Teacher pay matters – TN policymakers don’t get it
Yes, it’s about money.
Despite Gov. Bill Lee and his GOP allies claiming to invest in teachers, average teacher pay in the state is still among the lowest in the nation.
From National Education Association analysis of teacher pay
And a new report suggests the teacher pay penalty – the gap between teacher pay and the pay of other comparably-educated professionals – is at an all-time high.
The latest data says the “teacher pay penalty” – the gap between teacher compensation and the pay of other professionals – is now at an all-time high – 27%.
Of further concern:
Young people’s interest in education continues to slide as they recognize “many downsides” to teaching, including its unattractive pay.
Since 2009, Tennessee has identified shortages in the overall numbers of K-12 teachers needed for public schools as well as teachers for specific subjects. There is a critical need in the state for STEM teachers, as well as shortages in high school English, social studies, world languages, Pre-K through high school special education, and English as a second language.
In short, policymakers have been aware of this problem for a long, long time.
Now, the crisis is acute – and nothing is being done.
And then there’s the issue of “lost” learning – kids needing to catch up and rebuild skills when they return from a summer break that is 10 weeks or longer.
Another argument against summer break is that while it may not have emerged to meet the needs of the bygone agricultural era, our economic and social structures have indeed changed dramatically and made summer less practical than it once was.
And:
Brookings Institution’s Megan Kuhfeld and Karyn Lewis analyzed summer slide research in 2023, finding that “a long line of research on learning and cognition has shown that procedural skills and those that involve a number of steps tend to rapidly deteriorate in the absence of practice or other reinforcement.” They note that learning loss is especially detectable in the span from 3rd grade through 8th grade.
What do you think? Should long summer breaks be eliminated from the school calendar?
The people pushing “school choice” actually want only one choice
The same people banning books from schools and seeking to ban Pride flags are the ones pushing “school choice.”
Thing is, they don’t want actual choices. They want all schools to conform to their narrow vision.
Peter Greene offers some insight:
This is not about choice. It’s about capturing the education system so that young humans can be taught the correct way to behave and think. It’s about trying to eradicate a way of thinking and being that folks on the right disapprove of.
When someone like Ron DeSantis or Ryan Walters tells you that he favors school choice and he also favors making illegal all references to certain “divisive topics” and gender stuff, he is telling you that all his talk about school choice is bullshit.
Lee made clear his preference for Christian Nationalism as the driving force for education “reform” in Tennessee in his 2022 State of the State Address.
Since then, he’s tried to force Hillsdale College-affiliated charter schools on Tennessee communities – and thanks to his hand-picked Charter School Commission, he’s succeeded in some cases.
The challenge here is not just the transfer of public money to private school operators. It’s also the use of public money for one very specific worldview – to the exclusion of all others.
When phones first became ubiquitous, schools tried to ban them during class time. Then sought to use them as a learning tool, but restrict their use otherwise. Then faced parent pressure to allow the use of phones so parents could always be in touch.
Now, we’re back at banning them during the school day.
Los Angeles Unified teachers, parents and students expressed support for the district’s upcoming cell phone ban — but with some concerns about the details.
The new policy, set to roll out in January, is being created in response to a school board resolution.
Studies show the unregulated use of phones on campus can harm students’ academic progress and cause harm to kids’ mental health.
As the article notes, there’s broad support for the plan – but the actual response to implementation is not yet clear.
How will parents – accustomed to getting real-time updates from their kids – respond to not having constant access to them?
In what ways will students attempt to skirt the policy?
What will enforcement look like? Will phones be confiscated for periods of time?
What is clear, though, is that cell phone use at school presents a range of challenges – from being a distraction to learning to being a source of anxiety for students.
It will be interesting to see how this policy plays out – and what other districts do in terms of cell phone policy in the near future.
It’s not clear the drafters understood the full implications of the proposed change.
The wording essentially makes school choice the right of every child in the state. It also explicitly gives parents the right to “direct their child’s education.”
As Peter Greene notes, this presents some interesting challenges:
Wouldn’t this language amount to a state takeover of all charter and private schools?
And that’s not all. Wouldn’t this amendment also allow parents to intrude into every classroom? If I have a constitutional right to direct my child’s education, does that not mean that I can tell my child’s science teacher to stop teaching evolution? Or start teaching evolution? Can I demand a different approach to teaching American history? How about prepositions? And how will a classroom teacher even function if every child in the classroom comes with a parent who has a constitutional right to direct their education?
It’s not clear there’s momentum for the proposed changes to pass. But, if they did, Colorado schools – both public and private – could be in for some unpleasant surprises.
The right-wing plot to privatize public schools runs through Tennessee
Peter Greene reports on efforts by right-wing bill mill ALEC – American Legislative Exchange Council – to implement vouchers in 25 states by 2025.
No surprise, Tennessee is on the map.
ALEC’s map of school privatization targets
As Greene notes:
ALEC has set a new goal– 25 by 2025. That means having 25 states adopt school voucher programs by the end of next year. To push that goal, ALEC has a new initiative called the Education Freedom Alliance, and it is a scary crew.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee pushed an effort for universal vouchers this past legislative session – despite his past promises that he wanted to see results from the state’s pilot program before making the scheme universal.
The effort failed in 2024, but as you can see, Tennessee is a 2025 target. Lee and his legislative allies have pledged to push vouchers again next session.
Of course, Lee has long sought to extract public funds for the benefit of school privatizers.
“With a grocery store executive recently admitting that their company gouged shoppers on select items above inflation, it’s clear we need accountability measures to address corporate greed and protect working families from undue financial strain, especially in Tennessee where families are the hardest hit,” Rep. Behn added.
No money shall be paid from public funds nor shall the credit of the State or any of its political subdivisions be used for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.
Yep. That’s it.
The surprise is not that the majority agreed with the plain language. Rather, it’s surprising that these word could be read in such a way as to allow state money to flow to anything other than public schools in South Carolina.
At the start of the 2024-2025 school year, nearly 100 students have returned to Rutherford County Schools (RCS) after trying out the county’s new charter school: Rutherford Collegiate Prep Academy.
“The opening of RCP [Rutherford Collegiate Prep] has been a disaster,” said Lea Maitlen, parent of a recent RCS graduate. “On the very first day, multiple children were lost by the school for hours as parents became increasingly frantic. One parent referred to the day as ‘apocalyptic.’”
RCP’s charter was rejected by the Rutherford County School Board, but that decision was overruled by Gov. Bill Lee’s handpicked charter school commission.
Trump is “all in” on school privatization, Harris stands with public schools
As Donald Trump and Kamala Harris prepare to debate tonight, the education agenda of each candidate deserves a look.
NPR digs in to some key issues, and the differences are stark.
School privatization, for example:
First, he’s [Trump] calling for universal school choice. This would, in theory, take public dollars normally spent on a child’s public education and give them directly to parents to spend at whatever school they want, whether it’s public, private or homeschooling at the kitchen table.
By contrast:
Harris has been an outspoken supporter of public education and has been courting educators’ support.
Democrats, on the other hand, made clear in their 2024 platform that they’re against any effort that could weaken the nation’s public schools. “We oppose the use of private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education. Public tax dollars should never be used to discriminate.”
Stress and demands of teaching make the job not “worth it”
Teacher pay and support are not keeping up with the demands of the job, according to a recent report.
But also, challenges addressing student mental health. Challenges addressing cell phone use. Challenges addressing the behavioral and mental health challenges created by cell phone use.
The share of teachers who say the stress and disappointment of the job are “worth it” has fallen to 42%, which is 21 points lower than other college-educated workers, according to a poll by Rand, a nonprofit think tank. As recently as 2018, over 70% of teachers said the stress was worth it.
That’s a pretty rapid decline – and one that has accelerated post-COVID.
Policymakers aren’t exactly rushing in with solutions, either.
