In Tampa, a teacher was fired for teaching false claims to students, but was then hired by a charter school. She was not an exception. Public schools have standards for teachers. Charter schools sometimes do.
Parents said Kimberly Gonzalez was upsetting their children by saying Eve was a man, Adam was gay and God was as real as Santa Claus.
Gonzalez denied making these statements. She kept her job teaching science at Progress Village Middle School in Tampa.
A year later, the concerns escalated. Children said they were told that the Holocaust basically did not happen, that Jewish people wanted World War II, and that the Auschwitz death camp was like a country club with soccer and a cinema. A parent received a link to an antisemitic conspiracy site through Gonzalez’s district messaging server.
Gonzalez told Hillsborough County school officials she wanted her students to think critically about what they learned in school. They opted not to renew her contract. After an argument about sick pay, in which she accused them of “enslaving” her, she left.
She soon found work at Bell Creek Academy, a charter school in Riverview.
Teachers at Florida charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently managed, must hold state credentials in most cases. But when they have a disciplinary history at the organizations they left, it’s unclear how extensively charter schools review them.
The Tampa Bay Times examined 14 such cases in Hillsborough County, often delving deeper into teachers’ backgrounds than the charters did when they hired them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Life Finds a Way
If Adam had been gay
And Eve had gone by “he”
They would have found a way
To grow the family tree
On the other hand
If Adam had been gay
And Eve had been as well
Then you and I, I’d say
Would not be ’round to tell
they do say that if your parents did not have children it is very likely that you will not have them either
In a similar vein, if you didn’t have any biological parents, it is also very likely that you will never be a parent.
Also, if you were aborted as a fetus, it is unlikely that you will ever support abortion rights.
On another hand
If Adam had been trans
And Even had been trans too
The swapping of the mans
Would lead to me and you
It what if Adam and Eve were trans?
See above.
I had that one covered.
Darn, that new teacher the high school hired while I was still teaching there in the 1990s could have found another teaching job in a charter school after he was fired before noon on his first day on the job for teaching students how to cheat on tests like he did when he was still in college.
He was in and out so fast, I never had a chance to even meet him let alone see him. It happened so fast, I might have never heard of it except the office called me and asked if I’d cover his class after lunch for a one period sub job during my planning period.
This guy started teaching at the wrong time. He also had very poor judgment. Poor guy.
LOL!!
There are many stark contrasts between the rights and protections in public schools and private schools. In public schools most teachers are certified and qualified for their positions. These teachers serve their communities, not some charter chain in another state. Professional teachers must adhere to a standard of conduct, which may or may not be followed in a private school. In addition there are civil rights protections that are guaranteed in a public school, and there are no such guarantees in private schools unless parents open litigation against the school. Safety including health, building and fire safety are a big concern. Many charter schools operated by non-educators fail to enforce safety laws which may lead to health and safety issues for students. In addition to federal laws, public schools subject to state laws as well.
While both public and private charter schools access public money, public schools are independently audited, and they are accountable to the taxpayers whose needs they serve. Charter schools get to siphon funds from the public schools. Once the funds are in the hands of private companies there is little to no accountability on how the funds are being spent. Charter schools are notably unstable, and they open and close while they leave students and parents in a lurch. While public schools may sometimes close as well, the closings are generally planned for and arrangements for students have been made in advance. There is no such assurances in private charter schools.
Overall, public schools are generally required to teach facts, despite all the propaganda to the contrary from DeSantis and groups like Moms for Liberty. Rogue teachers that promote misinformation, religious dogma and lies are much more likely to find a comfortable home in a private school.
rt— I was about to take umbrage re: private schools, as that has been my primary experience [a few yrs in a “real” privsch in ‘70s, & recently 20 yrs serving various PreK/K’s as a ‘special,’ typically privschs in my region]. But your point is well-taken: you mean “private” schools that get most of their funding from public taxes, i.e., charters.
For NJ, I would add PreK/K’s that get state funding for low-income kids to that list. They are not charters per se, but worse, suffering from negative features of both pubschs & charters. The state $ at least ensures safety stds & criminal checks for staff, & supports diverse admissions. But they have absurd standardization of curriculum & reqd testing [for 2-1/2 – 6 y.o.’s!]— yet lax stds for staff. State certification of teachers is a mere ‘plus,’ i.e. a marketing tool. Some staff are less-educated but w/much experience; most are still working on their BA’s or certification & move on when they get it [staff churn].
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is pretty clearly trying to tank the economy in order to turn voters sour on Democrats and get Republicans elected.
Biden should fire that Republican puke and his sidekick Lael Braindead before they raise the interest rate again and send the economy into recession (if it isn’t already well on it’s way)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/10/26/afl-cio-economist-warns-fed-using-flat-wrong-analysis-inflict-pain-workers
The economy is the #1 issues for voters, and the Feds and corporations have contributed to making the Democrats look ineffective. More than half of our inflation is due to windfall profits thanks to corporate greed, and we should have taxed it instead of raising interest rates IMO.
Somebody said Democrats need to stop bringing pillows to a gun fight. I agree. Democrats need to make clear what will be in jeopardy if they lose: Social Security, Medicare, the VA, the USPS, body autonomy for women, social justice, public education and so much more.
Powell is using inflation as an excuse to keep raising the prime rate when he knows full well that increases in wages among ordinary workers and increased demand for goods and services are not the primary drivers of the current inflation.
We know he knows because he admitted as much to Elizabeth Warren months ago. And be also certainly understands that continuing to raise the interest rate WILL lead to a recession.
The very idea that one can address specific problems with a system as complex as the economy with a mechanism as crude as the prime interest rate is just idiotic.
But Powell is no idiot. He knows full well what the effects of his actions will be . and in fact, recession is his goal.
aka retired teacher,
While I like the list of things that are in jeopardy, it seems to me to be very diverse. For example, I think that the USPS is arguably an institution that is no longer useful. Asking people to hand carry information from house to house is a waste of the postal workers humanity. Machines can transmit information much more quickly.
I should also point out that corporate greed does not create windfall profits any more than my desire or apples creates the wind that blows them down. Randomness, rather than any causal relationship, is incorporated in the very word you chose to use.
Yes, of course, the record profits being posted by fossil fuel companies in 2022 are just “random”.
Ha ha ha.
TE ‘s comments are randumb.
The USPS is a Constitutional right, so of course TE would be happy to throw it away, along with everything and everyone else. Because Fedex, UPS, and Amazon are outmoded with their human hands and feet, right? So dumb.
LeftCoastTeacher,
How many letters do you write? How many do you receive? Do you get your bills mailed to you? Do you mail checks back?
Technological changes have made the USPS monopoly on first class mail pretty irrelevant.
TE—I think your statement on value of USPS is questionable if not plain wrong. We use USPS home delivery primarily for paper-version bills. That’s about having a physical, visual-daily reminder to facilitate paying when due [as opposed to when recd]. ALSO for receipt of our local weekly newspaper, which is de rigueur for keeping up with stuff that directly impacts local taxes/ QOL, municipal voting etc. [You’re going to read it just cuz it shows up in an email?—it will get lost among the ever-multiplying unsolicited emails.] PLUS: package mailing. Shall I pay $5 at USPS for delivery in a week or 2, or $30 at UPS for delivery much sooner? UPS is a nice alternative for stuff you’ve postponed, but not a sensible regular expenditure. PLUS: far-cheaper return-receipt-requested insured mailing of anything. PLUS: IRL greeting cards [or even >gasp< hand-written letters]. PLUS: transmitting checks: dues to the little local orgs you participate in, and pmts to smallbiz outfits (for snow-removal or what have you) that save $ by not paying a % to credit-card co’s.
Your diss on the USPS is an elitist view that doesn’t consider how many middle- & wkg-class people, & small local non-profits & small local businesses still conduct their daily lives. Not to mention those rural et al areas that still don’t get [or can’t afford] wifi. It’s a vision of the future that isn’t here yet.
Shall we also mention: USPS costs what it does because of the 2006 PAEA law requiring them to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future. This burden applies to no other federal agency or private corporation. Simply a gift to postal privatization.
As to your backhanded praise of automation replacing human jobs that support families as saving ‘a waste of humanity,’ I don’t know what to say. Surely you know better.
As with other stuff, TE is not simply “wrong” about the USPS.
Only a complete idiot would actually believe that all they deliver is “information” and while TE obviously ain’t the sharpest spoon in the drawer, he also ain’t a complete idiot.
So that leaves only one possibility.
He is dishonest .
He’s a bullshit artist who says stuff for no other reason than to bait people.
Bethree5,
You think it is a good use of a person’s time to walk to your house every day to bring a couple of pieces of information to your house each week? I think their time would be much better devoted to creating community and fellowship to the members of your town.
Automation displacing jobs is the reason that you are not looking forward to spending next spring poking holes in the ground with a stick to plant seeds for the next harvest. I think it is a good thing that you did not have to devote you life to that task. Do you think it is a bad thing?
And Fed Vice Chair Lael Braindead is just as bad as Powell.
The Fed can’t do anything but bring on a recession by hurting labor with interest hikes. Only the federal government can do something to stop inflation and price gouging by trust busting the monopolies doing the damage. Our elected officials, however, are too heavily personally invested in the monopolies and refuse to regulate their sacred cash cows.
LCT– I’m not sure I buy into your analysis, only because high inflation is pretty much global, & worse in Europe & East of there, than here, including many countries that have tighter rein on corporate excesses than ours. I understand they have bigger issue with oil/ gas prices than we do. But our covid recovery has been quicker & more robust than theirs, which economists credit to our getting $$ quickly & directly into indiv & biz pockets w/little concern for means-testing/ fraud prevention [compared to their slow bureaucratic rd-tape delivery]…
It never ceases to amaze me how simple minded economists are.
They represent very complex systems with simple numbers like GDP and inflation rate, which hides all the complexity and makes everything appear to be much simpler than it is.
The very idea that you can meaningfully represent the wide range of price increases with a single inflation number is also just idiotic.
But then what can we expect from the folks who don’t even believe “housework” and childrearing in the home are worthy of inclusion in GDP (another single number with dubious value)
Elizabeth Warren laid it all out for Powell, but he already knew full well what his actions would do because that was his plan.
Powell is a lawyer, which should immediately raise people’s skepticism of his claimed goals.
As is Elizabeth Warren.😀
We are going off topic here . But there was a good opinion piece in the NY Times today by a staff writer, to which I had a visceral reaction .
Even if you did not read the piece you might say don’t tell me, tell it to your Publisher / Editor just from the headline. .
The mainstream media drove the perception of inflation and misery that allowed Corporate America to exploit the situation with profits far and above their increased costs . Profits are at a 70 year high . While wages are now running at a 3.8% annualized rate, barely inflationary . Barely above 2018. When excess demand drives up costs you can say that the economy is overheated and curbing demand is warranted. When supply issues cause a rise in prices without an increase in demand . Decreasing demand will not increase supply. And an excess Profits tax would be in order to curb gouging . But of course this is America punishing the working class is the only option.
But back to the NYT .
Interesting take I hadn’t considered, Joel: “The mainstream media drove the perception of inflation and misery that allowed Corporate America to exploit the situation with profits far and above their increased costs.” I find there have been plenty of articles around record-high profits as of late August, but they’re all buried in business sections. It sailed over my head. Partly because I was on vacation then, but mostly because I read political, not business analysis. Where was the media exposure of 70-yr high profits [+14%] vs wage raises [about 5%]? Talking heads on Joe Blow’s favorite news channels discussed nothing other than the obvious, without nuance: inflated grocery and gas and car and housing [and car repair and housing renovation] prices, oh my!
The oil companies would have exploited the situation regardless of what the media said.
Because that is what they do every time they have the opportunity.
They don’t even need media lies to hide behind. They are pretty blatant about what they are doing and they simply don’t care what the public thinks.
The middle finger salute is the primary difference between corporate behavior today and corporate behavior just a few decades ago.
There was a time in the not too distant past when corporate CEOs at least pretended to care what the public thought of them.
Now they just give us the middle finger as they proceed to milk us for everything we are worth.
And the attitude is pretty much independent of the media.
While that may or may not be true, it nevertheless flummoxes me that voters “voting their pocketbooks” imagine that a Rep admin will flip a magic switch and correct global economic disruptions/ inflation that are fallout from a global pandemic complicated by a war in Europe.
The Putin tax remains no matter who is in office
I think this article title could be changed (a little) to fit into the republican landscape: “Florida Teachers Fired at Public Schools Are Hired at Charter Schools for much less money proving that teacher are overpaid.” It would also need to be re-written. The article would then go on to explain how good these teachers actually were, but they were not allowed to find their true level of excellence until they were forced into the discomfort of more limited resources.
As is Elizabeth Warren.
Ha ha ha
P.S. Diane… Is there an “allow editing” feature for comments that I am not seeing, or could be turned on…? Once I post, I see all the mistakes I make… UGHH! 😉
Diane would have to install a plugin that allows users to edit their comments on her WordPress website.
This video explains how to install the “simple comment editing” plugin which gives users a specified time (specified by the host) to modify their comments after the initial posting.
I believe Diane said Gary Rubenstein does her website stuff for her so he would presumably be the one to do it.
It looks like it takes less than a 30 seconds to do.
Wow! Nice!!!
Gary does my graphics (usually). I write the text. I’ll ask him about the plug in. I don’t use brain cells for tech issues.
OK, Diane, I’m stealing this: “I don’t use brain cells for tech issues.” Yeah! >:-D
Many have wished for this!!! Alas, in WordPress comments, one goes to press warts and all.
There is no edit feature. I almost always write on my cell phone, like now. Can’t edit. If I write on big computer or iPad, I can. You can’t. But it you type the corrected version, I’ll delete the one with the errors. I read every comment.
I have often wished I could edit my comments after discovering errors. Sometimes, I have asked Diane to edit for me and she has. There’s certainly an upside to editing features. There’s also, however, a downside.
I miss my old typewriter that my widely beloved grandmother gave me in the 1980s. Clickety clack! I hung on to it as long as I could, until people in the 1990s started scoffing at my letters and applications as outdated because they didn’t look futuristic for the time period. When typing instead of keyboarding, I had to craft my writing ahead of time, planning, writing, editing, revising, and rewriting. There was only whiteout if I made a mistake. It took care. There was a level of craftsmanship involved that only exists now if I force myself to do it, which I don’t because my brain evolved to take shortcuts. I used to be eloquent and funny. Now, only occasionally. And with that sentence fragment, I note that my grammar has become as lax as most text messages and tweets.
My penmanship has also deteriorated. It used to be artistic, though not as much so as that of Thomas Jefferson. The evolution of technology has caused a regression of our ability to communicate in writing. I long for a time long gone of indented paragraphs, double spaces between sentences and lines, precision, and grace.
And there’s an error, of course. My brain didn’t evolve. Humans’ did.
Or did they?
Oh, but I did love that rotating-ball IBM Selectric II with back-space white-out tape that I got to use in the office, circa mid-‘70s—just as widespread use of Xerox copiers rendered those horrible multiple-carbon forms [whiteout!] obsolete. Homebound in late-‘80s/ early-‘90s used a Brother Correctronic that was even better: fingers could fly across “professional touch” keyboard just like on today’s laptops.
But biggest breakthrough for me was my little TRS Color Computer, which printed out on an adding-machine-width tape. I was never a big lover of the pre-editing/ re-writing by hand. I wrote poetry then: what a wonder to try out different versions with so little effort [then type out the final on my old SC electric]. It also allowed me to apply BASIC coding I’d learned for tax returns. We owned a 2-family then, which opened up possibilities for what you could write off, & which combo worked best. How wonderful to let that thing do all the recalculations for various options.