Educational Darwinism
Don't get me wrong, teaching is a very rewarding profession and it still brings me joy to see former students graduating from college, entering careers, getting married and having children. But the reality is that my students reaped the benefits, while I struggled to financially stay afloat.
According to the Indiana State Teacher's Association, the Indiana legislature passed a new law adding additional professional growth requirements for teachers (read the article here). A full explanation can be found on the Indiana Department of Education's website.
Improve Yourself or Die
Teachers will be required to complete the following as part of their ongoing professional development:
- An externship with a company;
- Professional development provided by the state, a local business, or a community partner that provides opportunities for school and employers to partner in promoting career navigation;
- Professional development provided by the state, a local business, or a community partner
that outlines:
(A) current and future economic needs of the community, state, nation, and globe;
and (B) ways in which current and future economic needs described in (A) can be disseminated to students.
Now I also took the liberty of looking up other licensed professions in our state. Many are focused on healthcare but also includes real estate, plumbing, cosmetology and engineering. Could you imagine making the same requirement of those professions? What if...
- all healthcare employees were required to complete unpaid externships at a major hospital and attend conferences where they outline solutions to the community's current and future economic needs and learn how to guide patients to make healthier choices.
- all plumbers and beauticians must attend conferences and workshops where suppliers demonstrate new resources and installation techniques, specifically addressing how cost savings (and potential profits) can be passed not to themselves, but along to consumers.
- and all these requirements must be completed on the employee's time and at their own cost or they would lose their license
Unfortunately it seems that the whole plan to improve education is to threaten teachers. If teachers do not somehow fix problems beyond their control, with resources they don't have, then they will be denied the opportunity to teach. The only problem with this bullying tactic is that we have a shortage of willing teaches. In the end, we all suffer.
Teachers in the past could at least point to the promise of a stable retirement in part paid by the state. However, the Teachers Retirement Fund is the only public employee retirement fund that is not fully funded as promised. In 1996 the state legislature realized they could not keep their hands off of the teachers' retirement money so they turned the funding over to public schools but gave them no additional money. The plan is for the unfunded liability to go away around 2042 when all of the pre 1996 teachers will be dead. Meanwhile there have been no cost of living adjustments in teacher pensions for eleven years.
ReplyDeleteWhy is there a teacher shortage? They can't afford the required education; they aren't paid commensurate to their required skills; they are required to purchase additional training and not given funds to pay for it; they have been promised a stable retirement while lack of funding is causing older retirees to now stand in line at food banks or live just barely above the poverty line. HELP WANTED Teachers, low pay, 60 hour weeks, fading benefits.