Ron DeSantis demonstrates his utter contempt for the teaching profession. Anyone can teach, he believes. First he opened teaching careers to military veterans. Now he wants cops and all other first responders to teach. Really?
After giving military veterans easier access to temporary teaching certificates, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said he wants state legislators to expand that same option for law enforcement officers and other first responders next year. The goal is to help Florida schools fill vacant teaching positions — which amount to nearly 9,000 in schools across the state, according to the most recent data from the Florida Department of Education. But the governor says the proposal will also support and incentivize law enforcement officers and other first responders, like paramedics and firefighters, to go into the teaching profession. “Just like we do for veterans, we will do for the other first responders,” DeSantis said at a press conference in New Port Richey on Tuesday morning. “We will waive the exam fees for the state certification program.…”
Participants must have a bachelor’s degree and those who sign up will be eligible for a $4,000 bonus. If they teach courses or subject matters that are experiencing “really acute shortages,” DeSantis said they will get another $1,000. “We believe that the folks that have served our communities have an awful lot to offer,” DeSantis said. “We have people who have served 20 years in law enforcement, who have retired, and some of them are looking for the next chapter in their life….”
In the 2019-20 school year, Florida colleges and universities graduated only about a third of the teachers needed to fill vacancies in state schools for the 2020-21 school year — or only about 3,380 teachers despite an estimated 9,080 vacancies, according to a report from the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
“I don’t think these schools have proven to be effective,” DeSantis said. “I think it has been taken over by ideology, and I think that is a turnoff for many people. … We are saying teaching is not about learning quote, unquote education in college, it’s really about having proficiency in subjects and then learning on the ground about how to do it.” DeSantis did not provide the proposed legislation, which he suggested would be up for consideration in the legislative session that starts in March.
But he said the criteria will be the same as for veterans, who currently need to have a bachelor’s degree or complete at least 60 hours of college credits — the equivalent of an associate’s degree — with a minimum grade-point average of 2.5 — and pass a Florida subject area examination and a background check. Eligible veterans would need 48 months of active-duty military service with an honorable discharge or a medical separation. Those requirements were approved by the Florida Legislature earlier this year and signed into law by DeSantis.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article264555601.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
DeSantis is the “wannabe” leader leader of the American version of the Taliban.
I agree with De Santis –currently the standard teacher education program does more harm than good. Let any bright person who knows his subject give it a shot. Someday, when the schools of education have been completely reconstructed, I might change my mind. Currently the profession is in the death grip of ignorant ideologues.
Whoa: really? I basically agree with you on the problems in education schools; David Labaree did a nice job of exposing and analyzing them in his superb book “The Trouble with Ed Schools” (Yale, 2004), but do you really want to endow an ideological knuckle-dragger like DeSantis with this kind of discretion? Looks like a very bad idea to me.
Ponderosa—I was one of those bright-persons-who-knew-my-subject to give it a shot in a private hisch right after college graduation, sans practice-teaching, & with only two of the NYS-certification-reqd courses under my belt [the two that I personally felt were appropriate & worthy of my credit-dollars.] I was an OK, not-terrible teacher for the 2 yrs I stuck it out [teaching 5 levels of French to students who were only a few years younger than I was.] I did very well with the jrs & srs– mediocre with the more challenging 9th & 10th-graders, most of whom were only there because they had to be. And I only did as well as I did because I had a good supervisor who observed & mentored me [a rarity in public schools, I gather].
I will grant you that the two courses I disdained would probably have done nothing to improve my ability out of the gate. And I did get a sort of practice-teaching– my college advisor finagled an adult for-lang course for me to teach nights at the town hisch while I was a senior. That at least gave me a clue. But I do think a full semester of supervised hisch practice-teaching would have kicked me up a notch. To me that’s the most valuable aspect of the ed-school package. If anything, that should be a full school-year—do that instead of some of the questionable-value courses.
I comment here at dianeravitch.net more on the basis of my later-in-life 2 decades as a Fr & Span [mostly Span] enrichment teacher to regional PreK/K schools. Much of the joy was in creating my own program—necessary because in US at the time there was little to nothing of that nature happening in US, but the parental interest was there & growing. I learned from UK and other EU countries where early-for-lang teaching was already off the ground, & everyone was sharing their material & experience. But I also learned a lot from watching the dismal same ol same ol for-lang pgms my kids trudged through in pubsch here. Even when they started earlier, they still used the same ol approach of jumping right into reading/writing, with little attention to the listening & speaking that comes first… And of course none of it could have happened that way if it weren’t for the fact that US PreK/K’s are private, there’s near-zero interference from admin [who don’t pretend to know how to teach for-lang], so all you have to do is keep students & parents happy with results…
“And I only did as well as I did because I had a good supervisor who observed & mentored me [a rarity in public schools, I gather]”
I was formally mentored my first year of teaching in the NYC public schools. It was exactly what I needed. Afterwards I mentored many first year teachers.
Not sure where it’s at since I retired but I do know it was scrapped for awhile during the Bloomberg years and when Gates’ CCSS were first adopted. Teachers and admins lost a lot of autonomy and were scrambling to keep the test scores up, among other things.
I do remember seeing mentoring during the last five years of my tenure. Hopefully it’s still in place.
Your key phrase is “knows his (ahem) subject”. How many firefighters know phonemic awareness and progression, or geometry, or calculus well enough to teach it? How many police officers can truly analyze the recurring themes of literature across genres, or instruct secondary language students in idiomatic awareness or conjugating the many regular and irregular tenses of verbs? And can they do it while maintaining attention and assessing for understanding as a lesson progresses? Trust me Ponderosa, there is a whole lot a good teacher needs to know in addition to in depth subject knowledge. And I would love to see some of the educational ideologues try, just try to pass one of the many exams given to test the proficiency of our students. Judging by their political statements, I don’t think they’d do too well.
As the librarian it only took five minutes (or less) to know if the new English Teacher “knew her stuff”. You don’t want a teacher to be reading the literature one step ahead of the kids.
Yet again, it looks like all the good books which stimulate fascinating discussions and relate to real life experiences are now being banned. In fact. I’m not sure what literature will be left to study in the classroom. Even picture books have become controversial.
If we leave it to the parents who knows what types of books their children will be exposed to in their formative years, if any at all.
Unfortunately, DisSanity has bought into the “Personalized Learning” model. Computer based. Everything is taken care of by the program. The teacher is more of a monitor. Checking attention to the lessons. In charge of break activities. Who needs a teacher with credentials?
My daughter has been teaching in Japan. Assessment and evaluation. Lesson plans. Knowing your students’ backgrounds and learning styles. Etc. It’s all there.
I miss her. A lot. But she’s learning the full profession and flourishing. Great respect for teachers in Japan. DeSantis and the like wouldn’t understand. .
As those of us who dealt with online remote learning with our kids/grandkids during COVID, we all now realize there are limitations to digital learning.
Agreed, flos56. 100%.
But the companies that design and provide those services are heavily invested in their success, which includes initial diagnostics/assessment, continuous progress checks, evaluation, etc.
Someone mentioned how most parents in Florida are not on board with the “reform” movement (which includes computer based personalized learning…but the politicians are. And they’re pushing it hard.
DeSantis not only plans to destroy public education, he intends to deprofessionalize teaching. In my ultra-conservative, largely military community, a recent poll showed that 69% of area residents are opposed to DeSantis’ proposal. Military families depend heavily on quality public schools in order to prepare their children for future endeavors. DeSantis will never put this change up to a public vote because he knows it would lose. He will continue to lie and distort the truth about the public schools he never attended. Dictator DeSantis is the right wing golden boy so these anti-democratic policies will likely spread to other states with other would-be dictators.
I believe DeSantis has misunderestimated the intelligence of most Florida parents and that this proposal is going to come back to bite him in the ass, if not in the next goobernatorial* election in Florida, in the national election should DeSantis run. (*That’s how you spell it in Florida)
Most parents don’t want their children taught by people who lack even minimal teaching qualifications (including a college degree)
I really am hoping the same thing. This guy is horrible for democracy. DeSantis is going too far with his culture war, and I hope he faces a backlash. He has a huge war chest, and the right wing adores him. He will likely win Florida, but he must not get to Washington.
Good news! A federal judge blocks DeSantis’ Stop Woke Act and declares it unconstitutional, a violation of free speech and vague in its intention.
“I don’t think” Says it all…
yes
Nailed it, Oakland
Makes sense. They can provide immediate first aid during school shootings. If they don’t killed first, that is.
LOL. Dark.
“DeSantis Opens Teaching to All First Responders”
Is this like one of those contests where if you are the first to call a radio station on the phone , you win the prize?
What’s the phone number?
LOL
First three callers get a three-year teaching contract and a signed Ron DeSantis for Galactic Emperor portrait suitable for hanging above the mantel or for a home shrine to Glorious Leader!
“I don’t think these schools have proven to be effective. I think it has been taken over by ideology.”
There’s an agreement error there, Governor DeSantis, a lack of agreement in number. But recognizing this–that the word it is singular but its referent, schools, is plural–would require actually knowing something about grammar, you know, the kind of thing that an English teacher actually trained in English might know.
But I guess that in DeSantisland, it’s fine for people who know no history to teach History, for people who know no French to teach French, for people who know no Algebra to teach Algebra, as long as they can mouth the appropriate jingoisms like, “America first” and “They wanna take yore freedumbs!”
I recently had an encounter with a gentleman I used to have a good opinions about. I then learned he was a libertarian. When the conversation turned to education, he was pro charter all the way, said public schools were beyond repair. He attended independent schools when he was young, as did his children, and I assume his grandchildren. Yet he was an expert on public education and didn’t want to hear a word otherwise. I think that was the last substantive conversation I’ll ever have with him.
Many years ago, I, too, was a supporter of charters because I HATED the bureaucracies in big public-school systems. It was really, really hard to move them off the dime, to get them to adopt substantive change, though they were constantly being affected by various fads (which I was intimately familiar with as a textbook writer and editor). Here’s what changed my mind: I learned about the widespread grift in the charter industry, about the devastating effects on public schools of siphoning off public funds for charters and vouchers, and about the use of charters and vouchers for indoctrination (see, for example, the Hillsdale College schools being touted for Tennesse). So, my support was from a place of ignorance. I have since corrected that, and I owe the beginning of my coming to understanding about this to Diane Ravitch and her incomparable work.
I believe you are mistaken, Bob
When DeSantis said
“I think it has been taken over by ideology”, “it” I’d not refer to schools but to DeSantis’ own brain.
I’ve heard that some folks have pet names for various parts of their anatomies. That Rhonda Santis would call her brain “it” doesn’t surprise me. The girl has issues.
I’m sorry, but Florida is the last place I would teach, even if they doubled the salary and gave a huge signing bonus.
If Florida schools are like those in Buffalo – how long do you think it will take for these untrained teachers to run for the hills.
Even suburban schools have their issues since entitled parents have genius children who deserve nothing less than an A plus and they aren’t shy about letting the teacher know about their short comings in the classroom.
I can’t wait to see how this experiment works out (if the truth is ever revealed to the public). We know that part of the reason there is a shortage is because educators have not been given the respect they’ve earned and are treated like …..
Just wait until one of these hardened authoritarian types flips out on a student and treats him or her like an enemy combatant.
I am waiting for “bring your AR to work day”
yup
What a crock.
These folks are noble in their work and “served their community” so they can teach, too.
The governor thinks “service” must be a trade, not a trait.
It is definitely a trait he understands or practices.
As for “serving the community” – it took him almost a year to pass a law for strict condo regulations and inspections.
But wait – a few dissenters noted there aren’t enough inspectors!
How about firefighters and teachers! They both know how to serve the community. And, how difficult can engineering be?
At this time and into the future, a fascist like DeSantis is more of a threat to our Constitutional Republics/Democracy than a hate filled, malignant narcist with a short attention span like Traitor Trump is.
Looks to me like more empty gestures/ grandstanding by DeathSentence. The requirements are low bar for sure, but they’re not crazily out of line: “a bachelor’s degree or at least 60 hours of college credits — the equivalent of an associate’s degree — with a minimum grade-point average of 2.5 — and pass a Florida subject area examination and a background check.”
There may be many veterans, or EMTs, or policemen, who have at least an associate’s equivalent [60 credits] with a C/C+ average. But how many of them have a body of knowledge in a specific teaching field sufficient to pass the FL subject area examination?
The hurt FL is experiencing in teacher shortage, from what I’ve read, looks like it’s in excess of most the hard-hit states reported in recent articles. Might that have something to do with their flurry of anti-teacher laws & actions over the last two years? FL is probably barking up the right tree, looking to veterans, policemen and other 1st responders: these are folks looking to serve the public within parameters well-defined by the state.
But that’s only a part of the battle [i.e., attitude reqd by DeathSentence]. Content knowledge is a huge part of the rest, not to mention the practicalities of pedagogy & classroom mgt theory that are partly attained through ed-courses & practice-teaching, & mostly in the 1st few yrs of teaching. If they can even find vets/ policemen/ 1st responders with the content knowledge, I predict those folks won’t last more than a year in actual teaching.
Which gets us back to DeathSentence’s empty gestures/ grandstanding. He has been purposely chasing “real” teachers– and real public schools– out of the state. As did his predecessors, going back to Jeb Bush. “OMG, the teacher shortage!” is just a phase to plough through toward the goal: minimal K12 expenditure which is maximally monetized by private entities. Hiring vets/ police/ 1st responders to teach pubsch will not succeed in anything but pushing parents out of pubschs to priv alts which are free to hire whoever even less-qualified, & require no $monitoring by the state. End result, lousy-qual FL K12, & FL politicians could care less.
Good news, D! 😀
https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-blocks-desantis-stop-woke-212740635.html
great
Very interesting logic. Free speech allows the individual to burden the state, not the reverse
The Republican comeback, specially from Christina Pushaw, DeSantis’s former press secretary and now campaign staffer, is that the bill authorizing the military veteran teacher program based both houses unanimously.
However, long time readers of this blog know that Democrats constantly fall for ed reformy stuff all the time to our disappointment. This ain’t nothing new.
Great! Can I be an EMT? My only qualifications are that I took a CPR class for 4H as a teenager. But I’ll be fine…right? (Sarcasm in case anyone missed it)
With an EMTs in the buildings, districts won’t want to pay for school nurses.
We have very few school nurses in Utah as it is. I have never even met my school’s nurse in 15 years, even though both my children needed health plans for asthma. She wrote them, but we only talked on the phone. That one nurse is responsible for over 4000 students.acorss at least 4 schools
And with police in the house, they won’t have to wait for the police to arrive at an active shooter scene.
They can skip directly to the part where they wait around another hour drinking coffee and eating donuts before the Federal border patrol agents arrive and go in with guns blazing.
There was a full season of The Wire dedicated to one of the detectives becoming a teacher. It was excellent.
The Wire was a great series.
My favorite, Diane.
One of the writers was a public school teacher:
“Writer Ed Burns, who worked as a public school teacher after retiring from the Baltimore police force shortly before going to work with Simon, has called education the theme of the fourth season.”
And did he ever nail it!
My favorite scene in The Wire:
The kids are all assembled. The chief of police tries to address them but they are wild and out of control.
Then the principal walks in, a short woman, and the kids go completely silent.
👍🏻👍🏻
I remember that scene well.
I taught 8th grade for awhile. Special Ed focused on kids with severe behavior issues.
One of the best teachers I’ve ever seen and known worked there. Five feet tall. Maybe 100 lbs (I didn’t ask).
She told her class at the beginning of every year: “I can’t compete with you, physically. You know that. But I can help you to learn. So that people will respect you and see you for who you really are. And I can feed you, too”. She kept a well stocked pantry.
The kids revered and respected her. And, eventually, each other. It was a family in that room.
We used to talk about strategies to make that kind of respect transfer over to the cluster teachers and subs. Not an easy task to say the least.
EMTs must learn clearly defined, specialized, measurable skills to get certified. For example, they need to know how to perform CPR. Are their analogous skills must a beginning teacher possess? And if so, do schools of education impart these skills?
Political theater! I wonder how many first responders will enter into the most challenging profession of teaching without getting a decent salary and pension for their efforts. My guess: 3, maybe 4. Let’s say, just to be generous, a whole dozen of Florida first responders become teachers. How many will make it to the spring semester without quitting in frustration? Fewer than 6. DeSantis is an ignorant man, and this stunt is a meaningless gesture of disrespect.
The University of Central Florida produces the most education degrees in the state. Here are some links to their degree requirements. For those saying education schools are doing things totally wrong, what about this would you change?
Elementary
https://www.ucf.edu/catalog/undergraduate/#/programs/SJlWm9UAou
Secondary Math
https://www.ucf.edu/catalog/undergraduate/#/programs/BygVX9URod
Music (Click “View Full Description”)
https://www.ucf.edu/degree/music-education-bme/
List of other Ed Degrees
https://ccie.ucf.edu/academics/bachelors/
If you want to know how one of Florida’s older, household name colleges do things, here is Florida State University.
Elementary (Bachelor’s + Master’s)
https://education.fsu.edu/elementary-ed
Secondary Math/Science
https://fsu-teach.fsu.edu
This is a double major in the content area and secondary education.
Music
Click to access 2022-BME-Instrumental-Band-Revised.pdf
If what these programs require isn’t good enough, what would you change?