Sometimes teachers complain that their schools have too many regulations, too many routines.
This music teacher, a professional violinist who signed up to teach in a charter school in Arkansas dedicated to the arts and dear to the heart of Alice Walton, learned about the perils of teaching in a school where everything was deregulated and there were no routines.
Someone thought that a school where decisions are made on the fly and teachers are always on their own was a good ideal maybe this was someone’s idea of innovation.
No, it was not innovative. It was chaotic. It was abusive in the eyes of this teacher. It was disorderly and unpredictable.
Don’t the arts require practice and discipline? Can teachers flourish when there is no respect for them?
Who thought that an atmosphere of chaos and disrespect was a good idea?
The article begins:
“When I started teaching orchestra at Arkansas Arts Academy High School last fall, I didn’t know much about the state of public education in Arkansas. My entire career — 15 years — had been spent as a performing violinist: concertmaster of the Fort Smith Symphony, concertmaster and principal viola with the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, composer/director of Storybook Strings, and a freelancer with touring groups like “Book of Mormon” and Harry Connick, Jr. I also had a long history of teaching private lessons, with a background in the Suzuki method.
“What I did NOT have was an Arkansas teacher’s license, or any previous training to become a public school teacher.
“That’s okay!” the principal assured me. “We’re a charter school. We have waivers from teacher licensure requirements, as long as you have a bachelor’s degree and relevant professional experience!”
“Cool,” I thought. “I know music. I teach music. I can learn everything else on the job.” So I signed up to teach, half-time, trusting in the experience and good faith of my administration and fellow teachers to help me learn the ropes.
“The school didn’t give me a contract until 41 days after I was hired. It was my fourth day of teacher in-service before I found out what my salary would be ($21,187.50) or what employment terms I had signed up for. And those employment terms? They were incredibly vague.
“My contract said “190 half-days,” and “at-will employment.” It also mentioned “a waiver granted by the Arkansas Department of Education” that made Arkansas Arts Academy “exempt from certain laws relating to schools, including specifically many of those relating to employees.” But I trusted the school’s good reputation — I had a friend who taught there, and knew families who sent their kids. Plus, what musician wouldn’t root for the success of an arts academy?
“I should have been more careful. If I had gone to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) website, I would have learned that the “waiver” in my contract was actually a LOT of waivers, and the ADE grants new ones all the time. Currently, Arkansas Arts Academy High School has 51 waivers in effect, including teachers’ rights to planning periods, duty-free lunches, limitations on before- and after-school duties, and the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act. Arkansas Arts Academy is also exempt from having to provide written personnel policies*** to its employees, which means that there is no handbook telling us how to access our classroom funds, what to bring for fire drills, how to interact with the parent organization, or who to talk to if we need help.
“In the absence of state oversight, and without written personnel policies, things quickly became chaotic.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wish I could read it, but it requires membership.
This article came through fine for me.
I was in competition while in middle school and high school. [Idaho] Later, I was a director of a choir that received a top rating in district and state completion. [Illinois]
I’ve never experienced anything like this. Charters are a flop. When politicians don’t support schools it looks like things can completely get out of hand.
Boy, am I glad I never had the chance to work in Arkansas. What garbage!!
“Currently, Arkansas Arts Academy High School has 51 waivers in effect, including teachers’ rights to planning periods, duty-free lunches, limitations on before- and after-school duties, and the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act. Arkansas Arts Academy is also exempt from having to provide written personnel policies*** to its employees, which means that there is no handbook telling us how to access our classroom funds, what to bring for fire drills, how to interact with the parent organization, or who to talk to if we need help.
In the absence of state oversight, and without written personnel policies, things quickly became chaotic.”
I have the Medium app, and it automatically opens when I click on the link. In the middle
of the first sentence, I get this message: “Become a member of Medium to keep reading this exclusive story.” They want $4.99 a month to view it. Not sure how everyone else can see it.
Perhaps I should just delete the app to see the story on my browser for free.
I don’t know what the Medium app is nor do I have it. The article opened fine for me. Perhaps if you uninstall the app, you will be able to read it. Totally horrendous! I can’t begin to understand why anyone is surprised or confused by the teacher shortage.
I open Medium without an app. It is not behind a paywall.
It is if you have the app. I deleted it and was then able to view the entire article.
That is the point of any app – to put information behind paywall, to show you ads, and to charge you for watching those ads. Walled gardens, just like Waltons’ charters.
I had no problem reading the full text.
The naïveté of the artist, mom, and job seeker is on full display.
Charter schools are not public schools.
Competitions in music and art (any subject, any activity) can get out of hand.
I think her naivete is shared by many if not most people who have never worked in education. Anecdotally, I can’t even count how many times I’ve had to explain the difference between charters and public schools, and how many times I’ve had to explain that “school choice” isn’t as pleasant and innocuous as it sounds. Her problems were exacerbated by the tendency for teachers (even unionized teachers) to accept unreasonable expectations “for the children” instead of standing up like professionals to demand professional treatment. It’s true that all our demands might not be met, but we should at least be asking.
An essential truth: “Her problems were exacerbated by the tendency for teachers (even unionized teachers) to accept unreasonable expectations “for the children” instead of standing up like professionals to demand professional treatment.”
GAGA Good German teachers, eh!
You beat me to the punch in highlighting that line, ciedie! 😉
Anti-union sentiment is the norm in America but it can be overcome by stories like this one. I had an anti-union colleague here in CA. Then he moved to the South to teach and quickly rued his switch to “right to work endless hours for peanuts “.
Indeed. This goes WAY beyond teachers and schools. The extreme right has worked assiduously and successfully to crush the union movement in the United States. Today, only about 11 percent of U.S. workers are unionized, and those are almost all government workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, down from 20 percent in 1983. In Iceland, 88.9 percent of workers belong to unions.
I don’t know. She sure blashed the union for “not contacting her,” while apparently not bothering to try to contact them. She blames everyone but herself for this catastrophe. She’s obviously a victim here, but she did herself no favors by expecting everyone else to somehow help her learn how to teach, without bothering to do it the right way.
I joined what I thought was the union. If you compare the organization that I joined (ASTA) with the organization that calls itself a union here (AEA) you’ll see they offer exactly the same things to teachers, at the same price. I don’t understand why the FBI doesn’t charge ASTA with the federal crime of being an illegal “company union.” But I also don’t think it’s reasonable to expect a first-year, unlicensed teacher to know the difference between the AEA and ASTA, especially in a school where the AEA is not allowed to recruit members.
View at Medium.com
I couldn’t finish the article. I want to throw this woman through the window and I have no sympathy for her. What employee working anywhere doing anything ever, ever starts a job without knowing in advance what the salary is? Big red flag right there. Then the whole rest of the article is everything she didn’t know and didn’t bother to find out, all while crying, “no one told me”. And, oh dear, the AEA didn’t reach out to her! FFS, how did this woman survive 15 years in any field???
dienne77: I don’t blame her. I blame the system that is destroying people. Yes, she should have been given a salary schedule, if one existed. It probably didn’t.
How many people go into education not knowing how bad it has become? I’d guess that is why 40-50% quit within 5 years. They simply don’t know what they are getting into and finally can’t take it any more.
Word is getting out to teacher training classes and young adults are now learning to stay away from education. Those who didn’t get the word will learn the hard way.
This woman was an extremely talented violinist. She should not have been given a job as a music teacher without having had proper credentials. Being able to teach without being certified is the job of politicians to correct. She fell into a trap.
“Yes, she should have been given a salary schedule, if one existed. It probably didn’t.”
Interesting use of passive voice. The issue is, she should have demanded to know what she was going to get paid. This is a basic job interviewing skill. It’s something my father talked to me about when I was applying for my first job when I was 16. Who on earth agrees to work any job without knowing what they’re going to get paid and what the benefits are? If your prospective employer can’t answer something that basic, you don’t agree to work there.
I agree that charter schools often take advantage of their employees and oftentimes there’s not much the teachers/staff can do about it. This, however, is not one of those times. She walked into this willfully blindfolded with her hands voluntarily tied behind her back.
dienne77: Yes, the pay was terrible. But that wasn’t the only problem. The working conditions were unbearable. She left because she couldn’t stand it anymore. These are conditions that were beyond her control. None of it was any good.
I worked for years in Illinois as a single parent and the pay was atrocious. I could barely survive. I had a master’s degree in music education and grad hours. So, she was paid badly. I say, “Welcome to the club.” My pay wasn’t as bad as hers, but it wasn’t enough to live even a middle class existence.
I remember the day that I was nearly out of gas. It was payday. I stopped at a gas station and put all the money that I had into the tank…$.75 cents.
I remember the time that I bought some chocolate candy to give away at Halloween. When the packages weren’t opened, I returned them to the grocery store. I couldn’t afford that luxury.
I remember taking my daughter to McDonalds and not buying anything for myself. I couldn’t afford a meal for me.
I was completely certified and had a master’s degree and at least 15 grad hours. It meant nothing when funding wasn’t decent.
I don’t blame her I blame the system that stinks. It has gotten worse since I retired. At least I got a very good salary when I worked at the International School of Kuala Lumpur.
I had a similar feeling about the writing, Dienne. The naivete of the writer was astounding. It points to the necessity of being properly certified as much of what she went through would have been either explained in classes or experienced in the student teaching process.
At the same time, I can understand how someone not properly certified would not know about the abuses heaped upon teachers, and not just in charter schools. I’ve seen similar abuses occur in public schools. “Oh, it’s expected that you do . . . . ” “It’s the way things are around here.” There is no way to know about those things until one gets into the job. Perhaps because I started teaching when I was 39 I didn’t let that shit happen to me, but I saw many a teacher, especially those that had gotten due process rights yet, taken advantage of over the years.
Señor Swacker:
IMHO, one of the best comments on this thread re this account of a messy real-life situation.
I would add this: however many red flags we can see after the fact, the corporate education reform crowd loves to have people come work for them that have all sorts of [often rosy and unrealistic] assumptions about what the job entails and what they have to do and how they’ll be treated and compensated, etc.
Clear up those misconceptions? Point out the unwarranted assumptions? Let people know what they’re really getting into?
Rheeally???? How they gonna protect ROI and large salaries for top admins if they were forced to adhere to such burdensome and quaint notions as “honesty is the best policy” and “do unto others as you would have others do unto you”?
Where’s the $tudent $ucce$$ in that?
Just sayin’…
😎
Sometimes, Dienne, people don’t have a choice. The rent is due, and they need a job. So, they take what is readily available when nothing else is.
In my case, it was because I wanted my son to be able to go to the school. He was a rising kindergartener, but after the enrollment lottery, he was #26 on the waiting list. Then, the orchestra teacher job opened up! Children of faculty automatically get to bypass the waiting list.
I knew it would be low pay, but I was willing to accept low pay in exchange for having my son in the only arts-integrated school in the state. I WASN’T willing to accept all the other stuff that happened as things progressed.
I did ask, many times, for contract information, and advocated as powerfully as possible for myself. Unfortunately, that kind of self-advocacy got me punished. I wrote about it (with written evidence) here: https://medium.com/@erlyon/hammered-down-how-self-advocacy-got-me-punished-a8ec658b6895?source=friends_link&sk=9cc30487bd450f4e6064aded2154136f
Guess what? It’s the same kinds of horrible conditions for regular teachers in the field. No offense, and I’m sorry for your terrible experience, but why did you expect regular teachers to somehow show you the ropes, and then bash on them when they didn’t move the earth to help out?
I lost a baby (she lived 6 1/2 hours), and had to be back at work the very next week (one week after delievering her) because I had no leave and couldn’t afford to be gone. I was still bleeding and lactating. And I was in a school district. Sadly, this crap happens.
It is sad and wrong, what you went through. I hope that you find comfort and joy in your new job, whatever that may be.
As one who survived being targeted for speaking out, I know what that all entails. And I taught in public schools. At the same time, I hope you realize that the school in which you attempted to teach is not a true public school but a private charter school which means you had no protections whatsoever. Incompetent power hungry adminimals can be found in both sectors.
If you really want to teach, please become properly certified as that process will help tremendously, especially for the students’ sake. Teaching is best left for properly trained professionals. (Kind of like a good musician, eh. You wouldn’t want me to be part of your orchestra-LOL!)
Duane: I like your response. I feel bad for roaring violin over all the mean comments. Teaching can be difficult and nobody needs comments that make what happened harder. Teachers, in a decent environment, should be able to help those who are having difficulties. That everyone is surviving on his/her own doesn’t speak well for the system.
There should be adequate time for collaborating in each grade level. The stress level shouldn’t be so high that a person who needs help can’t get it.
I see your point about expecting “regular teachers” to show me the ropes. That’s not what I meant to imply. I expected “regular teachers” to not violate lots of written state laws and rules for inter-scholastic contests, then turn around and punish me for asking questions.
Also, I had a mentor teacher who was being paid to “show me the ropes.” It was actually her job to mentor me, but she got promoted, and I never got another mentor. This was another failure of my employer school.
If you’re interested in reading more about how all traditional public schools in Arkansas have become “charterized” since 2015 (some by converting to charter schools, some by converting to “school of innovation” status, and some just by receiving charter-style waivers) please go here: https://medium.com/@erlyon/272-broken-promises-the-lawless-aftermath-of-arkansas-act-1240-a8e26ce751e8?source=friends_link&sk=1d4ed074b2e925a9c508a6f77d44d715
There IS no difference between charter schools and traditional public schools in Arkansas, any more.
Elizabeth,
I almost always read what links folks here post. In your “272 Broken Promises” you begin with:
“In Arkansas, as in all 50 states, public schools are operated by the state government.”
No, that is not true for all states. Perhaps it is for Arkansas, but I doubt it. Why?
Each state constitution authorizes public education and state laws govern the operation of public schools but the actual operation of public schools are done by separate legal entities, depending upon the state, that are the districts themselves. In some states they may be county or town oriented. In Missouri, each district is a legal entity unto itself, not legally affiliated with any town or county. You might want to change the wording of your opening statement.
Be that as it may, what you describe happening in Arkansas is a nightmare for the students in that it creates, very purposely I might add, a walmartization of education where a cheap product can be offered at a cheap price while someone rakes off, skims off, steals the money up front that should be dedicated to educating the children of Arkansas. And who is behind that? The Waltons of course. Effin avaricious bastards that they are.
Let’s hope that, to paraphrase an obnoxiously trite saying, what education malpractices happen in Arkansas stays in Arkansas. Unfortunately, the Walton SOB’s are working to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Thanks for reading 272 Broken Promises, Duane! I really struggled over the word choice you highlighted in your quote. I used “operated” to mean that state governments set the regulations, mandate attendance, and help fund the public schools — although, in many states, the state governments do not “own” the schools in question. Still, blog posts are easy to edit. How can I modify my writing to make it more clear that I understand schools and school districts are legally separate entities, but that states have a direct hand in shaping their practices and funding their work?
Part of the problem, Elizabeth, is that the term “state” can have many meanings. As a generality, state can include any and all government functions, I as a teacher was an agent of the state in that regard. At the same time I was a district employee but not a state employee. Confusing, eh! But in regards to the various legal entities, it might help if you pause to consider exactly what form of “state” you mean.
That and I find using a thesaurus helps in keeping me from repeating a word too many times where it can be confusing to the reader. I hope that makes sense.
A little addendum to my thought on thesaurus usage. Many times I come up with a word but it is not quite the meaning that I want to convey. And that is where the thesaurus comes in handy as I can look up synonyms and then similar meaning words with their synonyms and usually end up finding the word that I really want to use. There are well over a million words in English, so there are very few of us who have command of all of them (not to mention for me age-related mental “slowdowns”-LOL). Thesaurus.com is my friend as it allows me to do the above-mentioned work in seconds.
It’s more than just a question for a thesaurus, though. When the state of Arkansas and its Department of Education argued, successfully, that they didn’t “operate” the Dreamland Charter School in Little Rock, they got out of being held liable for the huge public fraud it turned out to be. In fact, nobody was really held liable — and all the big names in the case are free to continue fleecing the public. I think we need to say, without fear or equivocation, that states DO operate the public schools. When you fund something and make rules about how it operates, and when you unilaterally decide to waive those rules at a later date — you’re operating it. You are responsible. Stop foisting the responsibility onto the people at the lowest pay grade. School board members? They DO NOT KNOW what happens at their schools. They don’t have a hand in the daily workings.
Here’s a link where you can read about the Dreamland Charter fraud case: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/mar/05/audit-ex-charter-paid-leader-s-firm-459/
From that article, here’s how the Arkansas Department of Education avoided liability for its role in failing to hold the school accountable:
The Education Department “did not have management responsibility for the operation of the Charter School during or after its closure and, therefore, was not responsible for the design and implementation of programs and controls to prevent and detect fraud and to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, contracts, agreements, and grants,” the department said.
It literally uses the word “operation” as a pivot point away from its legal responsibility to ensure compliance with state law.
I see what you are getting at with your explanation. And yes, you are correct in that the state educational authorities wash their hands of the failures when somewhere, somehow they should be held responsible. There is no direct way that I know of for any citizen individually to have a say in the selection of those state education bureaucrats.
At least at the local level one can work to either get on one’s local school board or work to get someone on the board who more reflects one’s interests. At the same time we have seen powereful monied and/or ideological (thing xtian religionistas) interests take control of local school boards and wreak havoc with their very parochial and narrow points of view.
Overall, though you are correct about a lack of accountability when the supposed reforms, actually malpractices end up badly, especially for the students. What’s the solution? Hell, listen to the teachers in the first place and quit imposing top-down mandates would be the best place to start. At the same time, historically, local control has resulted at times in unequal and unjust expenditures in providing public education resources for all students-think separate but equal policies to mention one.
Public education is a tough nut to crack, while at the same time we do know what it takes to supply the proper environment for educating ALL children. We don’t have the political will due to many factors. Until this country gives up the death and destruction machine that is the US Military and foreign policy that uses that killing machine and turn to using our resources for the needs of our country in infrastructure and schooling, well, we’ll continue to flounder about in not providing what we could/should for those least advantaged who are currently underserved by inequitable and underfunded public schools. As Eisenhower stated way back when:
“Every Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
Duane: “Until this country gives up the death and destruction machine that is the US Military and foreign policy that uses that killing machine and turn to using our resources for the needs of our country in infrastructure and schooling, well, we’ll continue to flounder about in not providing what we could/should for those least advantaged who are currently underserved by inequitable and underfunded public schools.”
You and Eisenhower have it right. The US always has plenty of money for killing but struggles terribly to give anything to help, whether it be education, healthcare, Social Security, infrastructure or any social necessity. Currently getting anything is being labeled ‘greedy’…unless it is the wealthy who receive. What nonsense.
Who are the “greedy” ones? Those who make a profit off of that death and destruction machine!
I don’t remember any school (four different systems, three of them public) ever telling me what my salary would be much less showing me an employee handbook before I accepted a job. I had one principal tell me what he thought he could get me only to have the superintendent renege. With a fifteen year work history, she had obviously never been abused the way she was at that school. In what world should she have expected it? I am so glad that you were so well prepared by your father to negotiate for a job and demand certain information before accepting one. I’m not sure it is really fair to use your own experience as a standard to which all of us have been trained. I wasn’t and was pretty much at the mercy of anyone who would hire me. No one ever told me what to expect. I was offered a job by the government as a counselor for alcoholic servicemen at an area base as a 22 year old psych grad on the basis of my test score. I turned it down since I had no business counseling anyone in any area. I had no business teaching either, but private schools for multiply handicapped children were not required to hire certified teachers and a teacher of two weeks had left. They were desperate and I was clueless. My experience was teaching one of their autistic students to swim as a once a week volunteer.
I could read the article. The solution is clear: UNION.
Having worked in Wisconsin my whole career starting before the destruction of workers’ rights by Koch cabal and after, I can attest to the change in working conditions and work climate. Read this article and understand it can happen to you.
Wisconsin teachers once fought for their collective rights (see http://archive.jsonline.com/news/opinion/the-strike-that-changed-wisconsin-1f6qgi4-169392356.html/) and that time will come again. First, vote. Vote the ALEC lackeys out of office. Vote for people who believe in people, not corporations. Vote for people who believe in kids, not profits. And then get ready to fight for your rights.
There will be a price to be paid. The Hortonville 84 paid that price.
We remember.
UNION.
Yes, tragic and sickening, what happened in Hortonville!
I agree. I also think that the FBI should investigate and charge the “professional organization” I joined (ASTA) with being an illegal company union, recruiting member teachers in bad faith by impersonating a union, but really just trying to draw members and power away from the independent union.
I wouldn’t count on the FBI doing that. Perhaps you should contact the NLRB and see if they would do anything. Which I doubt considering the whole bent of this current administration.
Yeah. I’ve spoken to two different FBI agents about it. One said they would investigate it, if I could bring more written evidence (which is why I started using the Freedom of Information Act to get the teacher emails and contracts that I’ve used as sources) and the other agent basically hung up on me. Sigh. We’ll see if it goes anywhere 🙂
Love your attitude in going after those who caused you so much grief.
This article should be required reading for anyone who believes that charter schools are a viable option for them as employees or for their children as students. They are not.
This article should also be required reading for those that think that all that should be required to be a teacher is a bachelors degree, of any type, and an interest in working in a school. It takes a lot more than that. I help prepare students to become music teachers, and none of my students would have been surprised by any of the things that seem to have flummoxed this violinist–mandatory reporter requirements, solo festival work requirements, knowing your salary before you start working, etc.
The title on Medium was misleading as well, perhaps purposefully. “Arkansas” did not fail this woman–she failed herself, by having the hubris to believe she could teach music armed with only her violin.
I’ve taken thousands of students to these kinds of competitions, and have been a judge for them as well. These events are run by other music teachers, for free, and they depend on volunteers for lost of different functions. Depending on the state, the judges are paid or not–and not much if they are–and the rest of the “workers” are other teachers and even students. The conditions this person describes, where she was forced to judge through lunch breaks, and not allowed to pump, simply do not ring true. If it did happen this way, the people in charge should be ashamed of themselves. But based on nearly 40 years of participating in these events, and observing the close working relationships these activities require to be successful on a nearly non-existent budget, I just don’t see it being plausible.
What I do understand is the frustration of an unprepared novice being “thrown in” to the crucible of teaching, especially music teaching, with its evening and weekend commitments, and lack of respect for what we do in the school setting, and that novice quickly becoming overwhelmed to the point of lashing out at every authority figure in her line of sight.
The cautionary tale here, for me, is don’t think that because you can play the fiddle a bit you are qualified to walk in to a school–of any sort or type–and be a “teacher.” The title of teacher is not one to be taken, or granted, lightly. It implies a level of preparation, and dedication, and commitment, and expertise, that belies this person’s cavalier attitude and approach to her work.
It also suggest that charter schools, and the practice of granting regulatory waivers, is not just questionable practice, but potentially dangerous policy, putting shockingly unprepared dilettantantes in charge of children, sometimes on trips outside of school and away from home. This is no job for amateurs.
“The title of teacher is not one to be taken, or granted, lightly. It implies a level of preparation, and dedication. . . .This is no job for amateurs.”
Exactly!
I know it’s hard to believe that other music teachers would treat me that way — especially since we all knew each other from working in the same professional orchestras over the years. But it’s true.
I think the problem was that the ASBOA executive secretary and the state orchestra chairperson conspired, in writing (I posted their emails here) to break eligibility rules. Then, I started asking eligibility questions that would have implicated them. So… there had to be punishment.
View at Medium.com
Wow, that is some seriously sick crap. Can you say child abuse? I’d bet that what you are experiencing in Arkansas is common practice in most other states. Sad, effin sad!
Thanks for sharing and doing what you are doing to expose such insanities and bastardization of the teaching and learning process Elizabeth and keep on em!
Further, there are separate entry fees for the children who win the audition, and go to “clinic.” So you pay once for the privilege to audition, and pay again when you go to the winners’ ensemble clinic. At least for the clinic, ASBOA pays the conductor and buys music from the entry fees.
I’ve been both a participant and a judge in these types of events for
many years (across two states) usually after I have paid dues to the state music association on my dime. The hours are remarkably long and there is zero pay. We do this for our students. Does that mean we have to? I have never been forced to participate by my school district, but I have always known the requirements of representing students at these festivals. The mere fact that she was treated unprofessionally in her actual job made the adjudicated festival participation an added insult. Hopefully, she learned the difference between a union teaching job and a charter school snow job.
And it’s not just music. I found the same many times in the debate world, too.
Sadly, since Act 1240 passed in 2015, there IS no difference between public school employment and charter school employment in Arkansas. All schools are eligible for charter school waivers here.
I asked permission, in writing, multiple times to NOT take students to this particular event. Superintendent, principal, interim principal, faculty mentor, fine arts director… It was definitely required for me.
Hi, roaringviolin.
I have two questions:
1. Is the music association you were judging under a state association affiliated with NAfME? If so, they should be notified of the bad practices you endured.
Was it necessary to pay dues in order to have your students participate either at your own expense or through the school’s budget?
LG, thanks for asking! No, ASBOA is not affiliated with any national governing body. It is an “independent non-profit association,” sanctioned and overseen by the Arkansas High School Activities Association (another independent non-profit) that handles all inter-scholastic contests.
When I tried to report ASBOA to the AHSAA, the AHSAA executive director told me that the ASBOA has its own grievance process, so it wasn’t appropriate for me to report grievances to the AHSAA. However, my grievances were not against another member school — they were against ASBOA officers and employees, specifically!
Still, I filed my grievances, with proof, to all participating superintendents, ASBOA officers, and ASBOA employees. They decided not to discuss them in their meetings (and I have their emails where this was decided) because I had quit my job by then, and was no longer an “official representative of a member school.” Thus, in their opinion, I had no standing to bring a grievance.
Also, they refuse to release their financial records. What did they do with the $6000 in student entry fees that day? Their offices are donated. Their labor is volunteered. Their audition venues are donated. The sheet music has been the same every year, and is publicly available on their website.
The only way this stuff will get investigated, publicly, is if the Arkansas Attorney General or the FBI take an interest in investigating this organization for fraud, based on the mismanagement of public money.
https://www.nonprofitissues.com/to-the-point/what%E2%80%99s-risk-not-following-bylaws
Also, yes, I had to pay membership fees. The annual membership fees, plus state funding and private donations, are intended to cover the operating expenses of the ASBOA. Entry fees for individual events are supposed to be used (per the AHSAA handbook and the ASBOA constitution) only for the event itself.
Ridiculous that they charge fees on top of dues. Hope you can get somewhere with the FBI. Sounds like you were in the midst of a racket organization.
I agree. It’s a racket organization. I don’t think the school administrators realize what the events are like (do any of them ever go?) or — I like to believe — they would try to fix it. Maybe not out of the goodness of their hearts, but at least out of recognition that they have a legal obligation to provide children with access to food, and make sure that none of the teachers are experiencing “forced labor” conditions.
“Can teachers flourish when there is no respect for them?”
NO, teachers can not flourish. The war on public education was launched official when President Trickle Down Urine Ray-Gun released his fraudulent and misleading “A Nation at Risk” report and declared war on public education and professional teachers – a war that never stopped and has continued to escalate.
I started teaching in the 1975-76 school year. Teaching was not an easy profession even then but at least we had respect and weren’t laughed at and challenged by students and insulted by parents. Insults and blame was rare back then until after 1983 when the agenda to destroy public education and the teaching profession was underway.
I still remember one GOP senator running for office in another state. She was quoted in the media blaming public schools for the increase in the prison population without any mention that the reason that the prison population was exploding was because of President “I Am Not a Crook” Nixon declaring war on addictive and/or recreational drugs like marijuana while Nixon was drinking expensive bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild (costing hundreds of dollars); at the same time, he instructed his staff to serve mediocre red wine to his guests — with towels wrapped around the bottle’s label so they did not know what they were getting. Tricky Dick indeed!”
It was after 1983 when parents and students started to blame teachers for everything. If a student failed because they didn’t do most of or any of the work, it was the teacher’ fault, because they were boring.
If a student got in trouble for disrupting a class, it was the teacher’s fault because we were mean and were picking on the student.
If too many students earning poor grades in our classes it was our fault because we weren’t motivating them to do the work.
When the annual standardized test score indicated the school we were at was failing, the students laughed at the teachers for the failing grade based on the students test scores.
When I started teaching, more than 85-percent of my students turned in homework and did all the assignments. When I left teaching in 2005, that number was down to less than 5 percent.
I went back to teaching through subbing when my youngest started first grade. You are right, Lloyd, that the climate had changed. Since I had only worked at a private school for severely handicapped children, my only comparison for how things had changed was between my own experience in public school in the 50s and 60s and the public school of the 90s. Subs have it rough enough as a normal course of things, but we never would have acted they way kids felt free to act now. I don’t care where you came from, parents would have set their children straight in no uncertain terms. A parent who consistently excused their child’s bad behavior was an outlier. That had all changed by the 90s. Little Johnny could do no wrong that couldn’t be laid at the feet of the teacher. When I re-entered the school as a teacher, I never quite grasped the change. It is this forum that has really helped me come to terms with what has happened. While I will always miss teaching, I cannot recommend that anyone pursue teaching as a career.
What I miss about teaching is the students that were there to learn and not disrupt just for the sake of disrupting. I also missed the supportive parents. We had parent conference nights twice a year. Most of the parents that came had children eanring A’s and B’s. Even though almost half of my students were earning failing grades of D’s, I seldom saw any of those parents. When a student was earning a D or an F, we were required to call or even write to the parents and ask them to show up at parent conferences or make an appointment if they couldn’t make it. 99.9 percent of those parents never called back or showed up at Parent Conferences and the few that did, most of them promised changes that never happened.
I have two examples of parents that thought their child could do no wrong.
In the late 1980s, I had a 7th grade student who slipped out of his seat when I wasn’t looking in his direction and he crawled around on the floor out of my sight and was biting girls’ ankles. The only reason I caught him was the girls he was biting were screeching and jumping in their seats. I wrote a referral and sent him to the office. His mother was called. She called me a liar because she claimed her son would never do anything like that. She alleged that I didn’t like her son.
To resolve the issue, the principal transferred the boy to another teacher where he continued to do whatever he wanted to disrupt that classroom too.
In the late 1990s, I was teaching at the high school by then, and one of my students asked to go to the bathroom and I didn’t see any reason to say no.
A half hour later, I called the campus CPOs and reported she hadn’t returned to class.
They already knew she hadn’t returned because she was in the office for being caught having sex in the boy’s bathroom.
Her mother was furious when she arrived at school to talk to the principal and pick her up.
The mother called the student witness that reported her having sex in the bathroom a liar. The boy was a special ed student. He walked in the boy’s room, saw them having sex doggy style, and he rushed back to his teacher without using the bathroom and told her what he saw.
She called the CPO’s liars that had to psychically pull her daughter away from the boy she was having sex with when they were told to stop, they refused and kept going.
The mother called the principal a liar.
The girl was suspended for five days and returned to class on the sixth school day. She arrived late, and was tardy to class. It was standard that a tardy student have a tardy slip from the office that either excused the tardy or didn’t.
I asked for the tardy slip like I ask every student that was late to class. Halfway to her desk, she stopped, he raised a leg and farted loudly in my direction before she went to her seat and refused to get a tardy slip.
I wrote her up and sent her to the office. Her mother accused me of picking on her daughter because her daughter told her I didn’t like her.
A few days later, the daughter got in a fight in another class and when the teacher attempted to break up the fight, that daughter knocked the teacher out and she was suspended from school for another five days while the mother blew up again accusing her daughter’s teachers of being mean racists.
These were only two examples. There were others.
Lloyd: At least you got the co-operation of the administration. I worked in one district in Illinois for one year. The first day of class I give students place to sit from a seating chart. I had 8 boys who wouldn’t sit down. They crawled around on the floor and grabbed instruments that were on shelves and dropped them on the floor.
I got their names and after class went to the principal. She told me that I didn’t show them enough love and that it was my fault that they were misbehaving.
I found out much later that teachers never sent kids to the principal. If they got there, she would give them candy and then walk them back to class. The teachers had a system whereby they would send misbehaving kids to each other’s room. I never found out about that system until the end of the year.
One fifth grade kid would throw books out the window, put his legs on top of the desk, throw crayons outside the classroom into the hallway and swear at teachers. By the end of the year he was never in class. The principal had told this kid to let her know if any teacher treated him badly. She gave this kid the phone number of the abuse center hotline and told him to call if his parents ever hit him or abused him in any way.
I heard that this kid the next year was put into a middle school class for behavioral problems.
The year before I came the teachers had written up a list of things that were happening at the school and sent it to the superintendent. He didn’t believe the teachers so nothing happened. She had manipulated the superintendent into believing that she was perfect.
The music teacher before me had sued the principal over an evaluation she had received. The teacher won the lawsuit and was given a year of her salary.
Fortunately, this principal earned her doctorate degree in education. She was a finalist to get a job in a wealthy district north of Chicago. This district sent out some representatives to talk to the teachers. They all gave a glowing report to these men so that they could get rid of her. She got the job. I heard that a really good principal came the next year.
The secretary told me that when I first got the job at this school that she wanted to tell me not to come. She said she couldn’t do that, just wanted to.
The last day of school, I walked out of the building and SCREAMED as loud as I could all the way to my car. It was an involuntary response. Unfortunately, I had to go to a luncheon, paid for by each teacher, if I wanted my paycheck.
I had a principal like that once for one year. The year he started, he held a staff meeting the week before the school year started. He had a flip chart with drawing.
One was a picture of kids going crazy in a classroom. I’m going to call that principal the “toilet seat that no one wanted to use” or TSWU.
TSWU said if you students misbehave its your fault because you can’t control them.
He flipped the page and said, “If too many children fail your classes or earn D’s, then you can’t teach.”
Next page, “I have a closed door policy. Don’t send your problems that you can’t control to me. Deal with it.”
It went on like that. He also recruited students to spy on the teachers and report back to him with reports on what we were doing in our classes. I was called in because I was teaching grammar, mechanics and spelling and he didn’t want his English teachers doing that because that work “was boring”. The VP was the witness to his yelling at me and demanding I admit I was wrong. I refused and was eyeing his throat thinking that it wouldn’t take much to bury my teeth in his throat and rip out an artery. The more he demanded I admit I was wrong, the more my PTSD (Marines, Vietnam, combat) was triggered and the VP must have seen the look in my face and eyes because she stepped forward and ended the verbal abuse and told me to leave the principal’s office.
I don’t know what she told the principal but after that meeting if he saw me in the hallway, he’d turn around and walk fast in the other direction avoiding getting anywhere close to me. Maybe she’d looked at my file and saw I was a former Marine and combat vet. I don’t know.
At the end of that year, half the staff left. Some retired early. Others found jobs in other districts. A few transferred to other school in the district. I also left and transferred to one of the three high schools, the one with the highest ratio of child poverty and multi-generational street gangs in the neighborhoods around the school. I finished the last 16 years of my thirty as a teacher there. It was a tough high school with a no nonsense tough staff of combative teachers and I felt right at home there.
This is like a story out of Dickens or Les Miserables. Her salary was $21,187.50 with no overtime, no benefits, no time off, no real sick leave, no family leave. What year did she work at this charter sweat shop, 1856?! She might as well have worked at a Walmart part time and tutored kids on her own. Thank goodness I live in a blue state with a strong union movement, especially a strong teachers’ union.
The “slave states” are still in the business of exploiting people. The right to work states are actually an euphemism for the right to be fired at will for any reason. BTW, don’t expect benefits or pension.
Wow, Diane Ravitch picked up my blog post! Thanks for your feedback, all. If you are worried that I didn’t ask enough questions (or request my contract and pay information, or ask the school to follow state law, or ask MANY TIMES for the ASBOA to rectify the ways in which they were deliberately violating their own constitution with regard to music contests, please consider reading some other blog posts I’ve posted. They show the paper trail of my attempts at communication, as well as the inherent deregulation at ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS in Arkansas (since 2015, all schools here get charter school waivers.)
I’m posting “friends links” here, so you can get behind the Medium “paywall.” Hope this helps!
The one about deregulation in ALL public schools here: https://medium.com/@erlyon/272-broken-promises-the-lawless-aftermath-of-arkansas-act-1240-a8e26ce751e8?source=friends_link&sk=1d4ed074b2e925a9c508a6f77d44d715
The one about why I thought ASTA was a union, when it’s really a company union. (Or — why I didn’t reach out to the AEA because I thought ASTA was the teacher’s union.) https://medium.com/@erlyon/how-i-fell-for-a-walton-hoax-70737d1a5b1?source=friends_link&sk=de1f8eb24db1491b3c9682141264497a
The one about how “asking questions” got me punished: https://medium.com/@erlyon/hammered-down-how-self-advocacy-got-me-punished-a8ec658b6895?source=friends_link&sk=9cc30487bd450f4e6064aded2154136f
And the one about how all-region orchestra auditions were really, really corrupt and abusive — on purpose, and far beyond anything that I’ve ever heard of in any other state: https://medium.com/@erlyon/simmer-down-its-only-orchestra-270edf8224cc?source=friends_link&sk=01357b02fd70469fb736de3893d80fe8
A powerful piece, this article, and an unequivocal warning. This is the America that dark money on the right has created and continues to refine. From Wikipedia, quoting data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
In 2016, there were 14.6 million members in the U.S., down from 17.7 million in 1983. The percentage of workers belonging to a union in the United States (or total labor union “density”) was 10.7%, compared to 20.1% in 1983.
In Iceland, in contrast, 88.9 percent of workers belong to a union.
Of the few remaining union members in the US, almost all are government employees. Union membership, only 11 percent for the US worker population as a whole, is FIVE TIMES higher in the public sector than in the private sector. In the US, now, private-sector union membership is close to nonexistent.
In other words, unionization has been pretty effectively killed in the US. Privatization of schooling is one of the tools in the Swiss-army knife of extreme right-wingers at the top of the New Feudal Order who want to wipe out unions entirely. It’s an attack on one of the few remaining outposts of unionization and, ofc, on the one that is most vulnerable.
But things are going to change. In this, as in so much else, there is a storm brewing. The young people coming up are wiser than their elders were, and there are people like Diane Ravitch who will continue to work tirelessly and fearlessly to educate them.
Hang onto your hats!
Thanks for calling my post “powerful!” I really, really hope it will be. I tried to walk away quietly, and “be professional” about the whole thing. However, the more I realize it’s only getting worse, the more I feel the need to write about it.
Given that the current trend in the US is toward school privatization, I hope that the Department of Labor can at least be persuaded to allow teachers the same minimum protections afforded to other employees nationwide.
View at Medium.com
There’s a public hearing tomorrow, in Rhode Island, about the exemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act. I’m in Arkansas (too far to go easily) but maybe some other teachers might get there…?
Oh! And one more about the continuing corruption of the ASBOA who runs music contests here. It didn’t get fixed after last year. It’s happening again next month, and it will be just as bad. https://medium.com/@erlyon/simmer-down-its-only-orchestra-270edf8224cc?source=friends_link&sk=01357b02fd70469fb736de3893d80fe8
I read the story–the full tale of woe–on Medium, because I am an instrumental music teacher. Much of her complaining was not specifically about the Arkansas Arts Academy HS, the charter school at which she took a job without knowing diddly about charters, unions, school regulations or pedagogy–let alone her own salary.
Most of her griping was about music festivals and the volunteer (teacher-led) organizations that run those festivals, specifically the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association. I’m not from Arkansas, but I was a member and (again, volunteer) officer in the MI School Band and Orchestra Association for 30 years.
Music teachers join forces to offer weekend festivals and contests for their students–and in order to do so, they have to work as volunteers on Saturdays to run these events, which are a chance for kids who don’t study privately to get advice and coaching, and an opportunity for bands to play for comments and supplementary instruction. The rule is: if your students are going to participate, you need to work. That’s all music teachers, in all schools, including charters. When the ASBOA heard this teacher had registered students, they weren’t thinking how to abuse her—they were undoubtedly happy that a professional violinist would be volunteering, because they had lots of string players who could use her teaching advice.
Now–this extended, woe-is-me diatribe about a volunteer organization trying to do nice things for music students in Arkansas reveals more about the teacher writing the piece than the folks who made the festival rules.They’re all volunteers, too, working for free (or for an annual stipend that supposedly ‘covers’ concerts, football Fridays, pep band, parades, the musical and festivals).
I agree that this teacher was taken advantage of–and I’m sorry that accomodations weren’t made for her, as a new mother. But her own cluelessness and dismissal of the union as something someone like her wouldn’t need caused it.
Good morning! I appreciate your comment, and encourage you to read a few more of my blog posts if you would like more information before you judge me. Here are two about the corruption at adjudicated contests here:
https://medium.com/@erlyon/simmer-down-its-only-orchestra-270edf8224cc?source=friends_link&sk=01357b02fd70469fb736de3893d80fe8 and https://medium.com/@erlyon/why-roberts-rules-of-order-isn-t-fixing-things-a51913eec69b?source=friends_link&sk=90e6f14bb2b21bbcda26a1f735f09cb6.
And here is one explaining how teachers get duped into joining ASTA here (instead of the AEA) because ASTA impersonates the union (offering everything the union does, but with twice as much liability insurance coverage, at the same price) and draws members and power away from the AEA. In my opinion, ASTA is an illegal “company union,” and should be investigated as such.
View at Medium.com
Hello again, nflanagan! Another update: The two teachers who served as ASBOA officers last year are up for ethics violations at a hearing in front of the Arkansas Department of Education next month, over exactly this event. I’ll be sure to let you know how the ADE rules, and whether these teachers are permitted to keep their licenses.
Whew, what a package: Lyon-Ballay’s reasonable, well-researched post, plus the angry responses from similarly ill-treated teachers in the trenches [summary: why should we help you, we’re just as bad off].
For the non-teaching public, it would be invaluable to read many articles like this, which detail the realities of K12 teaching (charter or not) from the viewpoint of those who have worked both sides of the fence. One needs the indignant voice of someone with that perspective, as opposed to the resigned GAGA voice of teachers accustomed to being overworked, overstressed, and underpaid.
And let’s include the dollars and cents in every article. Lyon-Bailey’s job could be translated as 4hrs classtime + 1hr planning/ppwk for each of 190 contracted days, plus a (guesstimate) average of 8hrs each of 37 wkends, for a total of 1246 hrs — in exchange for $21k. That’s $16.85/hr. Add that it’s part-time so no bennies, & seasonal, so find some low-paid summer work to supplement income.
This kind of gritty info would help public recognize equivalent-pay jobs. NJ nanny. Snow-plow operator up north. Auto-detailer in OR. Cheese factory eqpt cleaner WI. Warehouse worker [$14.50+benefits] most places.
“equivalent-pay jobs.”
exactly. More of this!
I think the anger I inspire in veteran teachers is indicative of something called “survivor bias.” Basically, because so many teachers endure terrible working conditions — and don’t leave — they blame me for not being strong enough, or virtuous enough, or competent enough to achieve the survival that they have won at such a high price.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
That has nothing to do with it, for me. What angers me about your post is that you blame all of these teachers, who have already worked for kids for decades, for not helping you.
Go to school. Get a real teaching certificate. Do it the right way. Because I already have enough on my plate without having to teach someone who wants to bypass the process it takes to be a real teacher. Teaching private lessons is not the same thing as teaching a class.
And not all of us HAVE the ability to speak up, stand up, or walk out. I am the main supporter of my family, and have been for nearly 20 years. I don’t have a lot of options, as walking away would cost my family my income and my insurance. I have spoken out, and suffered major consequences, too. My principal sent me to the state licensing board, who exonerated me, but I still deal with those consequences four years later.
Why didn’t you do your research BEFORE you got into this gig? Why didn’t you quit the second you found that there was no handbook, and that charters didn’t have to follow the same rules?
I am honestly trying to not bash you; I truly feel for you and your horrific experience. But to blame the rest of us does not exactly endear some of us to you.
It’s not that I expected every teacher I encountered to help me. It’s that I expected other teachers not to be committing eligibility violations, covering it up, and punishing me for asking questions. (If you’d like to see evidence of this, please visit some of my other blog posts: https://medium.com/@erlyon/simmer-down-its-only-orchestra-270edf8224cc?source=friends_link&sk=01357b02fd70469fb736de3893d80fe8 and https://medium.com/@erlyon/why-roberts-rules-of-order-isn-t-fixing-things-a51913eec69b?source=friends_link&sk=90e6f14bb2b21bbcda26a1f735f09cb6
I also expected my mentor teacher (who was paid to be my mentor) to help get my questions addressed. And when she got promoted, I expected to be assigned a new mentor teacher, as required by state law.
Further, I expected that any union who recruited me (ASTA) would be a legal union, not an illegal company union. Somehow, neither the AEA nor its member teachers, nor the member teachers of ASTA, have succeeded in getting law enforcement to investigate ASTA for deliberately impersonating a union in order to bust the real union. https://medium.com/@erlyon/how-i-fell-for-a-walton-hoax-70737d1a5b1?source=friends_link&sk=de1f8eb24db1491b3c9682141264497a
Also note: All public schools in Arkansas are eligible for the same waivers the charter schools get, since 2015. It’s not that I “didn’t know the difference.” It’s that there IS no difference, here.
View at Medium.com
FYI, I did ask about contracts and pay — but the administrator who handles these things had a long-term illness that summer, so she wasn’t available to respond in a timely manner. Being patient with a sick woman and trusting the other teachers who said it was a good place to work is not a sign of failure to research, on my part.
Plus, there’s no amount of research that will tell you exactly which of the rules and laws that are “on the books” are going to be systematically broken after you start your job. And there’s no way to predict that the principal who has served the school for 13 years is going to be forced to resign two weeks into the school year, with no replacement named for another month.
My public school experience suggests that charters are not the only schools asking for extra hours and paying horrible wages. I have been treated well, but others I know have been the victim of testing, fudging the guidelines, and personal affronts. What is needed is personal respect and adequate funding.
I disagree with those blaming roaringviolin’s problems on the failure to obtain a teaching certificate. The issues she raised were entirely about state and school administration. As far as I know, state cert hardly trains one in the myriad ways schools violate common-law employment contracts (let alone theoretical NLRB regs which aren’t for lowly teachers). Tho we might all wish every child were taught by a state-certified teacher, this applicant’s background is more than adequate for a part-time music position in a prestigious private school. The fact that charters are treated in this regard as privates, despite public funding, is a state reg problem. Even mandatory reporting of signs of abuse (the only item she raised that would have been included in cert): the charter’s failure to require this apparently compulsory piece of state training represents a lapse in monitoring.
Exciting news! This happened today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGEsfXhcYtY&feature=youtu.be
An Arkansas native living in Rhode Island, Caroline Morgan, went to the US Department of Labor “listening session” this morning to speak in favor of ending the “educator exemption” to the Fair Labor Standards Act. Wouldn’t it be great if federal law acted as a safety net when states waive teacher pay laws and employment rights?
C’mon now Elizabeth cain’t be havin no federal gubmint tellin employers how to run their businesses.
If only WordPress allowed me to post gifs. There are so many appropriate choices to respond with!
Sigh. Yeah. This has been exactly what happens. I say, “This happened, and it’s wrong.” And then a bunch of teachers say, “No that can’t possibly have happened as you say,” and I show proof… then silence.
Or I say, “This happened, and it’s wrong,” and a bunch of teachers say, “Well you should have joined the union,” and I say, “I thought I did, but there’s a deliberate impersonation going on here, and I thought company unions (being illegal) didn’t exist any more. But they do” And silence.
Or I say, “This is still happening, and it’s wrong,” and a bunch of teachers say, “Well, if you wanted to fix it, you shouldn’t have quit.”
Or I say, “This happened, and it’s wrong,” and a bunch of teachers say, “LOL, should have read your contract more carefully. Charter schools are a crock of hooey.” And I say, “It’s all public schools in Arkansas, since 2015. Every public school is eligible for the same waivers, and the Department of Education is approving an average of 1.4 new waivers every day this year,” and then silence.
It blows my mind how much silence there is.
Most if not all publicly funded, private sector charter schools ARE worse then a bunch of hooey and anyone that thinks they aren’t is an ignorant, troll and sock puppet that sold their soul to the GOP’s CEO, Satan.
Yes, they are! Also, all public schools in Arkansas are eligible for the same waivers that the charters get, since 2015 — as long as a charter school gets it first.
Moreover, the “limitations” on district conversion charter schools (namely, that district conversion charter schools can only draw students from within the district that operates them, and therefore get to collect local property tax funding) are easily circumvented via a loophole called School Choice. Use School Choice to “opt in” to a district, then apply for the district conversion charter school… which has waivers from class size limitations, and so can accept as many out-of-district students as it chooses.
I am not uneducated about charter schools. I am saying that ALL schools in Arkansas have become charterized. Deregulated. Privatized. Teacher licensure is the most common waiver. More than 25% of the schools here do not required licensed teachers in any classroom, and almost all of those schools also have waivers from the “notice to parents of an unlicensed teacher” law as well. These are the “traditional public schools.”
Maybe this will help explain why this is happening in Arkansas.
https://www.thetoptens.com/most-racists-states-us/
Arkansas is #6.
Want more proof?
Donald Trump won Arkansas in 2016 with 60.6 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 33.7 percent.
The white population was 65.2 percent.
I think most of Trump’s votes came from white Arkansas.
Most of Clinton’s 33.7 percent probably came from the Black, Asian and Hispanic votes that made up 31.2 percent of the population of Arkansas.
Yeah, Arkansas is also one of the most sexist states in the US as well. Too bad 70% of teachers are women, or we might get our voices heard. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/21/most-sexist-places-america/?utm_term=.cec6e3154ea4