Tim Slekar, Director of the Educator Preparation Program, Muskingum University of Ohio. He insists we do not have a teacher shortage. We have a shortage of respect for teachers as professionals. He wrote the following:

Enough Already! It’s NOT a teacher shortage.

“The public is not begging for teachers yet, but districts are. At some point, if this pathway does not change, the public will also be begging for teachers.” Scott Klimek

It was 9:55 am and Mrs. Tichon’s kindergartners were focused on the literacy task at hand. Every Monday morning at 9:45 Mrs. Tichon’s 26 kindergartners had to spend 15 minutes completing a district mandated “literacy check.” And every Monday three of Mrs. Tichon’s children never finished at 10:00 am and had to miss recess. 

Not today though! Mrs. Tichon had had enough. At 10:00 am she announced to her class that it was time to turn in their assignments and line up for recess. Of course the three children who never finished stayed in their seats and prepared to spend recess in the classroom completing the literacy check. “William, Lela, and Termain” Mrs. Tichon’s voice rang out. “Put your pencils down and please get in line. You are going to recess.”

Later that day Mrs. Tichon was summoned to the principal’s office during her lunch. She didn’t think anything of it at the time, so she picked up her things and went in to see her principal Ms. Stanever.

Ms. Stanever glanced up from her desk when she heard the knock on the door frame from Mrs. Tichon. “Please come in, close the door and sit down,” Ms Stanever whispered to Mrs. Tichon. Mrs. Tichon knew at that moment that something was wrong.

“Can you please tell me why William, Lela, and Termain did not finish their literacy check?” asked Ms. Stanever.

“Because it’s just not right to keep them in every Monday from recess. They’re only 4 years old. They need to play” Mrs. Tichon asserted.

“No. They must complete their literacy check so we can send their scores to central office to keep track of their progress. Without that data they will fall behind” replied Ms Stanever.

Mrs. Tichon was about to defend her decision more, but before she could say anything about early childhood and the need for free play, Ms. Stanever handed Mrs. Tichon a slip of paper. It was a “write up.” A slap on the wrist but it would come to define Mrs. Tichon’s identity that school year. By the end of the year Mrs. Tichon had accumulated 13 write ups and was considered a “troublemaker teacher.”

On June 9th—the last day of school—Mrs. Tichon packed up her room and took all of her belongings to her car. She drove home in tears and did not return the following year. She could not break another moral boundary again. She had become a kindergarten teacher because of a passion for igniting a flame of joy in young children and wanting to see them thrive. The system had other ideas.

This vignette was written before the covid 19 pandemic.  It’s a true story.  In fact, before the pandemic I surveyed well over 400 teachers from across the nation.  I wanted to hear directly from them why so many were leaving or about to leave.  The survey responses led me to teachers like Mrs. Tichon (Not real name) who were eager to tell me their stories about the demoralization they faced over the years as a classroom teacher.  

Sadly Mrs. Tichon was not an outlier.  In fact over 90% of the teachers surveyed indicated that they were quitting, going to quit, and/or seriously considering quitting.  Sixty percent revealed being treated for mental health issues that often led to marital problems and declining family dynamics. A majority indicated that they felt compelled to “teach for the test” rather than engage students in deep learning. And nearly all of them saw a future that had no connection to their vocational passions to make a difference in the lives of children. And this was before the pandemic.

At the time of these surveys I had been on my own mission to dispel the myth of the “teacher shortage.”  As a leader in teacher education, I was painfully aware of the declining enrollments in educator preparation programs.  My own teacher credentialing programs had seen a 20% decline over a ten-year period.  My institution was lucky.  Pre pandemic the national decline in teacher preparation programs was around 35% on average.  Some of my colleagues at other institutions watched their programs wither and close.  I met with potential students who wanted to become teachers and sadly listened as their parents spoke up first to remind their children that their chosen career path was not something the family supported.  My own children asked me quite regularly why I had become a teacher because from their experiences watching teachers, “Who would ever want such a crappy job?”

So when the media started telling the public about the “teacher shortage” I knew there was something incredibly misleading about that term.  And then when the solutions to fix the shortage—anybody can teach pathways—started to emerge it became very clear what was going on.  Policy makers were using the empty classrooms of demoralized teachers and the declining enrollments in teacher preparation programs to jam through “solutions” that further eroded the professional status of classroom teachers.  The war on teaching had evolved and the “anybody can teach” surge was deployed in earnest.

And then the pandemic changed the world of education as we know it.  First, teaching and learning went remote.  Teachers and building administrators became heroes.  They figured out ways to get wifi to families without privilege. Free lunches were passed out and sometimes even delivered to hungry students.  Teachers stayed remote for 14 hours a day to meet the needs of children that only had access to remote learning in extremely limited ways. 

Then the shift.  Concerned for their health and the health of the children and the school community, teachers found themselves at the receiving of end of the “Bad Teacher” rhetoric.  And once again, the media and politicians pummeled our schools and teachers for being selfish in this time of great national need—a national babysitter ranks. 

Teachers asked for “safe working conditions.” They asked for masks, covid tests, classroom ventilation systems and the ability to teach remotely when transmission rates were high.  These requests were too much and just more evidence of teacher laziness and not wanting to work.  The heroes had become zeros.  But they went back anyways—and some of them died.

And then, in the middle of teaching during a pandemic, somebody got “offended” when they found out that teachers were teaching the truth about history. “The truth shall set you free!”  Free to lose your teaching license and be on the receiving end of a social distancing nightmare. Now, as we flounder after two years of a pandemic that further demoralized teachers and turned the “shortage” into a full exodus it seems as if the “anybody can teach” crowd actually has won the high ground in the war on teachers and teaching.  In fact, the bar for becoming a substitute teacher has now been lowered.  Required?  High School diploma.

Now what?  Two words and a question mark.

But such a great question. It really is—If you actually take the time to ask it.  

As I look around, I am not hopeful it will be asked.  We are all too busy! Too busy to listen and hear Mr. Chanek explain that, 

“I became a teacher to inspire learners and learning. I wanted to work with explorers, thinkers, researchers and help them become even better at all of this. At first, this is what I did—engage learners.”

“In fact my classroom used to be a community of learners. We supported each other and didn’t label each other. However, things changed at some point. Instead of teaching learners, I had to teach data points. Then we started focusing on all of the deficits a learner brought to the classroom instead of allowing students to learn for understanding. As teachers we were constantly meeting to look at data and using that numerical data to supposedly create the best learning experience. I also noticed myself getting angry at kids who didn’t fit the mold because I felt that they would bring my teaching evaluations down. But my biggest ah ha was when a frightened student—heading into the foster care system—came into my classroom on the first day of testing. While our classroom welcomed him with open arms, another teacher took me aside to see if he was taking the tests. And if so, would his score impact our school’s score? I couldn’t believe what we had become.”

“From that moment I realized that I was being asked to do things that did not benefit kids. I was expected to label them according to some assessment that collected data points. I was expected to teach kids how to read fast instead of for understanding. I was expected to spend all of my professional learning time looking at data instead of actual student work. I wasn’t allowed to teach and students weren’t allowed to learn. I tried to actually teach covertly while playing the data driven/accountability game. It became tiring. I lost of part of my soul. This was not how I had started teaching.”

“I eventually made the decision to leave teaching—I was no longer inspired. I was doing double the work because I was attempting to still do best practice and fulfilling the mandates all while still swimming upstream. I was angry and depressed. My own children and spouse were suffering too.”

“One day I would LOVE to get back in the classroom. However, this will only happen when teachers are allowed to teach and their expertise is valued and not ignored.”

“Just let us teach!”

So simple and so profound.  Let’s let teachers actually engage students. Let’s empower teachers to ignite the passion for learning. Let’s stop being busy and recognize that our teachers are professionals who desire agency and deserve respect. 

Just let them teach!

John Merrow, like millions of Americans, was appalled when the Republican National Committee attacked Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for serving on the House Committee investigating the insurrection of January 6. He was reminded of the film Spartacus.

He wrote:

In the 1960 movie “Spartacus,” the Roman Army puts down a slave revolt. The Commander of Italy offers to pardon thousands of slaves from crucifixion if they will identify Spartacus, the leader of the revolt. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) stands to give himself up, but as he says, “I am Spartacus,” so does another slave (Tony Curtis), followed by first one and then another. Eventually all the slaves are shouting proudly and defiantly “I am Spartacus.” It is a memorable display of heroism and solidarity.

Today, to declare “I am Spartacus” is to stand with those who are being wrongly accused or persecuted, no matter the cost.

If ever there was a moment for traditional Republicans to stand and declare “I am Liz Cheney. I am Adam Kinzinger,” it is now.

Which brings us to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, two Republican members of the House of Representatives who were recently censured by the Republican National Committee “for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference.” The resolution, passed overwhelmingly by voice vote of the RNC’s 168 members, also describes the January 6th insurrection as “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

It hasn’t happened. No Republican is upset enough about the direction of their party to stand and declare, “Enough.” No elected Republican has had the courage to declare that he or she will no longer align with the GOP until it comes to its senses.

Twitter ‘outrage’ is no substitute for political courage, but that’s pretty much all we’ve gotten.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said in a tweet, “It’s a sad day for my party—and the country—when you’re punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies.”

Former Massachusetts governor and current Utah Senator Mitt Romney also turned to Twitter: “Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.”

Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse also Tweeted: “January 6th was not ‘legitimate political discourse’ and I’ll say it again: It was shameful mob violence to disrupt a constitutionally-mandated meeting of Congress to affirm the peaceful transfer of power.”

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who is not running for re-election, issued a statement through his PR team: “The Governor commends anyone who is willing to step forward and tell the truth, and disagrees with this vote. He has been clear that the January 6th riot was a violent insurrection and a sad day for democracy.”

No strong words from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and even retiring GOP Senators like Bob Portman of Ohio and Richard Burr of North Carolina have been quiet.

In the film, the defiant slaves pay dearly for their act of courage. Because Spartacus was not identified, the Roman leader crucifies nearly all of the slaves, saving two to battle to the death for the amusement of Roman citizens (with the victor then to be crucified).

The slave leader, Spartacus, learned an important lesson from what had happened: “When just one man says ‘No, I won’t,’ Rome begins to fear. And we were tens of thousands who said ‘No,’ and that was the wonder of it.”

While no Republican would be literally crucified for publicly declaring “I am Liz Cheney. I am Adam Kinzinger,” Fox News and other right wing voices would excoriate the defiant. However, it would not take ‘tens of thousands’ to halt the downward spiral the Republican Party has taken under Donald Trump. If enough Republicans had the courage to declare “I am Liz Cheney. I am Adam Kinzinger,” they might very well emerge strong enough to rebuild the Grand Old Party.

Today’s Republicans and the slaves of “Spartacus” differ in two crucial respects. The brave slaves in the film are being held in slavery against their will. Today’s gutless Republicans have chosen to be slaves. Their bondage is voluntary!

Since Merrow wrote this post, Senator Mitch McConnell criticized the Republican National Committee for censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their participation in the work of the Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. McConnell did not agree with the RNC that the attack on the seat of the Government was “legitimate political discourse.” McConnell said it was “a violent insurrection.” Anyone who was in the Capitol at the time was running for their lives to a secure hiding place. Not a sign of legitimate political discourse.

The members of the RNC are sniveling cowards.

Peter Greene reports that a Republican legislative proposal would eliminate public schools, thus wiping out one of our nation’s most democratic institutions.

He begins:

State Senator Del Marsh proposed this week the “ultimate” school choice bill, the “Parents’ Choice Bill,” (SB140) a super-education savings account. But that’s not what it really is.

This is an ESA in its fully realized form— every Alabama family gets every cent the state would have spent on educating their child (about $6,300 last year) and they can use it to pay for educational whatever–public school, home school, private school, tutoring, online classes, whatever.

Marsh is a longtime champion of disinvestment in Alabama public ed, having pushed charters and charter expansion in previous years (he also co-sponsored a bill to make bribery of legislators by lobbyists legal).

This is a big deal, a bill that changes the rules for education in an entire state, but coverage so far has been light (the bill was supposedly going to be filed yesterday) and details.

One early complaint is that the bill would cost the state about $420 billion in education funds. Alabama Education Association executive director Army Marlowe also called out the bill for its lack of transparency and its generosity to private operators:Senator Marsh’s “Parent’s Choice Bill” should be called exactly what it is – “No Vendor Left Behind “ – a shell game of a voucher program to divert money from Alabama’s community schools. There is a complete lack of transparency regarding this egregious bill by rushing it through committee this week. Regardless of whether Senators have been given the opportunity to study the bill, by filing it this week and expecting it to not only be in committee, but to be voted out of a committee is mind blowing. A bill of this magnitude that would result in more than $420 million cut from the Education Trust Fund rushed through committee without the opportunity for at least a week of scrutiny by the public and the media makes you wonder why Sen. Marsh is in such a hurry to move this bill.Yes, this bill would eat a ton of taxpayer dollars, and yes it would gut the public education system in Alabama. There is one other huge effect that comes with voucher-style bills that seems to be rarely discussed–it ends the state’s involvement with and support of its children.

In an online interview, education lab reporter Trish Powell Crain points out that this is bigger than charters or vouchers. “It’s the ultimate ‘here, take the money and parents, you go decide how you want to spend this money to educate your child.'”

Yes. “We’ve given you a check, and we hereby wash our hands of the whole education thing.” The ultimate form of voucher is not about empowering parents. It’s not even about making vendors a bunch of money. It’s about getting the state out of the education business, about cutting parents and children loose. It’s about ending the collective commitment to and responsibility for educating the next generations.

David Corn, the D.C. Bureau Chief for Mother Jones, read the minutes of the McMinn County, Tennessee, school board that banned Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer-Prize winning graphic novel, MAUS, and he found the comments even dumber than he expected. The school board members were worried that students in middle schools might hear words like “bitch” and “god damn,” they were upset by nude mice, and some had never read the book (maybe all).

Korn wrote:

One of my favorite books is Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art Spiegelman’s brilliant 1986 graphic novel that recounts his parents’ harrowing experiences during the Holocaust when they were imprisoned in Auschwitz. In the book, Jews are depicted as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs. It is a richly and simply drawn blend of history, fiction, and memoir that captures the story of these survivors, their trauma, and the consequences for their son. The book is a complete artistic success, hailed widely as a masterpiece and awarded a Pulitzer, the first ever handed to a graphic novel. Not to overstate Maus’ significance, its publication legitimized this form of storytelling and marked a historic moment in American literature. In 1992, the Museum of Modern Art mounted an exhibition displaying Spiegelman’s original panels for the work. Two weeks ago, a Tennessee school board voted to ban the book.

The superintendent suggested that it would be possible to redact (delete) eight words and a picture of a woman that board members found objectionable. But that didn’t solve the board’ s revulsion for the book.

Educators defended the use of the book but it was hopeless.

Board member Tony Allman remarked, “We don’t need to enable or somewhat promote this stuff. It shows people hanging. It shows them killing kids. Why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff? It is not wise or healthy.” Julie Goodin, an instructional supervisor who used to teach history, patiently explained to Allman that “there is nothing pretty about the Holocaust and for me this was a great way to depict a horrific time in history.” Allman wouldn’t relent: “I understand that on TV and maybe at home these kids hear worse, but we are talking things that if a student went down the hallway and said this, our disciplinary policy says they can be disciplined and rightfully so. And we are teaching this and going against policy.” Melasawn Knight, another instructional supervisor, took a stab at it: “People did hang from trees, people did commit suicide, and people were killed, over six million murdered… [Spiegelman] is trying to portray that the best he can with the language that he chooses that would relate to that time…Is the language objectionable? Sure. I think that is how he used that language….”

It’s easy to imagine the frustration of the educators up against this. Knight tried again to reason with the board, pointing out that the numerous books taught in the system contain “foul language,” including Bridge to Terabithia, The Whipping Boy, and To Kill a Mockingbird. That was a no-sale. Board member Mike Cochran piped up: “I went to school here thirteen years…I never had a book with a naked picture in it, never had one with foul language…So this idea that we have to have this kind of material in the class in order to teach history, I don’t buy it.” He groused that the book obliquely refers to Spiegelman’s father losing his virginity and explicitly depicts the suicide of Spiegelman’s mother. “A lot of the cussing had to do with the son cussing out the father,” he complained, “so I don’t really know how that teaches our kids any kind of ethical stuff…We don’t need this stuff to teach kids history… We don’t need all the nakedness and all the other stuff.”

A board member read out the lyrics of the song “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” and condemned it for its “sexuality.” He seemed to think that it was a poem, but it is a song.

Corn writes:

I don’t know if the educators present kept a straight face. Cochran was quoting not a poem but the lyrics of the song “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” which was written by Eubie Blake in 1921. Judy Garland had a hit with the tune in 1939. And in 1948, President Harry S. Truman adopted the number as his campaign theme song. Yet for Cochran this 100-year-old song was too racy for a middle schooler. It was obvious how he would be voting.

All 10 board members voted to ban MAUS.

Peter Greene explains how the Koch machine is creating new brands to hide its identity from the unsuspecting. The billionaires Charles and his late brother David were infamous for funneling Dark Money through front groups whose names sounded innocuous or inspiring. Now Charles Koch is reaching out to a new generation, attempting to pour his rancid wine into new bottles. One of the most insidious aspects of “reform” is the way it steals sweet-sounding names and attaches them to its odious goal of privatization. To understand the sham of “reform,” you need to understand that the words usually mean the opposite. “Reform” has nothing to do with reform; it is a cover for disruption and privatization.

Greene writes:

Remember when Charles Koch wrote that he had done an oopsie by being so partisan and dividing the country? That was back in late 2020, and it was followed by the rise of a new Koch Brand–Stand Together–which in turn spawned a new substack about fixing education called “Learning Everywhere.” It turns out that the Koch metamorphosis was not done yet.

“Learning Together” was co-hosted by Lisa Snell, director of K-12 education policy for Stand Together, aka the Charles Koch Institute. Previously she spent 23 years as Director of Education at the Reason Foundation. Her co-host is Adam Peshek, who is part of the same Kochtopus, having arrived Jeb Bush’s ExcelinEd (formerly FEE). Peshek also works at Yes, Every Kid, a rebranding of some standard reform ideas.
The substack started out playing the reformy hits (did you know schools are built on the factory model? well, they weren’t, but did you think so anyway? Snell and Peshek would like you to think so).
So, Charles Koch Institute is now Stand Together Trust, an organization that now has a hip young vide. Check out the website– “We help you tackle the roots of America’s biggest problems” in bold print over dynamic vides. Hugging! Clapping! Black people! “Everyone is tired of all the fighting over problems with very little focus on real solutions.”
Among the issues they want to address is education, and their dynamic new solutions are…well, the same old ones. They insist that education is currently one-size-fits-all (news to teachers in public schools), and they have the same old right-tilted complaints– we spent more money but test scores didn’t go up! Families give education a C (but we’re not going to point out that they give far higher grades to the local schools they know). Individualized education is where it’s at. 

There’s a video in which Sal Khan, promoter of an educational program that involves students sitting and passively watching a video, complains that education involves students sitting passively while listening to a teacher. Other “leaders” they bring up are Diane Tavenner, head of Summit Schools (a school-in-a-box not-great tech product). There are lots of pictures of exciting active learning, all of which could have come from a public school. Aaron Frumin, founder of unCommon Construction, who talks about how frustrated he became “as a teacher” which he was for the two whole years he spent with Teach for America. His program uses students as laborers to build houses, an innovative program pretty much like the one the vocational technical school in my county has had for sixty years. Here’s Todd Rose “By any measure, the system doesn’t work.” Rose was a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and founder of the Center for Individual Opportunity and he runs the think tank Populace. And he has a Story, in which he dropped out of high school (“The system failed me.”) There’s some more talk about believing in students (which, again, is not unheard of in public schools). “Success doesn’t have to mean one thing. We need our education system to have a much broader view of success.”

That’s the pitch. Well, actually, the pitch is use your money to invest in these people doing this stuff. But also, we got 11 major education bills passed in 8 states in 2021, and somehow we don’t talk about what those bills did, like pushing privatization of education or gagging of teachers. There are case studies of success, like Cadence Learning, one more cyber-school venture, this one launched by Chris Cerf, Ian Rowe and Steven Wilson–all god privatization champions.

Meanwhile, the known recipients of ST grants are not so much education revolutionaries as the same old Koch style conservative crews. Americans for Prosperity, Bill of Rights Institute, Bellwether Education, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Vela Education Fund. 

The substack has now transformed into a new title– Permissionless Education. That term has cropped up several places lately, and it really captures the Libertarian mindset of not wanting to have to ask for anyone’s permission to do anything ever, a mindset I can recognize immediately because I live with a pair of four-year-old toddlers. 

Open the link and read on to understand what the Kochtopus is really aiming for with all these new names and old faces.