The war on public education continues

[MadHound]

As I listened to the State of the Union the other night, one thing I was curious about, namely what were Obama's plans for public education.

At first, I was pleasantly surprised with Obama's seeming backing of teachers, telling the public that teachers deserved more respect(note though, he didn't say anything about more pay). But shortly afterwards, he didn't fail to disappoint, calling for replacing NCLB with legislation similar to his Race to the Top initiative.

My heart sunk on that one. More RTTT means that the war on public education is continuing. RTTT means that there will be more testing, merit pay based on those tests, and more, more, more charter schools. It means that we're going to continue down this same path of failure, and continue to allow our public education system to be dismantled and destroyed.

I also, as one who graduated with a couple of education degrees last spring, had to laugh at this statement of his: "In fact, to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child -- become a teacher. Your country needs you."

I followed that call in '06, dropping a comfortable career in the nuclear industry to go into teaching. I saw the need back then. Yet when I, and thousands like me, graduated from college four years later, there was no money to match that need. Last year the Obama administration withheld the last of the stimulus money that was designated for education spending, withheld it all summer while he peddled his Race To the Top program to cash strapped states. Desperate, grasping for any sort of cash, state after state got sucked into RTTT. It was only after all the hiring and firing decisions were made, last September, that the President finally released the stimulus money, too, too late.

You want bright new teachers Mr. President, then stop jerking us around on our careers. I watched the brightest minds in my education class have spent this year outside of the classroom due to your actions. The fact that you played games with education funding last spring means that this fall, classrooms were overcrowded, teachers were laid off, and the quality of education suffered.

You are determined to press this RTTT programs of yours, it is a mistake. Constant testing only makes students proficient in testing, not the curricula. Merit pay, based on those tests, leads to several unexpected consequences, including getting rid of good teachers who happen to teach difficult students. And opening up our education system to unlimited charter schools is going to lead directly to privatizing education and corporate control of education.

If you truly believe Mr. President, that we need bright teachers, that we can't continue to travel the path that we're on, then stop playing politics with education, stop kicking education around like a political football. That is what has done the most harm to public education, it's use as a political football by politicians wanting to score some cheap, easy political points.

Instead, make sure that education is fully funded, that every school is in good shape and up to date. No more yanking of 16 billion dollars for school construction and repair in favor of tax credits. No more RTTT games, no more NCLB. Instead, put a real, live educator in charge of education policy. Pay teachers like you respect them. Don't yank the rug out from under an entire year's worth of graduates, just so you can force your pet project upon states.

And one other thing. Yes, we need an emphasis on math and science. But we also need an emphasis on History, English, Civics, all of those subjects that help our society make informed decisions, that preserve and enrich our culture. Otherwise, we wind up with an ill-informed society composed of individuals who are ignorant of history and don't know how government works. You know, like the Tea Party folks. Is that what you want?

I was hoping that Obama might actually change his course on education, but I should know better than to foster such hopes. The bipartisan war on public education continues unabated. I hope and prey for our children. Worse yet, I want to get into the classroom and help our children. Hopefully that will happen this year, but given the course our president is charting, I'm not getting my hopes up too high. Sadly, I and thousands like me, could very well be the latest casualties in this war on public education.

[ChazII]

1. Well said. n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

2. + 1,000,000

I'm an unemployed elementary school teacher.

[MadHound]

3. As am I,

I graduated last spring, with a job already lined up. Sadly, Obama withheld the education stimulus money until last September, far past the time when hiring and firing decisions are made. The school district that I was going to work for had to cut funds, cut back on teachers, and my position was eliminated. Worse, for the kids and remaining teachers, those 120 students were split among the remaining two teachers who are now dealing with overcrowded classrooms and all the trouble that brings. That story was repeated time and again among my fellow graduates, and graduates across the country.

Hopefully, with the influx of stimulus money last fall, some of the money was held aside for hiring new teachers this spring and I can find a job. Hopefully you can as well. Good luck.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. One of the things that just bugs me is that I know I was effective.

The kids responded when I repeatedly offered to explain a concept until each student could understand it, especially in math. And I encouraged them to ask questions, challenge me. I had to settle for substitution teaching as I'm "overqualified" (masters degree) to be hired permanently.

[MadHound]

6. Oh geez,

It seems as though the best are getting kicked out, or not picked up. I graduated at the top of my class, suma cum laude, have great references from my cooperating teacher, principal, etc., yet I've had no offers, no interviews, nothing. I'm wondering if it is because of my age, I'm approaching the half century mark, the economy, policy, what?

At least you're subbing though. With so many teachers laid off in my area the sub lists are full, and I can't even get a start doing that.

It's insane.

[Starry Messenger]

5. k&r

[Godhumor]

7. He doesn't need to encourage hiring of history, english and elementary teachers

As there are now, and will be until a mass boomer retirement, far more of the "liberal arts" teachers than positions.

On a national level there is a real dearth of the hard skills classes, and, in many cases, some districts have no engineering departments at all. That does need to change, and change radically.

If you don't mind a quick segway into a personal note:

I am a former history teacher myself. The last job I held had 154 applicants, which, in NY, meant at minimal 4 year degree plus 1 year of grad school for preliminary certification, for the one position. It surprised me since the school wasn't a plush suburban one but a combined rural/suburban with BOCES vocational training. This was 5-6 years ago, or way before the current economic downturn, but even then the "soft" skills teachers had to differentiate themselves to stand out.

Now, I can't get over the glut of the "liberal arts" teachers either graduating or out of work due to declining enrollment/need. I don't see that unfortunate fact changing until some of those people waiting decide to enter a different career, or, as said earlier, boomers finally decide to leave the profession en masse.

[MadHound]

9. It could be a matter of location,

Out here in the Midwest, there is a dearth of history and liberal arts teachers, and an overabundance of math and science teachers. This is due, in large part, to how both state and national policy makers have been pushing for more and more math and science teachers. I would say that approximately thirty to forty percent of my fellow teaching graduates were in the liberal arts, with math and science rounding out most of the rest of the class.

[Godhumor]

10. To a small degree, but nationally it is not even close

I'm going to post this as an OP, so people see it, but the following is the Department of Education's "Teacher Shortage Areas" by state (Look for the 2010-2011 info under each one). Niche areas and the "sciences" dominate pretty much across the board, with a few exceptions.

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/pol/tsa.pdf

[LWolf]

8. Yesterday our building rep met with us to talk about next year.

Next year, when we will be taking another salary cut and RIFFING a bunch more teachers. Increasing class sizes, cutting and eliminating programs to support struggling students, and cutting MORE days out of a school year already shorter than most of the nation. This just because of state budget cuts. It's not a pretty picture.

When you add the general disdain for teachers, the outright hatred from some, I couldn't possibly recommend teaching as a profession. I think that's the ultimate goal: to destroy the profession. I think it's working.

[Name removed]

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[grahamhgreen]

12. If we want great education, we simply have to follow what countries with great education do - like

Finland.

Only educators are involved in ed management.

98% of teachers are unionized.

Small class sizes.

etc

[MadHound]

14. A couple of other things we need to follow their lead on as well,

Give teachers the same respect as we do doctors. Obama mentioned that, which did please me.

Pay teachers the same sort of salary we do doctors. I've met many people who would make great teachers, who dearly wanted to become teachers. But they look at the amount of debt they would have to incur, and then at the pay scale and simply don't see a way through it. It used to be, when teaching was one of the few careers that women could go into, that our schools were filled with great teachers. But young, smart women have many, many other, more profitable careers to choose from, and if you want to attract the best, you have to fork over the big bucks. Policy makers are still wanting to get high quality teachers without paying for them, and that simply isn't going to work out well. Yes, there are many people who are willing to endure the low pay, in part because teaching is a calling. But a lot of people won't touch teaching, even if they feel the calling, because they simply can't have a comfortable life on a schoolteacher's salary.

[Name removed]

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[Bragi]

13. Destroying public education is absolutely pivital

Seriously, the corporate oligarchs who rule America cannot succeed with public education still breathing.

They HAVE TO eliminate it to foster the kind of social dislocation and alienation needed to successfully prevent anything resembling democracy from recurring.

I wish it were not so.

[Still a Democrat]

15. "RTTT means that there will be more testing, merit pay based on those tests"

Good.

[MadHound]

17. Good?

Despite the fact that several studies show that standardized testing does little except assess a student's ability to take a standardized test?

And you are in favor of merit based pay, which will be based on those tests? Can we put you with the worst class of students and see how you fare?

Another education "expert" who doesn't have a clue about education, great. Thanks for being part of the problem, not part of the solution.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

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[montanto]

21. LOL Think:

If you work in an industry that builds cabinets, lets say, and your colleague across the way is provided with wood, table saw, planer, jointer, glue, screws, screwdrivers, hammers, nails, paint, stain, varnish, etc., while you are provided with cardboard, duct tape, thumb tacks, and crayons, which of you will craft the better cabinet, all skills being equal in the first place? Who gets the bonus? Wouldn't the fact that the materials that you are dealing with are different lead to different outcomes? If that went on, wouldn't there be an incentive for you to get the position that actually provided you with the materials that would allow you to "build a cabinet" and get the pay that you deserve?

[WinkyDink]

22. Gosh, if I were an art teacher, I'd be pretty upset that I had no way to get any "merit pay."

My subject, along with others, isn't TESTED.

But it's all equitable, right? I mean, as long as we teach and test mathematics and science, we'll have the BEST STUDENTS IN ZEE WORRRRLD!

[immoderate]

25. Art teacher? Simple. You're fired!

Art is subversive anyway. :shrug:


--imm

[WinkyDink]

31. Heh. True dat.

I did my best with literature, too, though. :-)

[Reader Rabbit]

19. I'm with you, MadHound.

In my school, core class sizes are all in the mid-30s. And given state budget projections, we will most likely lose more staff next year. The kids can barely move around in the classrooms as it is. I'm wondering where they'll put all the new kids?

Meanwhile, I have a number of extremely qualified friends who have been subbing for years, because there are no full-time positions opening up.

It's a travesty.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

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[WinkyDink]

23. 1. You think math is superior to history? Okay, right off, Houston, we have a problem; 2. You think

printing like a child is superior to using cursive script? Houston, don't leave yet. 3. There's something about teaching the Table of Elements (11th grade) that precludes the teaching of trees' names (5th grade)?

As for class size: Would you like your property taxes raised? No, I didn't think so. But at least it's not another problem.
Unless you meant that 30 is too low a figure.

[MedicalAdmin]

30. I was educated in Canada and England...

No cursive taught. And yet somehow I survived.


Of course we had a longer day, a longer year, small classes and huge requirements to graduate. To graduate HS one needed 4 years of English plus at least 1 year of composition/literature. 4 years of math, plus at least one year of calculus, 4 years of a primary science, and at least 2 years in each other discipline (more if you were applying for university), 4 years of history / social sciences, 4 years of fine arts, 4 years of physical education, 4 years of vocational studies, and 4 years of enrichment classes (everything from computer programing to ballet).


In the USA one can graduate with less than half of this. And get college credit for it. It's no comparison and cursive has NOTHING to do with it. I agree with you about the history thing tho'.

[WinkyDink]

32. You're off the hook. :-)

[MedicalAdmin]

34. I am but what about the current generation of American's.

And if we dumb it down for them to save a few bucks then what are they going to do to the generation after them? This shit needs to stop now.

[Hannah Bell]

37. how come your great education didn't cover apostrophes?

no apostrophe in the plural "americans".

seems a big oversight since you had such an intense, comprehensive education.

[MedicalAdmin]

38. I have dyslexia. And sometime I don't see them like I should.

Sorry about that. Spellcheck catches lots of things but not that.

I think you took my post as either bragging or of putting down the USA system and I guess it was a bit of both. I have been a teacher in the US. I no longer am and I don't think the system can improve without changing the management (and a few teachers but mostly management) and of course the funding. The year does need to be longer, the days longer, the pay higher and the classes smaller.

I should also mention that my 2nd and 3rd degrees were here in the USA where I had a full ride scholarship and where I recieved a great post secondary education. Further education will likely happen in Canada where the quality is just as good and vastly less expensive.

For the record I have met many great students in the USA and they are wonderful and deserve much better than they get. I will continue to work to see that they get it locally and at a state and fed level. I support teachers and unions without reservation. I have as of yet to meet a principal that I would bother to pee on even if they were on fire.

I have great appreciation on your posts and comments on the subject of education. They are, on the whole, erudite and passionately argued. Please keep it up. I know when I see a comment of yours that there will be a point being made that I should be aware of.

So why the snark?

[Hannah Bell]

36. unlike the uk & canada, education in the us isn't centralized. so the fact that in some

locales one "can" graduate without the things you list doesn't mean that graduating without them is the rule. and "less than half" my ass, since your list covers every subject. one wonders what those places you claim graduate kids with "less than half" of your list do to fill the rest of their time.

in fact, if you compare british & american schools by income class, american schools outshine british ones. at least if you think standardized tests mean anything.

[MedicalAdmin]

39. Ah - now I understand the snark.

Yes Hannah I taught in the US in some pretty rough schools (urban inner city in Oregon, rural in Minnesota, and suburban in Washington) and in my limited experience these schools requirements didn't stand up to what I was required to do. Which isn't to say that many students didn't choose to become as qualified, but fewer actually did (not required, eh?).

Combine that with longer school days, longer years, and smaller class sizes... I honestly think that US teachers, so long used to making do with so little would thrive as would their students. And don't you think that US students deserve these things?

As for the British system, I went to a prep academy so not exactly public. And the Canadian system is every bit as decentralized as the US system. The key difference is that the provincial ed departments set high standards and the funding to accomplish these goals is largely in place in many parts of Canada and certainly was where I went to school. The US could set high standards (and has in many, many cases - I have helped write curriculum for 2 cities and contributed to a state curriculum guideline project so I KNOW) but it is the funding system in the US that is causing a LOT of these problems.

I understand that you rationally feel that teachers in the US are under attack, mostly because they are. But not everyone is your enemy. It is my fervent hope that I have not misplaced any apostrophes in this post so that you pay attention to what I wrote more than how I (didn't) write it. LOL.

[immoderate]

26. "With all due respect to teachers...."

"Without any training or experience I know a whole lot more about education than they do, so I feel qualified to tell them what to do."

--imm

[Goblinmonger]

28. My school doesn't teach cursive.

My kids' school doesn't teach cursive. Could it be that you are talking out of your ass and don't know what you are talking about?

[WinkyDink]

33. Well, whatever! Hope your kid's bank checks, passport, and credit-card slips pass muster.

Have another thought: How will your off-spring be able to READ a written document, an old letter or card, say? Will modern cursive look like a Medieval illuminated manuscript, beyond his ken?

[guruoo]

24. Tn Republicans just declared war on teacher's unions...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x285063

[madfloridian]

27. Race to the Top requires turnarounds and charters, and school closings.

Just what we don't need.

Fund the schools, respect the teachers.

[Ratty]

29. The call for more teachers was the most galling, sickening part of that speech

I had to turn it off.

[MadHound]

35. Yeah, I'm sitting there, along with a few thousand other unemployed teachers,

Just having a WTF? moment.

Good thing no brick was handy, otherwise I'd be shopping for a new television now.