RW Anti-Teacher, Anti-Public School Policies Come Home To Roost in IN, KS

[stopbush]

Indiana’s got a problem: Too many teachers don’t want to work there anymore

What’s going on? Pretty much the same thing as in Arizona, Kansas and other states where teachers are fleeing: a combination of under-resourced schools, the loss of job protections, unfair teacher evaluation methods, an increase in the amount of mandated standardized testing and the loss of professional autonomy.

The teacher shortage in Indiana is becoming such a problem that some state lawmakers want a legislative committee to study the issue and come up with solutions. According to the Indianapolis Star, the Republican chairmen of the House and Senate education committees have asked General Assembly leaders to approve having the legislative education study committee review what is causing the drop and how the state could respond.

For one thing, they can look in the mirror. The Republican leadership of the state — including Gov. Mike Pence — showed their respect for teachers by working very hard this year to strip power from Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, a veteran educator who won election to the post in 2012 (by defeating Tony Bennett, the incumbent who was a protege of former Florida governor Jeb Bush). Oh, by the way, she is a Democrat. David Long, the Republican president of the Indiana Senate, said while explaining why the legislature would want to remove Ritz as chairman of the state Board of Education: “In all fairness, Superintendent Ritz was a librarian, okay?”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/08/13/indianas-got-a-problem-too-many-teachers-dont-want-to-work-there-anymore/

Read about the situation in Kansas here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/08/02/why-teachers-cant-hotfoot-it-out-of-kansas-fast-enough/

[jwirr]

1. Maybe it is time to get out the vote in these states. Surely parents and grandparents do not want

this to happen to the children.

[lindysalsagal]

2. They underfund ed., they remove pensions and collective bargaining and just-cause firing hearings

and make teachers teach to their tests, and totally stress out kids and families.

All the while making tests children cannot pass to they can label teachers failures.

Gee- I wonder why no one would spend $300K and 6 years to become a teacher, so they can work days, nights, and weekends for a measly 6-8 years before they're replaced by other young, cheap teachers?

THIS IS ALL INTENTIONAL! DEFEND UNIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS AGAINST POLITICAL ATTACKS!

[Starry Messenger]

3. I have to admit, I'm kind of loving they can't find anyone to teach.

The chickens come home to roost. Teachers have been yelling for years that this would drive people away in droves.