Kathryn Joyce is an investigative reporter for Salon. In this article, she shows how the Republican leaders of Arizona have decided to end the teacher shortage by reducing standards for teachers. They have decided that teaching is not a profession. Anyone, they think, can do it.
She writes:
Last week, just days after the Arizona legislature passed the most expansive school voucher law anywhere in the nation, Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law another education measure decreeing that public school teachers are no longer required to have a college degree of any kind before being hired. Instead of requiring a masters degree — which has long been the norm in the profession — Arizona teachers will only have to be enrolled in college in order to begin teaching the state’s public school students.
The law, SB 1159, was pushed by conservatives on the grounds that Arizona has faced a severe teacher shortage for the last six years, which, by this winter, left 26% of teacher vacancies unfilled and nearly 2,000 classrooms without an official teacher of record. That shortage has led supporters of the bill, including business interests such as the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, to claim that loosening teacher credential requirements will help fill those staffing gaps. Opponents of the bill, however, point to the fact that Arizona has the lowest teacher salaries in the country, even while boasting a budget surplus of more than $5 billion.
“Arizona’s teacher shortage is beyond crisis levels,” tweeted Democratic state Rep. Kelli Butler this March. “Instead of offering real solutions (like increasing pay & reducing class sizes) the House Education Committee passed a bill to reduce the requirements to teach.”
“With Arizona trying to get education monies to parents directly to pay for schooling — including homeschooling — you see more evidence that the state doesn’t care who teaches its kids,” said David Berliner, an education psychologist at Arizona State University and former president of the American Educational Research Association. “Charters and private schools for years have not needed certified folks running schools or teaching kids — as long as the voucher for the kids shows up.” Combined with its new law creating a universal voucher system, Berliner added, “Arizona may now be the most radical state in terms of education policy.”
Please open the link and read the article in full.
Arizona doesn’t care about its children.
Kathryn has multiple, solid articles on Salon covering the growth of this not-so-covert Operation Destroy Public Schools. She has also authored a terrifying book on right wing Christian/Catholic political agenda adoptions.
The SCOTUS Hurry On Down To Haiti for “happy-go-lucky” adoptions or a whisk over to Wales, is nothing more than a cold-blooded political strategy. Children are used as symbols/disguises/stand-ins. They are objects staged to further a career signaling tolerance, piety, impartiality, honesty, decency where NONE exists.
Pro-life bona fides are now a way for born-again Christians/Catholics to reinvent the APPEARANCE of compassionate conservatism on the global stage.
Also a means to fulfill the “Great Commission” mandate to evangelize all nations. Influential leaders fervently promote a new “orphan theology.”
A Passion Play of power, politics and pathology.
The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking And the New Gospel of Adoption
Kathryn Joyce. 2013
These folks are dumb, but the’re not stupid. (As the expression goes).
The GOP and right wing playbook is simple.
Use a crisis or create one. Blow things up. “Disrupt” (I really hate that term).
They care about VALUES (theirs).
So any other event is a way for them to impose their values into a system.
Teacher shortage? Perfect opportunity! I can hear the behind doors meeting now.
We have a LOCKED IN CURRICULUM (reflecting our values)
We have schools that BUY the curriculum (from their cronies).
The Curriculum AND the Books are tied to to-be-tested-standards.
The schools hire warm bodies to fill classrooms. (Not even substitute credentials in some places)* (Think Account Temps and Kelly Girl Secretarial business model)
GIVE THEM SCRIPTS. Weekly checked lesson plan, scripted lessons, daily quizzes (aka exit tickets), give them basic discipline strategies (do nows to start a silent classroom, puff your cheeks when you walk down the hall, demerits and walkie talkie to the office for disruptions)
Script, Teach, Test. Rinse. Start over.
SO A TEACHER SHORTAGE! What an opportunity. We’ve got the business model (where we can hire high salaried non-educators to run the place, low paid “teachers” to teach the kids, programs and books for our pals and kickbacks – AND WE GET TO INFUSE OUR VALUES)!
So do away with professional standards! Do away with professional interview questions.
Why are you applying: “It’s a calling!” We don’t care
Why do you want to teach here: “I want to level the playing field and give every kid an opportunity” It only looks that way on the outside
How do you handle discipline: “I use the teachable moment and meet with the student and parent” Just call the office and if it’s too bad we counsel them out
The teacher shortage IS AS REAL AS IT GETS. Pre-covid and now. In many cities and rural areas, there are no candidates. Period. And college enrollments are dropping.
We DO NEED A NEW MODEL (another blog on that that works).
For now – whomever we put in the room – they care about money, the REALLY CARE about being supported.
We don’t need no stinkin certified teachers
They can all be like preachers
Strutting, Primping-Pimping too!
Full of bullshit
I kid not you!
Amen , Brother Duane.
And pass the collection plate!
Can I hear a Hallelujah up in here?
I taught in Arizona for two years.
Along with Utah, a state I couldn’t wait to leave.
Arizona and Utah have many things in common, but above all else is the fact that they produce an adult populace who don’t question anything that their politicians tell them.
And the outcome is inevitable.
This is sadly true.
“Stupid is as stupid does,” Forest Gump. Dismantling public education is the policy states get when the governor is owned by the Koch network.
“Treason is as treason does” — Donald Trump
The fact that Garland has not yet indicted Trump makes it pretty clear that he would prefer not to prosecute Trump, but it’s becoming more and more difficult with each revelation — including witness tampering by Trump in the current investigation — for him not to do so.
If he doesn’t indict Trump, Garland will almost certainly go down in history along with the Supremes as among a small number of people who put the final nails in the coffin of US democracy and ushered in fascism.
Garland should indict for his own place in history even if not for the sake of the country.
In my view if a crime has been uncovered, Garland should pursue charges. Otherwise, the Jan 6th Committee is simply theatrics.
Trump tampered with a witness in the Congressional investigation into the Jan 6 insurrection.
So even if Garland won’t indict Trump for his role in the insurrection, he should (if he actually cares at all about the law) indict him for that.
I have this sinking gut feeling that Garland will indict him but on some incredibly lame offense with no real consequences attached.
Gnarland : legal place where potential indictment of Trump is tied up in knots for years on end
Gnarlend
The inevitable outcome in Gnarland
exactly
Aridzona Is The New Appalachia
I though Beats Music was the New Applachia
Oh no! What will this do to the reputation for collective high intelligence that Arizona enjoys?
You mean AI? (Arizona Intelligence)
Aka Deep South Learning?
Aka “Gnawral Networks” (also spelled Gnarl Networks in the case of Sinema)
Aka Black Hole learning
Information goes in and never comes out (notwithstanding what some physicists claim)
Hahahahahaha! You’ve done it again, SomeDAM.
What else would one expect from a politician whose own children attended private school.
https://roundup.brophyprep.org/index.php/2017/03/a-father-in-politics-gives-senior-life-lessons-balanced-political-beliefs/
Joe Ducey ’17, son of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, said he has gained valuable experiences and lessons from his father’s intricate and important work.
Joe Ducey’s brother, Jack Ducey ’15, attended and graduated Brophy in 2015.
I recommend placing a cactus in front of any Arizona classroom.
Could do a much better job than a “reduced (or no) standards ‘teacher’,” I’m sure.
Saguaros come with their hands already raised, so you could also put them in the classroom seats. It will look like an enthusiastic class in a school brochure’s doctored photos.
YES, GregB–my thought exactly!
Following the Idaho model, no doubt.
Are you speaking of Mr. Potato Head? (That’d be the teacher who REALLY has eyes in the back of his head.)
Seriously, Edward, I know you’re referring to what Idaho is doing.
Let the dominoes fall…