But it highlights common challenges facing educators across the country. Public education funding in many states has not returned to levels seen before the Great Recession, schools are facing teacher shortages tied to low pay and the pressures of standardized testing and teacher evaluations, and the rise of alternatives to traditional public schools is blamed for eroding already scarce resources.
Bottom line: Education and educators are not highly valued. It is part of a greater societal problem: Knowledge, expertise, intellectual pursuits are highly not valued, either, and in fact, are often derided. This is a long-term, systemic part of our culture.
More to the point, and sad to consider, is that a young person (or an older person, looking for a career change) has to be thinking long and hard now about entering teaching as a profession. A heart-felt commitment to the profession is great (and necessary), but that does not pay the bills, nor does it soothe the soul when the numerous slings and arrows are aimed at the profession and/or individual educators.
This has to change.
Knowledge is not highly valued. It is viewed as elite and not worth the time of many Americans. They would sooner home-school than send their kids to school.
After all, teachers only work nine months out of the year and are overpaid, right? [/s]
Just ask the Faux Noise crowd. I’m sure they’re lapping this up.
Chee, how shocking (not). This “review” of the “issues” avoided the elephant in this room - the ton of illegals in the LA system, which imposes huge, and unplanned-for, additional requirements on the system - ESL, catch-up classes, etc. Plus the illegals are low-wage, and they don’t pay property tax.
Remember this when contemplating Cory Booker’s presidential aspirations. Here was a “Reformer” (that’s what they call themselves) who not only was just fine with privatizing public education - he was kissing Betsy DeVos’ ass right up until she became Secretary of Educators.
I’m all behind the California educators: better pay, smaller class size, full-time nurses, speech, occupational, physical therapists; arts education in abundance - all of it. My one request is for their unions to dial down their defending a member they wouldn’t have their own kids in front of. Unions are not monolithic, of course, and many get these. But California has been a less fortunate story on that front.
In the national discourse we need to hear from voices that have been too silent: master teachers. Maybe separating the whole union issue from master teachers would help. We rarely see in the MSM what master teachers have to say.