teacher attractiveness rating, dinging Arizona for low starting pay, large class sizes and high attrition.
“Arizona state superintendent Diane Douglas, who opposed the recent certification revamp, told The Republic that she didn’t think the changes would do much to address the root causes of the shortages, and instead would only further lower the bar for entering the state’s classrooms.”
One more incredible teacher shortage story out of Arizona that I have to share:
An Arizona state Assemblyman and State House Majority Leader is sick of teachers quitting their jobs and whining over low pay. He’s also fed up with having to endure teachers’ and others’ pressure to increase taxes to fund a raise in teacher pay.
Furthermore, he’s sick of claims that he and other lawmakers are “torturing” teachers with the alleged low pay that supposedly leaves them “struggling”, and drives them to quit teaching, or leave to teach in a neighboring state.
Last month he told one newspaper his solution / message to those teachers:
“Quit whining and go take on a second job.”
You see, in his the-sky-is-purple world, teachers with second jobs are not doing so because they’re having financial problems caused by their state having among the lowest pay in the country.
No, those “enterprising” teachers are doing it to buy “a boat,” or “a bigger house,” or a more luxurious “better lifestyle.”
“Good for them!” he argues to a disbelieving journalist.
http://realtimepolitics.com/2017/06/16/rublican-to-teachers-better-life-second-job/?utm_campaign=PL&utm_source=PL&utm_medium=FB
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REAL TIME POLITICS:
Teachers in Arizona are getting second jobs not because they’re struggling to survive on their low pay, but because they want to enjoy the finer things in life, like boats, according to House Majority Leader John Allen.
“They’re making it out as if anybody who has a second job is struggling. That’s not why many people take a second job. They want to increase their lifestyles. They want to improve themselves. They want to pay for a boat. They want a bigger house. They work hard to provide themselves with a better lifestyle.
‘That’s America. The idea that we are somehow torturing somebody if they have a second job is just ridiculous. And (teachers) have a long summer. What a great opportunity for people like us and teachers to go out and get a second job.
“Let’s all get a second job this summer,’ he said.
“Not everyone who takes a second job does it because they’re borderline poverty.’
— John Allen, Arizona Republican State Assembllyman
and House Majority leader.
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Here’s more from that same article:
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Allen, a Scottsdale Republican, made the remark as an explanation for the controversial comments he made during a vote Tuesday on a bill to allow more people without formal teacher training to teach at K-12 schools. The bill, SB1042, passed the House and is awaiting Gov. Doug Ducey’s signature.
During the vote, Allen said the fact that some teachers have to hold a second job to make ends meet doesn’t mean lawmakers don’t care about them. Instead, it shows teachers are enterprising Americans, like many lawmakers, he said.
‘Most of us in this room have a second job. Good for them,’ he said, adding he likes it when people use their ‘God-given talents’ and try to make themselves better.
‘That’s America. The idea that we are somehow torturing somebody if they have a second job is just ridiculous. And (teachers) have a long summer.
“What a great opportunity for people like us and teachers to go out and get a second job. Let’s all get a second job this summer,’ he said.
But will the party leadership in both parties offer the voters someone who isn’t another Scott Walker? The major political parties control who the people get to vote for. That’s why it is so common to hear people grumbling about the difficulty of voting for the lesser of two evils.
It’s like Satan decides to send several of his demons to run for election and no one else is allowed to run. The people then have to decide what demon is going to do the least damage. And we complain about why so many don’t vote. How many don’t vote because they don’t see a choice – just more of the same?
Well, sure, the voters get plenty of choices.
Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Azazel, Balaam.
Take your pick.
If we could only call JC back to send these demons back to the underworld. Wait, no, not a good idea. If JC shows up now, that’s the end, but then that might not be a bad idea because all the fake corporate reformers of public education would end up in hell during the sorting process.
And I’m sure even Satan would reject #FakePresident Donald Trump and most of his cabinet and his family. With no place to go, and since they don’t have souls, they’d all be deleted.
Summer off is enforced unemployment during which one can improve one’s skills on one’s own dime. Ask Allen how he would like a second job after expending the attention of an air traffic controller and the energy of an athlete during the day. Ask him when planning and grading parapers would take place. Ask him why he isn’t a teacher. Ask him when he became anti-capitalist.
You are on point. The idea is to ruin education and dumb down all systems to better control the masses. De Vos is a part of this, too. This is all a strategy backed by the likes of the Koch Brothers who are controlling Walker’s strings.
How did we get here?
This has been in the works for over 40 years. It’s called ALEC–The Master Plan. WHY are masses of Americans still ignorant of its existence? This is not only Wisconsin–as other readers have written here–it is ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.
Tell EVERYONE you know about ALEC. Implore them to look it up–ALEC in all its (or, I should say “their”–it is, after all, made up of people, albeit evil ones) transparency–is there on the Internet (& read it while you still have it) for all to see.
Legislators–Dems as well as Republicans–are bought–all over the country.
And–BTW–WHAT “second jobs” are available? Our “Help Wanted” sections are an extremely small portion of the Want Ads.
And this is in Chicago & the surrounding areas.
Utah changed its licensing rules last year, as many of you may remember. It allows “teachers” to get a license without any training at all–just a degree in any subject and passing a PRAXIS test.
STILL an enormous shortage of teachers. Many districts in Utah are now offering double-digit salary increases in an attempt to keep teachers.
The licensure really helped the shortage, didn’t it (that is sarcasm)?
What a coincidence that NY State is in the midst of making it legal for charter schools to hire uncertified teachers.
And that a recent poll showed a majority of Republicans think that higher education is unnecessary.
The media machine is churning out the propaganda that will pave the way for eventually dumbing those of us who reside in the lower than 1% income level down, down, down.
It’s a national and international push. The oligarchs are multi-national, after all.
Too much money in the hands of waaaaaay too few. There must be a way to stop this.
(“lower than the TOP 1% income level”, lol)
The oligarchs are thinking they don’t need to waste money on educating the people because the oligarchs will soon have artificially intelligent, easy to control machines to do all the thinking for the oligarchs, the kind of thinking the oligarchs can have programmed to be what they want. For instance, Facebook’s Suckerberg is going ahead at full speed to develop AI, but he is not alone.
10 tech giants investing in artificial intelligence: What is their plan and who are other key players?
http://www.techworld.com/picture-gallery/data/tech-giants-investing-in-artificial-intelligence-3629737/
The oligarchs want to get rid of truck drivers, teachers, the troops, etc. and replace them all with robots that are controlled by AI and the AI’s programming will be what the billionaires want it to be. The end result. Total control over everything. At that point, the billionaires won’t need the rest of us people, the 99-percent, or even their wealth and money, because once they get rid of 99-percent of the people on Earth, the wealthy will need nothing. Heck, they are even developing robots to replace sexy women for men like #FakePresident Trump to grope and molest.
You might be thinking but what about children. That has already been solved. The billionaires can collect the eggs and sperm from the most intelligent and beautiful people and store it away for future use in artificial wombs. Those children will be raised by the AI’s and will replace the few humans the billionaires allow to exist with them.
Then there is cloning. The billionaires will pay to develop ways to grow new bodies for them to use so they can just transfer their memories into an empty brain inside a young, new beautiful body once their old body wears out. Science is moving at a fast pace in that direction.
Lloyd,
Sounds like “Brave New World.”
Not so scary for us who are beyond retirement age but scary for our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and children not born yet if they ever get a chance to be born.
I found a couple gems over in the COMMENTS Section in an article about the Wisconsin teacher shortage:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2017/07/08/borsuk-teacher-shortages-reflect-larger-education-issues/461042001/
One of the very last comment is from Professor/Dean Tim Skelar, and includes his testimony at a recent hearing about the teacher shortage:
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TIM SKELAR:
“Good afternoon. My name is Tim Slekar and I am the Dean of the School of Education at Edgewood College.
“Let me be clear from the outset.
“1. Our teacher shortage is a manufactured crisis that has resulted in an Exodus from the profession, and has routed potential teachers away from teacher education.
“2. Loosening, tinkering, and doing away with teacher licenses—as some have proposed—will do NOTHING except dramatically increase systemic inequity and genuinely harm the profession of teaching.
“However, let’s be honest. What’s happening here is happening all across the country. Policy makers and pundits actively push the teacher shortage narrative. And, in the same breath, advocate and put forth policies that do away with teacher licensing.
“Why?
“Well there are two answers. One that rests on the teacher shortage narrative and plays into the fear of public school parents.
“The other is the truth.
“The fear answer. Allowing license flexibility or doing away with teaching licenses altogether will fix the shortage. and If ‘we’ don’t do something fast children will face empty classrooms.
“The TRUTH: Softening teacher license policies or doing away with the license altogether will kill the profession and turn teaching into a low wage service sector job.
“It’s that simple. Yet trying to get policy makers, pundits, and media to understand this seems almost impossible. Trust me. I have been trying for the last 11 months.
“However, other than what I have already said I do not plan on delivering a negative critique of the suggested license tampering—a tampering that only works for certain adults, but fails our children, our schools and our communities.
“Instead I want to propose model legislation that might have a chance of undoing the damage already done.
“Today I propose the ‘Teachers Our Children Deserve Act.’ It is very simple.
“All of our children deserve a fully qualified, licensed teacher.
“A teacher who is culturally competent.
“A teacher with a deep understanding of linguistic plurality.
“A teacher with multiple experiences in inclusive settings.
“These teachers must have an education rooted in critical pedagogy that exposes societal inequities and inspires a passion for social justice.
“And then, if there happens to be a ‘shortage’, this legislation will provide the funding to school districts and to teacher education programs that form a mutual partnership that uses a model for teacher recruitment called ‘grow your own.’
“What is ‘grow your own?’ Simple. Our best and brightest future teachers are already living in the communities of our public schools or are actually attending these schools.
“We must actively recruit these candidates into teaching and fully fund it. Actually incentivize the future of the profession by requiring colleges and districts to develop deep partnerships to address the direct needs of districts that combines the talents of all involved. The so-called shortage will quickly die as our children finally get The TEACHERS THEY DESERVE!
“Devaluing teacher licensure will create even more inequity and harm our most vulnerable children.
“Rather we must incentivize and inspire a movement of future educators. Our children, our schools and our communities DEMAND ‘The Teachers Our Children Deserve.’ ”
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And another great post in the COMMENTS Section is form Wisconsin teacher Paul Trotter, who gives the background on Wisconsin’s war on teachers, and that it was in the making 20 years prior to Walker’s election. That propaganda smear laid the groundwork for Walker’s Act 10:
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PAUL TROTTER:
“Walker to Trump: Here’s How I Made Teachers the Most HATED People in Wisconsin”
“Five years ago, weeks after a narrow victory in the 2010 election, Governor Walker began a legislative blitz to destroy quality public education in Wisconsin. Governor Walker’s #1 Target: PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS.
“For over 20 years prior to to Walker’s election as Governor, Wisconsin public school teachers had been routinely demonized by conservative talk radio stations across Wisconsin as the ‘enemy’ of economic prosperity in Wisconsin.
“Teachers were attacked continuously by the ‘mainstream’ media as ‘freeloaders’, ‘greedy’, ‘overpaid‘, and ‘lazy’. For nearly 20 years, students in Wisconsin’s public schools had scored #1 or #2 in the nation on ACT tests.
“Yet the ‘mainstream media’ in Wisconsin always found a negative story to write trashing and demeaning the quality of teachers and public education in Wisconsin. Right-wing supporters of the Republican anti-public education agenda spent millions of dollars in negative advertising on conservative talk radio shows.
“The end result of all that negative media is that Walker became Governor at a time when hatred for teachers had become deeply woven into the societal fabric of Wisconsin.
“As Governor Walker launched his legislative blitz (or as he called it, ‘dropping the bomb’) to repeal collective bargaining rights for teachers, years of relentless attacks on teachers had made it socially acceptable among many Wisconsinites to refer to teachers as ‘freeloaders’, ‘moochers’, ‘parasites‘, ‘money grubbing whores’ and ‘union thugs’ in casual conversation.
“Even today, in 2016, many Wisconsin residents still use these terms on a routine basis when talking about teachers in Wisconsin.
“By sowing a deep disrespect for teachers into the social fabric of Wisconsin, conservative supporters of Governor Walker paved the way for the successful attacks on teachers and public education. Though Walker never campaigned on what would become Act 10, (except to billionaire Republican donors), the deep disrespect for teachers in Wisconsin made passage of Act 10 unstoppable.
“Governor Walker’s Act 10 repealed nearly 60 years of improvements in working conditions for teachers and all public employees. Only the police and fire unions who had made large donations to Walker’s campaign for Governor were exempted from Act 10.”
“Wisconsin is one of only 6 states in America where teachers do not have the right to collectively bargain over benefits, working conditions, and all aspects of pay.
“Wisconsin is one of only 3 states in America where there are no tenure protections for experienced teachers. Almost every teacher in Wisconsin is now what was known as a probationary teacher before Act 10 for their entire career and can be fired without a defensible reason.
“Wisconsin is the ONLY state in America where all teachers have no tenure protections AND do not have the right to collectively bargain for fair treatment or reasonable job security.”
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