This is crazy. The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) beat down this draconian proposal would have tied teacher performance to teacher licensing. Under the October 20 proposal, teachers rated by their supervisors as “needs improvement” wouldn’t just lose their jobs — they’d lose their license, preventing them from teaching anywhere in the state ever again. Consider that in most, if not all, professions, folks lose their licenses for bad, unethical, illegal behavior, but never because of a bad report by a boss. After all, bad bosses exist. Plus, should this plan have passed, it would have resulted in immeasurable harm to poor and minority children attending low-income schools. One really has to wonder about the machinations behind proposals like these. When policy makers surely know that there is a virtual one-to-one relationship between test scores and income (that overlaps with race), why do they persist on trying to pin the bulk of the responsibility on teachers? Of course we know that actions like these constitute attacks on our unions beginning with the ending of teacher tenure and due process, and are otherwise part and parcel to the neoliberal agenda to marketize everything education, but their disgusting racism and classism is what Im calling out here—and its what needs to get called out here in all of our struggles. Just as importantly, stories like these need to get told about the importance of progressive union leadership like Barbara Madeloni, as well as the work of the rank and file to elect her as head of the MTA in the most stunning election upset in the union’s history. We can all learn from stories like these. Angela Valenzuela
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:35:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015